PWC Diversity Leadership Scholarship, Internship, Conference Deadline Dec. 31

Financial services giant PriceWaterhouseCoopers has announced a December 31, 2006 deadline for applications to its annual PWC eXceed scholarships, a comprehensive program offering opportunities for Native American, African American, and Hispanic American college students to explore careers at PWC through internships and participation in an annual Diversity Business Leadership Conference, along with a $3,000 support stipend. Applications are accepted from Freshmen or Sophomores with a 3.2 or higher GPA, and an interest in Accounting, Management Information Systems, and/or Computer Science.

Also of Interest: It's that season for students to apply for next year's internships. Most deadlines are coming up by early December. Visit IMDiversity's seasonal Internships & Co-ops special page with categorized internships listings.

New Analysis Shows Black Youth Voting Picking Up

A new Lake-Goeas Poll analysis, published in PDF format at Civicyouth.org, shows that youth voter turnout increased in 2006 for the second election in row, with turnout by young African Americans increasing. (Direct URL for PDF: http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/PR_06.pdf.)

Broken down, the analysis data suggest that young African Americans provided "Key Democratic support" in the November election, which shifted the balance of power in Congress to the Democrats' favor. In other findings, young African Americans were 12 and 19 points more likely to say they were “almost certain” to vote than either young whites or young Hispanics, respectively.

Analysis of preliminary exit poll and survey figures also suggest that "Thirteen percent of young voters (ages 18-29) self-identified as Black, compared to 10% of the overall voting population.

The analyses were published by CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, with Young Voter Strategies, a project of the Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University, with support from The Pew Charitable Trusts.

The release uses estimated figures, based on analysis of early November exit polling data, and adjustments are expected to be made on an ongoing basis at least throughout the year. Nonetheless, the general trend indicating a continued increase in young voter particpation is a positive sign that eligible youth voters, including college students, are strengthening their collective political clout.

THE BLACK COLLEGIAN will continue to follow and report on developments as new information is released.

Updates: 2006-2007 Career and Networking Events Listing

Newly posted on THE BLACK COLLEGIAN: Select events nationwide of interest to African-American students and young professionals, including career fairs, professional organization conferences, more.

Coming up soon:

The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) has announced that it will hold its Region 1,2, and 3 Conference on the theme “Global Problem - Local Solutions” in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 30 - December 3, 2006.


The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has announced that it will hold the NAACP Annual Leadership 500 Summit in Destin, Florida, December 7 – 10, 2006.

Affirmative Action Ban Passes in Michigan

University of Michigan vows to seek legal remedies; drop in Black, Latino and Native American enrollment expected to follow.

Report by Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, IMDiversity Asian American Village Acting Editor, in Ann Arbor.

CNN Projects Win for Deval Patrick for MA Governor

Shortly before 9 PM Eastern, CNN projected that Deval Patrick had defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey in the race to replace Gov. Mitt Romney. If the results are verified, it will make Mr. Patrick Massachusett's first African American governor.

Video: Anti-Affirmative Action leader takes it where he can get it - even the Klan

Ward Connerly, the so-called “racial privacy” movement guru who successfully led the Proposition 209 effort in California, has now publicly announced, accepted, embraced the Ku Klan Klan’s support for the measure.

Even this: “God bless them,” said Connerly of these kindred spirits, in a controversial video broadcast circulating on YouTube.com.

At issue is a proposal on Michigan's ballot that would ban affirmative action in both university admissions decisions and the awarding of state business contracts.

As reported by the Associated Press, Connerly defended his remark after the controversial video began circulating widely, saying he accepts support for banning affirmative action "wherever he finds it".

Connerly, a one-time Regent of the University of California, was a main leader of the Prop 209 effort, which barred California public universities and other institutions from considering race or gender in admissions and hiring. According to the AP, the ballot initiative is blamed for plummeting numbers of Black, Hispanic and Native American students in the year following its passage.

If You Are Hassled During Election Day...

Voters can reach the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and other cooperating civil rights organizations to report complaints prior to Election Day or on Election Day by contacting:

866-OUR-VOTE

For more information see www.naacpldf.org.

Series: The Role and Future of HBCUs in Changing Society

A compelling two-part series for Black College Wire by Danielle Kwateng, a student journalist at Howard University, takes a look at what's in store for America's Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

1) Views of HBCUs Change as Mainstream Accepts More Blacks
2) HBCUs Fight Perception of Inferiority

Both articles are posted in the new BCO News & Views section: http://www.black-collegian.com/news/index.shtml

Good News, Great News, a Caution on Election Day for Black Youth Voters

In the 2006 Civic and Political Health of the Nation Survey by CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) at www.civicyouth.org, a comprehensive study of diverse American youth voters found that young African Americans are the most politically engaged among racial/ethnic group. Compared to other groups, African Americans are the most likely to vote regularly, belong to groups involved with politics, donate money to candidates and parties, display buttons or signs, canvass, and contact the media.

In a related analysis of voting patterns up through the 2004 elections, CIRCLE also showed that African American youth voters were the only group to have bucked the trend of declining turnout during midterm election years. Indicators for this year suggest that young Black voters' will continue to improve in 2006.

A separate study, by Young Voter Strategies, an organization affiliated with George Washington University, found that in the 2006 midterm season, young Black voters were the "most ready for change," according to a report by Black College Wire news service. In the study, 35 percent of Black voters ages 18 to 30 said that employment, the economy, and education and its costs weighed heavily for them.

However, the picture isn't entirely rosy. Both studies also found that many young African Americans have faced obstacles in exercising their right to vote, and many have little confidence that they can personally, meaningfully affect the problems facing their communtiies and families.

These conflicting issues -- increased political interest among young African Americans and a decreasing sense of their individual ability to affect change -- have made voter protection on polling day a high priority in the election season. Although the U.S. Justice Department announced that it would dispatch an unprecedented number of poll monitors across the country, other interested groups nationwide are mounting their own efforts. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is sending monitors to protect voters at areas surrounding HBCU schools, and placing an emphasis on protecting voters in the Gulf Region still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

For more stats and a link tothe full PDF report by CIRCLE, see the sidebars to interview with Senator Barack Obama in the first semester 2006 super issue of THE BLACK COLLEGIAN.

Google Tops List of 2006 Diversity Employers

As the war for top talent heats up, employers all across the world are acquiring new and revised managerial processes for developing a working environment that maximizes the potential of all employees by valuing diversity.

Diversity, including but not limited to age, ethnicity, gender, physical abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, educational background, geographic location, parental status and religious beliefs, is therefore very important when matching top talent with employers.

"As the workforce demographics shift, the competition to attract diverse candidates substantially increases for those companies wishing to remain competitive in the marketplace," said Camille Sautner, Diversity Employer Branding Specialist at Universum, global employer branding leader helping companies build employer brands to capture top talent.

Each year in the United States, Universum conducts a survey among undergraduate and MBA students with diverse backgrounds to determine what minority students are looking for in a future employer.

This year, in The Universum IDEAL Employer™ Survey – Diversity Edition, more than 12,800 students at 115 schools across the country ranked their top companies and their top industries and answered questions about career expectations and goals, IDEAL Employer™ characteristics, salary expectations and communication preferences.

The gold medal as IDEAL Employer™ for 2006 diversity MBA and Undergraduate students goes to Google, followed by Walt Disney, Goldman Sachs and McKinsey.

Google, thanks to its innovative, progressive, young and anticonservative culture is this year's new powerhouse all across the world; Goldman Sachs and McKinsey have always been the top players in the investment banking and management consulting industries; and Walt Disney, which prior to 2005 has always ranked highly on Universum's list - has regained a leading position thanks to its massive recruiting efforts and its strong consumer brand.

The detailed report for 2006 appears in the October 2006 First Semester edition of THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine, by IMDiversity Inc.

More on Building Global Skills through Internships and Study Abroad

Our recent features on global skills-building and the increasing demand for employees with international work and study abroad experience arose from conversations we had with multiple companies and government agencies during the summer's conference by the National Association of Colleges and Employers). As an exhibitor at the conference, THE BLACK COLLEGIAN had an opportunity to mill around among employers large and small from all sectors, as well as officers from scores of college career offices.

In discussing diversity recruitment strategies with various HR folks, a recurring topic was the pressing need for and difficulty of finding new hires with foreign language and cultural fluencies. The need seemed to cut across all sectors, but was especially prevalent in post-9/11 government work -- and not only in the obvious departments like State and areas like intelligence. Our foreign entanglements have created such a demand that we met recruiters who reported the existence of several thousand dollar sign-up bonuses for kids coming right out of college, given the right attributes and skills (say, U.S. citizens with decent grades, an IT or engineering background, experience living abroad, and language and cultural fluencies needed to navigate working conditions in certain "hotspots" of the world). Government recruiters know that such candidates are in short supply, and must compete for them against large private sector companies offering appealing compensation and benefits.

Simultaneously, we were mulling over research by the Institute of International Exchange and other organizations showing that certain profiles of students -- especially males, and especially African American males -- were significantly under-represented in college study abroad and international internship programs.

We set out to explore the degree to which students lacking global skills-building opportunities would be at a disadvantage entering the workforce. We further wanted to examine the varied forms of support for students interested in building skills and working abroad: from undergraduate study abroad or internship programs to off-campus foundations promoting co-op exchanges, from graduate degree opportunities designed to position people for careers in foreign affairs to corporate rotational programs that cycle employees through foreign offices as part of leadership/management development.

Along the way, we also invited a number of successful alumni of such programs to share their stories and observations about how to find and maximize global skills-building experiences. Those former interns have gone on to become a foreign relations expert from the State Department, a network analyst working in the banking industry, an anthropology major committed to promoting knowledge of African American history, and even a "rocket scientist" -- a radiation engineering specialist at NASA.

In compiling the edition, the editors noted that other, unrelated articles and interviews with major employers also referenced and stressed the increasing importance of global skills and language skills as entry-level employment criteria. It crops up in Mike Wilson's survey of 7 major employers, "Insider Information: What Recruiters Look for in On-Campus Interviews," and again in the special report, "Top 100 Diversity Employers," which surveys both students and major employers.

In this way, the editors were interested to find ourselves with an "accidental theme edition". It seems that the relative lack of global skills among American students is on many people's minds right now. Fortunately, there's also a growing collective effort among colleges, private employers, students, nonprofits and (in some cases, government) to specifically forge opportunities for young Americans to "get global". We expect this to be a continuing trend, and to the benefit of everyone involved. We also expect to continue to publish feature and reference content focused on international work topics, both for "outward-bound" U.S. students and for our readers abroad.

[Image here is a detail of our First Semester 2006 cover, designed by the fantastic articst Tony O Champagne.]

Steal this Article! Barack Obama on Black Student Political Power

THE BLACK COLLEGIAN has published a feature interview with U.S. Senator Barack Obama, and made available for free download and reprint, with illustrations, for Web or paper publication.

The complete feature comprises an original interview with Senator Obama, discussing political participation by African-American college students and youth voters generally, as well as companion charts prepared by the nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, CIRCLE: The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

Among the topics, the Senator discusses strategies of student bloc-voting in areas surrounding Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), charges that the Democratic Party takes African American voters for granted, and advice for young people wishing to become active in the political realm.

The article is part of a nonpartisan GOTV effort promoted by TBC in collaboration with Black College Wire, a nonprofit journalism education organization and free newswire source for HBCU publications and other media. The interview was conducted jointly by Alexia Robinson of Black College Wire, and Stewart Ikeda of TBC and IMDiversity, Inc. The feature will also be seen in the paper edition of The Black Collegian, which is distributed to students for free on college campuses nationwide, primarily through career and student services offices.

For information on voting and registration, we recommend GoVote.org.

New Issue of TBC Headed to Campus - Oct.

After some time off to prepare the new edition of THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine, the editors have turned to focusing again on the blog and Blackcollegian.com, and we'll be posting our reflections on what's new and of interest in the upcoming issue.

Starting with the highlights, the First Semester Super Issue features a few of the seasonal, big special focus sections that our long-time readers have come to expect. We'll break these down later on the blog, but for now we've posted a few of the pieces in a sneak preview edition on THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online, and can list some of specific interest here:

* Top 100 Diversity Employers 2006: In what's become an annual tradition, we've once again collaborated with the international research firm, Universum Communications, to produce a comprehensive survey and report identifying and ranking top employers across dozens of industries with a focus on diversity in the workplace and in management, and the desires and expectations of diverse student jobseekers -- both graduates and undergraduates. The section also features in-depth profiles of some of the highest ranking organizations, as well as a number of illuminating analyses of what different survey groups say they most seek and value from diversity-committed employers.

* Feature Interview with U.S. Senator Barack Obama on Black Student Political Power: In light of both several incidences of voter suppression at HBCUs and elsewhere, and a marked increased in Black student voter activity, we spoke with the Illinois senator to get his thoughts on how to raise Black student political clout. With a view to encouraging all citizens to exercise their right to vote in the upcoming midterm elections on Nov. 7, we forged another fruitful collaboration with our friends at the Black College Wire to produce the feature, along with additional detailed illustrations of Black and other youth group voting trends and obstacles, and have released for it free reprint by other media online and offline.

* Hurricane Katrina: One Year After: TBC has published the third of our special collaborative projects with Black College Wire (www.blackcollegewire.org) focusing HBCU student journalists' perspectives of the effects of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans. In the "One Year After" section, student journalists, including returning contributors Shawn Chollette and Rebecca Roussell, examine the ongoing efforts to start over at New Orleans' HBCUs and in the city, as well as track a number of recent graduates from Dillard, Xavier, and SUNO to see how the Class of 2006 is faring now. Once again, the feature is freely available for reprinting by other media.

* Global Skills-Building, International Work and Study Abroad: During our summer 35th anniversary commemorations culminating in a special celebration in Anaheim at the National Association of Colleges and Employers convention, the editors determined to begin an earnest exploration of the role of the global workplace and how global skills-building stands to effect to competitiveness of young African-American jobseekers in the future. Throughout the edition, readers will find that the significance of international experience among students is a recurring theme that runs through feature articles, personal essays, and advice from employers alike. This echoes the reality on the ground that we observed speaking with scores of major employers in Anaheim: that fostering "diversity" in the workforce increasingly includes a diversity of languages, foreign perspectives, and experience navigating cultural landscapes outside the U.S. and the English-speaking world. yet, African-American students -- especially males, and especially those in certain technical sectors -- are among the least likely to take on international experiences as students, or to equip themselves with global skills that will give them an edge in entering the workforce.

More later. -- The TBC Crew

Student Activism Series - Activism vs. Advocacy

Following up on the previous posts: The first installment of Alexia Robinson's series has been posted to in our newly reorganized Black Collegian News & Views section.

Providing an introduction to the series theme, the article "Activism vs. Advocacy" starts things off on personal note, with Alexia's exploration of the difference between the two terms.

She begins: "As this nation witnesses the benchmark anniversaries of the Civil Rights Movement, I can’t help but compare myself and my generation to those people from the 60’s who marched for freedom and justice for all. Does my generation have the courage to sit-in and boycott?"

In confessing that she has never felt herself to be "an activist," she reflects feelings expressed by many contemporary students, for whom studying the almost mythical actions and figures of the Movement (in capitals) may be inspirational, but not always seem immediately, apparently relevant to their own concerns and passions today. She argues that today's students may be equally committed to important social and political issues, but enjoy the benefits of much more complex and advanced media and technological landscape in which to pursue their goals.

Alexia uses as a launchpad one of her own political engagements -- her participation in the Campus Allies program of AIPAC, or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. While acknowledging that her role advocating support for Israel in U.S. foreign affairs may seem surprising from a certain stereotypical perspective, she finds that the goals of promoting peace and stability in the Middle East are consistent with both the legacy of Dr. King and the Christian faith that have been so important in her life. She observes, however, that AIPAC has provided her with opportunities for international travel and learning, for engaging with policymakers, and for informing her work in journalism that would not have been readily available to "old school" student activists.

Ultimately, she suggests, too few organizations and movements are willing to take "a chance...on young people" and "bank on [their] potential." By providing access to information, political organizations like AIPAC go a long way toward inviting students' interest, commitment and active participation. Knowledge and first-hand experience can be a powerful motivators for today's Black collegians to "get involved," and the rest of Alexia's series will go on to examine other examples of people who are doing just that.

More on Student Activism

Following up on the previous post "Is Student Activism Dead?":

For an article in our April 2006 special 35th Anniversary edition of THE BLACK COLLEGIAN, reporter Shawn Chollette interviewed several African-American college students from diverse backgrounds, regions, and institutions around the country about the scene on campus and the concerns of the peers.

While the two-part Today's Black Collegians feature was not specifically about political / social activism, Chollette did ask his subjects about political concerns on campus. We were interested to hear students describe just how powerfully Hurricane Katrina -- in patricular, the fiasco in responding to the devastation in New Orleans well after the storm -- had motivated their peers even on campuses that were not in the affected Gulf region.

The disaster seems to have reawakened a national consciousness of race and class disparities that, as author Anne Rice observes in her own commentary, were always a part of life in multicultural New Orleans. The effect, however, seems to have been particularly pronounced among African-American students everywhere, especially as they have had opprotunities to interact with peers who had been displaced and found accommodations on their campuses.

The impulse to provide community service or charitable donations to assist in Hurricane relief and rebuilding, though commendable, is not the same as activism. One question we hope to explore in a series of upcoming readings later this year is whether or not current events -- including the Gulf disasters -- have had a widespread, lasting effect on students' interest and engagement in the political sphere.

Could Katrina be contributing to social seachange that we will look back on later and recognize as a distinct generational Movement?

We don't have the answers, but again the editors will be inviting feedback from our readers and site visitors.

"Is Student Activism Dead?"

TBC's editors have been pleased this summer to be working with our new editorial intern, Alexia Robinson. A promising young journalist with a degree from Florida A&M University, Alexia was selected to serve as our first intern through our new special arrangement with Black College Wire.

Alexia has been helping us with a host of tasks related to our comprehensive summer site redesign project, but we're also excited about a planned series of articles she will launch next month examining the state of activism among African American college students.

The series homepage will be here, at Series: Activism and Today's Black Collegians, and will explore the question: "Are today’s students less committed to important social, political and world concerns than were past generations?"

The idea for the series came about in reaction to specific campus demonstrations Alexia observed while a student at FAMU, as well as discussions with her peers about different types and levels of political commitment shown by different generations of Black students. Specifically, her studies of African American history and recent anniversaries of a number of civil rights landmark events left her wondering if some of the older folks who criticize her generation were right. Are today's students too materialistic and media- and gadget-obsessed to be concerned about politics and social justice? Or, is it just that today's students have eschewed sit-ins and rallies for more subtle methods; do they just express their concerns and passions in a different way?

In any case, we're looking forward to the series, and invite interested visitors to stop by and tell us what you think on this issue.

Upcoming BCO Renovation

Beginning this month, the staff of IMDiversity Inc. will begin implementing a series of a changes to our site THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online at http://www.black-collegian.com/, as well as our job bank at http://jobs.black-collegian.com.

Significant changes in the look, feel and navigation of the site will be implemented, followed by the repositioning of select feature departments and the addition of new features.
During this period, users may experience occasional periods in which the site will become slower or temporarily inaccessible; or, select features may become inaccessible as they are being updated.

We are attempting to minimize any adverse impact of our renovations on our end users, and apologize in advance for any inconvenience you may experience during this period. Users of THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online are also welcomed and encouraged to visit our IMDiversity.com site and make use our other free job bank and job-seeker tools accounts at http://jobs.imdiversity.com.

We thank you for choosing to visit THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online, and appreciate your patience as we work hard to upgrade our site.

-- The IMDiversity Inc. Upgrade Team

BCO's Message to the Class of 2006

Dear Graduating Senior:

THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Special 35th Anniversary Graduation IssueStop by your campus careers office to pick up your free copy now THE BLACK COLLEGIAN joins your friends, family and teachers in congratulating you for your momentous achievement. What you've just accomplished may not be the last, only, or greatest success you'll earn in your life. Yet, we know that attaining this goal was not easy.

As we wrote in the special After Katrina section in our Second Semester Super Issue, THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine was launched 35 years ago with the conviction that earning a higher education was among the most important, transformative and uplifting opportunities in a young person's life -- and the most challenging. This is as true today as it was for those young African Americans we set out to serve in 1970. You can be justifiably proud, and gratified – it's something no one can ever take away from you.

We also know that for a new grad, it can seem that you've hardly had a moment to breathe after earning your degree before the grind starts right up again. Whether you're going straight on to grad school or forging ahead into the job market, a whole host of new challenges and experiences, sometimes thrilling and sometimes scary, awaits you just around the corner. So, we have prepared this special graduation message to help you make the most of this site in your transition.

Keep It Fresh

We encourage you to POST or REFRESH your resume and contact info with us to highlight your recent degree and accomplishments, and stop back later to add any valuable summer experiences you have. By occasionally returning to update your resume, you ensure that your resume is well positioned to shine to potential employers. Furthermore, doing so also has a practical benefit: Keeping your resume "fresh" by modifying and saving it in a database boosts its prominence over other resumes in employers' resume searches!

"Graduate" to IMDiversity

We further invite you to "graduate" to our sister-site, IMDiversity.com, where you can create a second, free MY JOB TOOLS account to access the world of new, wider opportunities opening to you. While TBC has been committed to helping African American students strive for academic excellence and prepare for a career, IMDiversity.com is similarly open support diverse professionals moving forward throughout their careers, from entry-level to senior positions. If you've already used MY JOB TOOLS at BCO, you can hit the ground running at IMDiversity.com. Using our new FLASHPost shortcut, you can generally open an account, post a standard resume, and start finding and applying for job opportunities in minutes.

If you are interested in finding a summer opportunity but still don't have one, visit our annual Summer Gigs special, which lasts until mid-May. Even if you already have summer plans, this links to QuickSearch sections that make it easier to find Entry-level positions, as well as Internships with current deadlines for the fall and next year. Why not drop by and bookmark it for when you're done chilling out, bumming around Europe, working at your summer job or internship, and so forth? As Dr. Philip Gardner observed in our Second Semester edition, the indicators show that a "Strong Labor Market Greets '06 Grads," so be aggressive pursuing your career goals.

Thinking of Going On?

If you're considering Grad School, visit our Grad School Channel, where you can research different institutions nationwide who have expressed their interest in building a diverse student body, read good advice about advanced degrees, and learn about fellowships and other aid.

Visit Your Career Office...Again and Again

DON'T FORGET to make use of your campus Career Office while you can! We hope you already appreciate this rare and invaluable, free resource. Keep in mind that the Office will not only help you put your best foot forward while you're in school, but it is also an all-too-frequently underutilized resource for alumni as well. Before you leave campus, why not visit your counselor to find out about their alumni services, pick up the 35th Anniversary edition of THE BLACK COLLEGIAN, and perhaps ask them to help you polish your resume a last time before you post it? Alas, in the so-called "real-world," having a staff of professionals so dedicated to your success, generous with advice, and eager to provide free services to aid your advancement is a very, very rare luxury.

Keep it Coming

You can always continue to pick up THE BLACK COLLEGIAN at a local college campus. If you like, however, you can also keep it coming through a low-cost personal subscription conveniently shipped right to you. Although we don't sell subscriptions directly, you can get your personal subscription set up easily through Amazon.com.

Keep in Touch

Finally, we hope you'll continue to visit this site and keep in touch with us. In preparing our 35th Anniversary edition, we were gratified to hear from readers who "grew up with us," including some who found their first jobs through us decades ago and have gone on to fantastic professional careers with major employers in all kinds of sectors! If you find an opportunity through THE BLACK COLLEGIAN, we hope you'll let us know, as we'd like to be able to feature you in some way!

Again, congratulations on reaching this educational milestone. You have our very best wishes for your continued success in whatever you choose to do!

The Staff and Editors of THE BLACK COLLEGIAN and IMDiversity

Black College Wire Prepares Interns for Media Careers

On her first working day as a newspaper reporter, Tiesha Henderson took an assignment that looked easy and heartwarming: Go talk to a Dallas charity about its upcoming fund-raiser.

"I thought it would be a quick little good-feeling human interest story," Henderson said, catching her breath between calls to the Internal Revenue Service and scholarship winners. "My first story is turning into a huge lesson in journalism."

The Dallas Examiner summer intern had discovered a story behind the story: Despite its good works, the charity might not be legally incorporated and its fund-raising might not be tax deductible.

Henderson found her story by checking public records, as she had been urged to do during her just-completed training at the Black College Wire's annual summer journalism institute. She is one of 15 student journalists who began reporting June 5 for black-owned print, radio and online publications as Black College Wire interns.

"With generous grant support, we continue to prepare students for careers in media," said Pearl Stewart, Black College Wire founder and coordinator. "Now, with our online and radio partnerships, we are able to expose students to a wider range of career options."

In a new partnership for Black College Wire, one summer intern will write and edit for IMDiversity.com, THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine, and THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online. In another new partnership, one intern will write and record original articles for PopandPolitics.com, the Web site of author and National Public Radio commentator Farai Chideya.

Two will report and write for Black College Wire, a nonprofit news service linking the newspapers of the historically black colleges and universities.

Others will report, edit, design or take photographs for black-owned newspapers including the Dallas Examiner, the New Pittsburgh Courier and the Atlanta Daily World.

During the first week on the job, many found themselves in the thick of breaking news.
Armed with his notebook and camera, W. Hassan Marsh of Morehouse College covered a union demonstration for a same-day deadline at the Atlanta Voice. The newspaper published his report and one of his pictures on its Web site.

Intern Shana Pinnock, a Spelman College student writing for the New York Amsterdam News, covered a controversy about cutbacks in New York City's homeland security funding. She tracked down law enforcement officials to get comments.

"I think the hardest thing so far is getting call-backs from sources," Pinnock said. "You have to be persistent and keep calling. When I couldn't get the commissioner on the phone, then I started calling the deputy commissioner."

The interns began their summer with training May 31-June 4 at the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. There, the interns received instruction in the fundamentals of interviewing, research and newswriting. They attended courses on digital photography and digital recording, to prepare to be all-around journalists.

Guest lecturers included John Seigenthaler, founder, and Gene Policinski, executive director, of the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center; Dwight Lewis, columnist, and Christian Bottorff and Ailene Torres, reporters, at the Tennessean. The students also toured African American historic sites in Nashville and quizzed community leaders as part of their training for covering communities for the black press.

Black College Wire's summer internship program is possible thanks to grants from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Black College Wire, www.blackcollegewire.org, showcases the work of student journalists at the historically black colleges and covers issues of interest to readers on those campuses. The news service has supplied articles to collegiate newspapers, the nation's black press, and many other newspapers, Web sites and news services including AOL Black Voices, the Miami Herald, Dow Jones College Journal, BlackAmericaWeb.com, and KRT Campus. Through recent partnerships with THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine, its student writers have covered Hurricane Katrina's effect on Gulf region colleges.

Black College Wire is a project of the Black College Communication Association, which supports the development and improvement of journalism education at historically black colleges. Partners include the National Association of Black Journalists and the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

The 2006 summer interns are:

Carla Aaron-Lopez
North Carolina Central University
Internship: New Pittsburgh Courier
Hometown: Charlotte, N.C.

Anthony Anamelechi
Florida A&M University
Internship: Black College Wire
Hometown: Washington, D.C.

Drew C. Costley
Howard University
Internship: The Washington Informer
Hometown: Arlington, Va.

Ashley R. Harris
University of Houston
Internship: Houston Defender
Hometown: Missouri City, Texas

Tiesha Henderson
Hampton University
Internship: The Dallas Examiner
Hometown: Dallas

Ashley Hindsman
Albany State University
Internship: The Atlanta Daily World
Hometown: College Park, Ga.

Ebonie Ledbetter
Florida A&M University
Internship: Capital Outlook (Tallahassee, Fla.)
Hometown: Fairburn, Ga.

Shauntel Lowe
University of California at Los Angeles
Internship: Black College Wire
Hometown: San Diego, Calif.

John W. Marsh
Florida A&M University
Internship: The Michigan Chronicle
Hometown: Detroit

W. Hassan Marsh
Morehouse College
Internship: The Atlanta Voice
Hometown: Atlanta

Vanessa Mizell
Howard University
Internship: PopandPolitics.com
Hometown: Irvine, Calif.

Shana Pinnock
Spelman College
Internship: New York Amsterdam News
Hometown: Bronx, N.Y.

Alexia R. Robinson
Florida A&M University
Internship: IMDiversity.com/THE BLACK COLLEGIAN
Hometown: Jacksonville, Fla.

Ciara Walker
University of Mississippi
Internship: Mississippi Link
Hometown: Oxford, Miss.

Melaney Whiting
Tennessee State University
Internship: Dallas Weekly
Hometown: Dallas

Reported at Black News: TBC's 35th at NACE 2006 Conference

New Orleans, LA (BlackNews.com) - IMDiversity, Inc., the publisher of THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine and producer of the IMDiversity.com multicultural careers web network, celebrated THE BLACK COLLEGIAN's 35th Anniversary with a special May 31st ceremony honoring top employer organizations.

In the ceremony, held in Anaheim, CA during the 2006 Conference of the National Association of Colleges and Employers, founder and CEO Preston J. Edwards, Sr. presented a special "Wind Beneath Our Wings" award to THE BLACK COLLEGIAN's 35th Anniversary Super Advertiser Partners including The Aerospace Corporation, Direct Employers, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Northrop Grumman, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network and Raytheon Company.

The award recognized these organizations' commitment to diversity recruiting and support of the company throughout its trying anniversary year, coinciding with the company's evacuation from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Recounting the challenges faced by his displaced staff, Edwards expressed his gratitude for the honorees' support during the crisis.

As THE BLACK COLLEGIAN's 35th Anniversary Super Advertiser Partners, Edwards said, their faith in the company and continued sponsorship provided crucial support to help IMDiversity keep going - and even expand its publishing schedule. Despite the devastation of their city, a flooded headquarters, and communications difficulties, the dispersed staff produced an extra, Special Anniversary Issue, which was shipped to college campuses in time for graduation.

"We call this award 'The Wings Beneath Our Wings' because that's what the honorees were for our company when we needed them," Edwards said. "We couldn't have done it without them."
After representatives of each company were presented with a beautifully engraved eagle statuette recognizing them as Super Advertiser Partners, the formal ceremony gave way to a real New Orleans-style party. Because the hurricane had interrupted his original plans to hold the celebration in Louisiana, Edwards brought a heaping helping of New Orleans with him to Anaheim. A Bayou smorgasbord, a good bar, and a thumping live jazz band had the diverse, 200+ attendees dancing late into the night, making the event one of the most talked-about highlights of a particularly festive event for NACE, celebrated its 50th Anniversary.

In addition to hosting the ceremony, the company also participated as an exhibitor at the NACE conference, taking the opportunity to share plans for its new multicultural student recruiting initiatives and talk up the 10th anniversary of its online diversity recruitment network at IMDiversity.com, upcoming in 2007.

Black Collegian Celebrates 35 Years of Publishing

It's sort of astonishing to think that the company now called IMDiversity (formerly Black Collegiate services, by way of many other name changes) has been publishing THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine for over 35 years. It's astonishing not only because it started with zero money from a "shotgun shack" in New Orleans and so very few magazine start-ups manage to survive, but also because we launched it at a time when there were very, very, very few substantive national publications bothering to address African Americans.

We were reminded of this while preparing our special 35th anniversary super issue, which hit campuses in April just before graduation. It was amazing for us staffers, poring through the archives of old editions, right back to Issue 1 Volume 1 with Isaac Hayes on the cover.

It was like riding a time machine, observing how our country's notions of "Blackness" and identity and race itself have changed over the decades. These changes were reflected in our archives superficially, through cover fashions and lingo ("Right on!") and the different types of "futuristic" technology careers we covered. But less superficially, it was reflected in the ideas expressed by so many of the best Black writers and thinkers and leaders we found in the pages, many of whom have contributed since the beginning.

All of it reminded us how cultural innovation and professional success and fulfillment are constantly moving targets. And further, how the challenges and passions and needs of African American students today are in many ways not all that different from those of students 35 years ago. This is a theme we are interested in exploring further in upcoming editions, and will look to air on our site again in the future.

Brand New Day at THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine

This site is being prepared as a companion toTHE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online, the Web-based version of THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine, published by IMDiversity, Inc. in New Orleans at www.black-collegian.com.

Published for over 35 years, THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine is distributed for free on college / university campuses nationwide, primarily through career services, student services, multicultural affairs and similar offices. Since 1970 TBC has provided substantive feature articles on educational topics, career development issues, job opportunities and employment trends for African American college students and others who are interested in entry-level, internship, co-op and similar opportunities for college students and recent graduates.

Launched 10 years ago, THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online significantly expanded the magazine's content offerings, adding a robust, fully featured, custom-searchable jobs database containing free job listings posted by employers committed to building a diverse workforce. Additional job hunting, resume creation, salary calculator and other tools have exponentially enhanced the jobs database center since those days, but the full suite of job-seeker tools remains free and easy to use by anyone seeking employment opportunities.

Visit it at www.black-collegian.com, or for those out of college more than 2 years, try our sister site, IMDiversity.com.