By Brian W. Harris
Black Achiever’s Club
The Black Achievers Club extends season’s greetings to the YMCA, the Black Achievers committee and our gracious community.
The support is phenomenal and the attendance has doubled. We believe in sowing seeds in faith; therefore, we don’t just encourage our achievers to dream but to position themselves to attain those dreams.
I want to encourage other local middle and high school students to attend the Black Achievers program. It promotes positive image, self discipline and motivation.
You may obtain information at the Salisbury YMCA, 704-636-0111.
Nov. 8
Miss Gillard and Miss Nixon introduced the concept “Conceive, Believe and Achieve … if you conceive it and believe it, you shall achieve it”. We also discussed the importance of setting goals. They supplied us with an oak tag and several magazines. Our task was to cut out pictures and paste them on the oak tag to make a collage. The pictures represented our dreams, goals, desires and people who inspire us. They encouraged us to hang this poster in a place we constantly see as a visual reminder of our ambitions. After we finished, we were given the opportunity to stand and present our poster to the group. This makes us aware and accountable to each other and our goals. This made us feel important and gave us a chance to practice public speaking.
Nov. 15
Cecelia Massey was the speaker for today’s meeting. She graduated from Livingstone College with a bachelor of arts degree in elementary education; a master’s degree in elementary education from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S. C.; and currently is the head math facilitator at First Ward High School in Charlotte.
We started with a three-minute stretch exercise. Massey said this would help us to be energized and alert for the session. Next, we paired up with someone we didn’t know and discussed ourselves. We did this for about 15 minutes. She had us present our conversations before the group. Massey was excited to know 15 out of the 20 achievers wanted to obtain a traditional college education.
The last hour was devoted to discussing any concerns we have at school, home or socially. The issues ranged from cursive writing, financial aid, rap music versus classical music and teacher-student relationships.
The issue of teacher-student relationships was the most controversial issue. Students feel that teachers enforce the rules, yet break the rules themselves (example: use of cell phones in class). Students also feel some teachers don’t listen to how they feel about issues but just lecture them with little solution. Miss Massey mentioned we should inform our parents and let them bring these issues to the school administrators and teachers. Miss Massey will be offering a tutoring session in math. We look forward to her return.
Nov. 22
The session was devoted to tutoring and the completion of class assignments. Prior to today’s session, students were asked to bring class assignments and materials for tutoring. The subjects brought were math, biology and English. Approximately 30 students attended this session.
The English group was tutored by Yolanda Byrd. This group concentrated on writing compositions, with emphasis on grammar, punctuation, spelling and sentence structure. Students were given the task of writing a thesis on “Duke’s basketball team is better than Carolina’s basketball team.” They were asked to give at least three reasons supporting their thesis.
This created lots of dialogue.
The biology group was tutored by Tia Glass and Tammy Ford. Glass covered review questions and vocabulary on the human body. Ford covered terms and vocabulary on viruses and bacteria. This discussion included RNA/DNA, cancer, cell reproduction and antibiotics.
The math students were divided into four groups. Tutors were Ulanda Franklin, Edriana Clyde, and Bobbie Prospt. Assistants were Ashia and Ayanna Holmes. The topics covered ranged from division to graphs.