Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological And Scientific Olympics
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Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological And Scientific Olympics
The Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO), informally named the "Olympics of the Mind," is a youth program of the NAACP that is "designed to recruit, stimulate, improve and encourage high academic and cultural achievement among African American high school students." The year-long program recognizes and awards young people who have demonstrated academic and cultural achievement. Gold, silver, and bronze medals, along with cash awards, are awarded to winners in each of 29 categories of competition in the sciences, humanities, business, performing and visual arts, and local and national entrepreneurship/ culinary competitions. Active in nearly 400 cities, ACT-SO is the largest academic promotion for black youths in America. History ACT-SO was founded in 1978 by author and journalist Vernon Jarrett (1918-2004). The program was intended to give recognition to young people who could demonstrate academic, scientific, and artistic achievement, allowing y ...
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National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey and Ida B. Wells. Leaders of the organization included Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkins. Its mission in the 21st century is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination". National NAACP initiatives include political lobbying, publicity efforts and litigation strategies developed by its legal team. The group enlarged its mission in the late 20th century by considering issues such as police misconduct, the status of black foreign refugees and questions of economic development. Its name, retained in accordance with tradition, uses the once common term ''colored people,'' referring to tho ...
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Edwina Findley
Edwina Findley, also known as Edwina Findley Dickerson, is an American actress. In 2014, Findley began starring as one of lead characters in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series, ''If Loving You Is Wrong''. Findley is also known for her recurring roles in the HBO television dramas ''The Wire'' and '' Treme'', and for her performance in the 2012 independent film '' Middle of Nowhere''. In 2016, she received an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female nomination for her performance in ''Free in Deed''. Life and career Findley was born in Washington, D.C. and attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts as a musical theater major. She graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in New York. She began her acting career in theatre. In 2003, she made her television debut in the recurring role of HBO drama series ''The Wire''. She later guest-starred on ''Law & Order'', '' Law & Order: Trial by Jury'', ''Conviction'', ''New Amsterdam'', and had a recurrin ...
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Education Awards
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Various researchers emphasize the role of critical thinking in order to distinguish education from indoctrination. Some theorists require that education results in an improvement of the student while others prefer a value-neutral definition of the term. In a slightly different sense, education may also refer, not to the process, but to the product of this process: the mental states and dispositions possessed by educated people. Education originated as the transmission of cultural heritage from one generation to the next. Today, educational goals increasingly encompass new ideas such as the liberation of learners, skills needed for modern society, empathy, and complex vocational skills. Types of education are commonly divided into formal ...
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Amber Stroud
Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen (eds.) ''Encyclopedia of New Jersey'', Rutgers University Press, . Amber is used in jewelry and has been used as a healing agent in folk medicine. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents. Because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions. Amber occurring in coal seams is also called resinite, and the term ''ambrite'' is applied to that found specifically within New Zealand coal seams. Etymology The English word ''amber'' derives from Arabic (ultimately from Middle Persian ''ambar'') via Middle Latin ''ambar'' and Middle French ''ambre''. The word was adopted in Middle English in the 14th century ...
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Michelle Williams (singer)
Tenitra Michelle Williams (born July 23, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She rose to fame in the 2000s as a member of R&B girl group Destiny's Child, one of the best-selling female groups of all time with over 60 million records, of which more than 35 million copies sold with the trio lineup that included Williams. During her time in the group she earned several accolades including a Grammy Award and star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. During the group's two-year hiatus, 2001–2003, Williams released her debut solo album ''Heart to Yours'' (2002) which topped the US gospel album chart and became the best-selling gospel release of the year. That same year, '' Billboard'' named Williams the fifth best-charting gospel artist of the year and she received a MOBO Award for "Best Gospel Act". Following this, she released her second solo album '' Do You Know'' (2004). After Destiny's Child's disbandment in 2006, Williams released her first pop album, '' Unexpec ...
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Kanye West
Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the early 2000s, producing singles for several artists and developing the "chipmunk soul" sampling style. Intent on pursuing a solo career as a rapper, he released his debut studio album, '' The College Dropout'' (2004), to critical and commercial success. He founded the record label GOOD Music later that year. West explored diverse musical elements like orchestras, synthesizers, and autotune on the albums ''Late Registration'' (2005), '' Graduation'' (2007), and ''808s & Heartbreak'' (2008). His fifth and sixth albums '' My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'' (2010) and '' Yeezus'' (2013) were also met with critical and commercial success. West further diversified his musical styles on ''The Life of Pablo'' (2016) and '' Ye'' (2018) and explored ...
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Cornelius Smith Jr
Cornelius may refer to: People * Cornelius (name), Roman family name and a masculine given name * Pope Cornelius, pope from AD 251 to 253 * St. Cornelius (other), multiple saints * Cornelius (musician), stage name of Keigo Oyamada * Metropolitan Cornelius (other), several people * Cornelius the Centurion, Roman centurion considered by Christians to be the first Gentile to convert to the Christian faith Places in the United States * Cornelius, Indiana * Cornelius, Kentucky * Cornelius, North Carolina * Cornelius, Oregon Other uses * Cornelius keg, a metal container originally used by the soft drink industry * ''Adam E. Cornelius'' (ship, 1973), a lake freighter built for the American Steamship Company * ''Cornelius'', a play by John Boynton Priestley See also * * * Cornelius House (other) * Cornelia (other) * Corneliu (other) * Cornelis (other) Cornelis is a Dutch form of the male given name Cornelius. Some common ...
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John Singleton
John Daniel Singleton (January 6, 1968 April 28, 2019) was an American director, screenwriter, and producer. He made his feature film debut writing and directing ''Boyz n the Hood'' (1991), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, becoming, at age 24, the first African American and youngest person to have ever been nominated for that award. Since then, Singleton has written and directed other films such as the romantic drama ''Poetic Justice'' (1993), the socially conscious drama ''Higher Learning'' (1995), the historical drama ''Rosewood'' (1997), the crime film '' Shaft'' (2000), the coming-of-age drama '' Baby Boy'' (2001) and the action films '' 2 Fast 2 Furious'' (2003), and '' Four Brothers'' (2005). In television, he the television crime drama '' Snowfall'' and directed episodes of shows such as ''Empire'', ''Rebel'' and the fifth episode of '' The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story''. He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award fo ...
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Justin Simien
Justin Simien (born May 7, 1983) is an American filmmaker, actor, and author. His first feature film, ''Dear White People'', won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. The film was later adapted into the Netflix Dear White People (TV series), series of the same name (2017–2021). Simien has also been named to Variety (magazine), ''Variety'''s 2013 "10 Directors to Watch" list. Early life Simien was born on May 7, 1983, in Houston, Texas. He is the son of Anna Simien. Raised in the metro area, he attended the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. After graduation he studied film at Chapman University in California. Simien worked a number of jobs in Los Angeles prior to directing his first feature film, including social media manager at Sony Television, publicity assistant at Focus Features, and publicity coordinator at Paramount Pictures. Career Simien directed three short films prior to ''Dear White Peop ...
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Jada Pinkett-Smith
Jada Koren Pinkett Smith (; née Pinkett; born September 18, 1971) is an American actress and talk show host. She is co-host of the Facebook Watch talk show ''Red Table Talk'', for which she has received a Daytime Emmy Award. ''Time'' named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2021. Pinkett Smith landed her big break on the sitcom ''A Different World'' in 1991. She went on to star in films such as ''Menace II Society'' (1993), ''The Nutty Professor'' (1996)'','' '' Set It Off'' (1996), and ''Scream 2'' (1997) before her prominent contributions to ''The Matrix Reloaded'' (2003), ''The Matrix Revolutions'' (2003) and the animated ''Madagascar'' films. She returned to television with starring roles on '' Hawthorne'' (2009–2011) and '' Gotham'' (2014–2017). Her other acting roles include ''Magic Mike XXL'' (2015), ''Bad Moms'' (2016), ''Girls Trip'' (2017), and ''The Matrix Resurrections'' (2021). In 2002, Pinkett Smith launched a music career as th ...
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Alicia Keys
Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. A classically trained pianist, Keys started composing songs when she was 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Columbia Records. After disputes with the label, she signed with Arista Records and later released her debut album, ''Songs in A Minor'', with J Records in 2001. The album was critically and commercially successful, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. It spawned the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one single " Fallin'", and earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002. Her second album, ''The Diary of Alicia Keys'' (2003), was also a critical and commercial success, selling eight million copies worldwide, and producing the singles "You Don't Know My Name", "If I Ain't Got You", and "Diary". The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards. In 2004, her duet " My Boo" with Usher became her second number-one single. Keys released her f ...
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Mae Jemison
Mae Carol Jemison (born October 17, 1956) is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first black woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle ''Endeavour''. Jemison joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1987 and was selected to serve for the STS-47 mission, during which she orbited the Earth for nearly eight days on September 12–20, 1992. Born in Alabama and raised in Chicago, Jemison graduated from Stanford University with degrees in chemical engineering as well as African and African-American studies. She then earned her medical degree from Cornell University. Jemison was a doctor for the Peace Corps in Liberia and Sierra Leone from 1983 until 1985 and worked as a general practitioner. In pursuit of becoming an astronaut, she applied to NASA. Jemison left NASA in 1993 and founded a technology research company. She later formed a non-profit educational foundation and through the foundation is ...
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