The Decatur Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated awarded over $28,000 in scholarships and book stipends to area students at its Annual Scholarship Recognition Breakfast at Beulah Missionary Baptist Church. More than 40 high school seniors from DeKalb County and surrounding areas competed in this year’s scholarship competition.

Top honors went to the following winners:

1st Place – Christina Lynne Evans of Druid Hills High School: $5000.00

2nd Place – Teryn Thornton of Chamblee Charter High School: $3500.00

3rd Place – Henderson Johnson of Chamblee Charter High School: $1500.00

Additionally, the following 26 students who qualified as finalists will receive a $500.00 book stipend. Jalal Abdul-Azeez, W. D. Mohammad High School; Jasmine Bailey, Southwest DeKalb HighSchool; Johnna Bateman, Columbia high school; James S. Brown, Southwest DeKalb High School; Sydny Caldwell, DeKalb School of the Arts; Austin Copper, Clarkston High School; Jesse Harris, Parkview High School; Shannon Hodge, Druid Hills High School; Kierra Jarman, Druid Hills High School; Daria Johnson, Druid Hills High School; Jabari Kilcrease, Dunwoody High School; Deric Long, Jr., Westminster High School; Elandra Loyal, Chamblee Charter High School; Kamry Mack, Dunwoody High School; Valentine Mba, Chamblee Charter High School; Gabrielle Miller, Lakeside High School; Elaine Mills, Southwest DeKalb High School; Breyanna Morning, Chamblee Charter High School; Sakinah Muhammad, Druid Hills High School; Danielle Reed, Chamblee Charter High School; Kayla Rhynes, Druid Hills High School; Taylor Saab, DeKalb School of the Arts; Jordan Smith, Chamblee Charter High School; Roshaud Turner, Whitewater High School; Tony Weaver, Greenforest Christian Academy High School; Erica Williams, Chamblee Charter High School.

As part of the sorority’s continuing commitment to education, the top winners from the 2009, 2010 and 2011 competitions are also eligible to receive a continuing book stipend in the amount of $500. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. was founded on the campus of Howard University on January 13, 1913. Since its inception, the sorority has been involved in providing service and support to local communities, leading the dialogue on public policy issues, supporting quality education, providing scholarships, sponsoring artistic innovation, creating positive opportunities for the development of youth, and producing new projects to stimulate current and future growth. The Decatur Alumnae Chapter was chartered in 1973 to expand the sorority’s mission, including a commitment to providing public service to the DeKalb County community.

For further information regarding upcoming scholarships or other chapter programs, please visit the Decatur Alumnae Chapter website at http://www.dstdac.org.

Taylor County Commissioner Clinton Perry was sworn in as President of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) after being selected by his peers to serve on the organization’s Board of Managers.  The installation ceremony was conducted by Department of Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens during the “Celebrating Leadership Luncheon” at the 2012 ACCG Annual Meeting, which took place at the Savannah Civic Center on April 30, 2012.

ACCG is a membership services association that works on behalf of Georgia’s county governments.  Formed in 1914 with 19 charter county members, today ACCG represents all 159 county governments in the state.  ACCG provides programs and services in the areas of public policy and legislative advocacy, leadership enhancement, civic and community engagement and cost-efficient services such as insurance and retirement on behalf of Georgia’s county officials and their local communities

“I am proud to serve as the first ACCG President from Taylor County,” said Commissioner Perry.  “I stand on the shoulders of great individuals who came before me and encouraged me to get involved with ACCG.  I appreciate the leadership development opportunities and the many programs and services that this organization offers to county officials.”

Clinton Perry earned his degree in psychology from Tuskegee University. He served eight years in the United States Army and was honorably discharged as a Captain in the Intelligence Branch in 1992.  He is a member of several civic, social and professional organizations such as Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., Freerun 518^th Masonic Lodge and the Georgia Prison Wardens Association (GPWA).  He is also a licensed insurance agent and funeral director with his family’s firm, Bentley’s Chain of Funeral Homes of Middle Georgia.

In addition to his service on the Taylor County Board of Commissioners, Perry serves as Vice-Chair for the River Valley Regional Development Commission and is a Board Member of the Valley Partnership.  Chairman Perry was also appointed by Governor Perdue to serve on the Public Defenders Supervisory Panel for the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit in February 2010.  Last year, Chairman Perry served as ACCG’s Second Vice President.

“Chairman Perry is a dedicated public servant, serving as an elected official as well as a Superintendent at the McEver Probation Facility for the Department of Corrections,” said Ross King.  “He understands the importance of encouraging county officials to get involved in our legislative advocacy, leadership development and membership services programs, and I look forward to working with him in the coming year.”

The Central State University Board of Trustees announced today Dr. Cynthia Jackson Hammond as the 8th President of the University.

Dr. Hammond has built a distinguished career in higher educational leadership. Under her guidance as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Coppin State University, she guided six prominent initiatives: the reformation of the General Education core curriculum, establishment of the Center for Undergraduate Research, 2010 strategic planning, development of the First Year Experience program, designed and received external funding for the Advisement and Retention Center for the School of Education, and development of tenure criteria. Most recently Dr. Hammond served as a lead consultant for H&H Educational Consultants specializing in strategic planning, curriculum design, accreditation, and standards-based assessments.

We are very excited about our selection,” said Gary Dowdell, Chair of the Central State University Board of Trustees. “Dr. Cynthia Jackson Hammond has a demonstrated leadership background and comes to Central State University at a time when we are poised to make great strides in building for the future.”

Cynthia Jackson Hammond holds a Doctorate of Education from Grambling State University, a Masters of Education from University of Louisiana in Monroe, an Education Specialist degree from University of Louisiana in Monroe, and an undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree also from Grambling.  Dr. Hammond is an outstanding and sought after speaker on issues related to cultural competency, the unique contributions of HBCU’s, and global education.  She has a number of publications to her credit and is a Harvard Fellow and a 1987-89 Louisiana State Board of Regents Fellow.

“I am extremely thrilled and honored to be named the next President of Central State University. This institution has a 125-year history of academic excellence and transforming the lives of students. I look forward to joining the campus community of administrators, faculty, staff, alumni, and students to continue this great legacy and lead the University toward meeting the needs of an ever-changing society and a global future,” said Dr. Hammond.

“From a total of 51 candidates, Dr. Hammond was one of four presented to the Central State University Board of Trustees in late April by the Presidential Search Advisory Committee.  The Committee was comprised of faculty, students and alumni,” according to Dowdell.  “Our goal was to select a leader who would build on the accomplishments of John W. Garland who led the University for 15 years.”  Garland announced his retirement from his alma mater last September and will leave Central State University June 30.

Dr. Hammond is a native of Monroe, Louisiana and is married to Dr. James Eric Hammond Sr.  The couple has three children; James Eric Jr. married to Sylvia Woodard, Christopher Adam, and Erin Jenea.  The Hammonds are the proud grandparents of Alexander age 6 and Franchesca age 2.  Dr. Cynthia Jackson Hammond’s appointment as President of Central State University is effective July 1, 2012.

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc/ Birmingham Chapter of Alabama sponsored a team to participate in the Divine 9 Birmingham Big Brothers Big Sisters Greek Bowl for Kids Sake on April 14, 2012 at Brunswick Riverview Lanes. The team consisted of Khary Wray, Raphael Bryant, Joe and Laura Evans. The team raised $250 for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Birmingham. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Birmingham focuses on educational achievement and avoidance of risky behaviors such as juvenile delinquency and promotes higher self-esteem, confidence and the ability to relate to others.

For more than 40 years, Bowl for Kids’ Sake has supported Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies across the country, becoming its premier fundraising event and raising $20 million nationwide each year. “Bowl for Kids’ Sake brings the whole community together in support of a positive future for our kids,” said Khary Wray, Director of Public Relations of Phi Beta Sigma Inc. Birmingham. We all had a great time bowling for the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization. “Big Brothers Big Sisters Birmingham is a vital part of our community. … A few precious minutes of quality time could alter the path a child walks upon,” said Roderick Wilkins, President of Phi Beta Sigma Inc. Birmingham.

Ennis Koonce never left a day of work without stopping by each coworker’s desk to say goodbye.

Those same coworkers now walk past the same neatly kept, now-vacant desk as a reminder of his untimely passing April 5.

Koonce had a multi-faceted career at OU. He served as an Adams Center resident director, higher education administration graduate student and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity member.

Those who worked with him said he had a passion for helping others.

“He loved helping students, mentoring, just stopping and talking to people,” resident director Lauren Carter said.

Before his passing, Koonce helped develop a program intended to help transport injured students living in residence halls to and from classes, said Jennifer Doughty, Housing and Food director of operations.

Koonce’s fondness for amusing wordplay inspired him to push for the name “Lending a Limb,” Doughty said.

Colleagues said he was clever and had a sharp wit.

“He created words, he coined phrases that became parts of his peers’ vocabulary,” said T. Elon Dancy, higher education professor. “He was very creative.”

Koonce was at OU to study higher education administration, and his dissertation was focused on African American male performance in college, Dancy said.

“He saw himself in a professional role of serving this population of students, either through mentoring or broader student affairs work,” Dancy said.

Koonce practiced kindness to those around him, but in a humble manner.

“He did it in such a way that it wasn’t a big show, being kind,” Doughty said. “He was very quietly and privately kind, like leaving notes on your desk.”

Doughty said Koonce never left the office without saying goodbye to each employee, and his loss is devastating.

“It sounds like such a small thing, but it’s really meaningful when someone takes the time out from everything else that’s going on,” Doughty said. “Every single day.”

Despite his passing, lessons learned from Koonce still linger.

“Like his big heart, it’s still impacting us on a day-to-day basis,” Carter said. “He is still teaching us stuff, even though he’s not physically here.”

Koonce taught her to be honest and true to herself, Carter said. Koonce also inspired others to do whatever they could to help people.

An avid cook, Koonce also informed Carter that he made the best turkey burger, though she never had the chance to try one.

“I’ve heard nothing but good reviews of all of his food,” Carter said. “If you gave that man a kitchen, he’d make you a meal.”

Still, he taught coworkers other lessons.

Resident director Klint Neal said Koonce taught him to follow his passions and helped him plan out his own career path.

Resilience is another lesson Koonce left behind.

“He hadn’t been well for some months, and he never gave up,” Klint said. “He was still very much involved in pursuing his Ph.D. and completing his classes, on top of his work in Housing and Food.”

After graduating, he planned to work helping students. He was interested in being a vice president of student affairs, directing resident life or deanship of student life, Dancy said.

“He wanted to do work that mattered to the issues around African American male performance in colleges and universities,” Dancy said.

His leadership skills sprang from his strong sense of self, Dancy said.

“He was not the type to succumb to peer pressure,” Dancy said. “He was often the leader in groups because of that.”

This quality made people want to be mentored by Koonce, Dancy said.

He earned his undergraduate degree in his home state of Georgia and left behind a similar legacy there.

“By the time he left Georgia to come to [OU], he left behind a countless number of students who missed him very much,” Dancy said.

“He lived life, with not one bad memory,” Carter said. “I can honestly say that he served every day with great purpose.”

For the third year in a row, the Gamma Eta Sigma, Tampa Alumni Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity has been named the Model Chapter of the Year, as well as earning Gold Level Membership status. The award came during the fraternity’s 98th Anniversary Southern Regional conference in Biloxi, Miss. The organization also received the honor for years 2009, 2010 and 2011.

In 2009 the Tampa Chapter was also awarded the International Model Chapter of the Year. During the regional conference, which took place at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention Center, the Alpha Beta Gamma Chapter from University of Tampa won the Florida Collegiate Model Chapter of the Year. Brothers from the Zeta Xi Chapter from the University of South Florida won the Silver Level Membership status.

This year, Brother Philip Harris from the Alumni Chapter was awarded the Southern Region scholarship to support his Doctoral degree in Business Administration from Argosy University. The Southern Region consists of more than 4,000 members from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and the Bahamas. They hold high the ideas of Brotherhood, Scholarship, and Service as signified in the motto, “Culture For Service and Service For Humanity.”

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., an international organization of college and professional men, was founded at Howard University in Washington, DC, in 1914. It is one of the nine largest predominantly African American Greek-lettered organizations. Phi Beta Sigma boasts more than 150,000 members, with 650 chapters throughout the United States, Europe, and Africa. Programs of the Fraternity include Sigma Beta Clubs (the youth auxiliary for males), Sigmas Against Teenage Pregnancy (SATAP), Sigmas Against Domestic Abuse (SADA), American Cancer Society, March of Dimes and its newest initiative, a partnership with the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America (SCDAA).

For more information contact Brother Philip Harris at (727) 255-1360.

Authorities found the body of missing Alabama student Charles Edward Jones III around 1:55 p.m. Friday, April 6. Jones disappeared Thursday night during a cruise on the Black Warrior River.

Jones was a 20-year-old sophomore from Demopolis and a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity at UA. Tuscaloosa police confirm that Jones was the cousin of Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steve Anderson, who is currently out of the state.

Friday morning, crews resumed the search for Jones. Authorities were called around 10 p.m. Thursday when the student was discovered missing as the Bama Belle returned to dock. It had been out on a river cruise hosting a formal for the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Crews searched by boat, ground, and air for three hours looking for Jones. Authorities then called off the search until sunrise Friday, when divers resumed searching the water. They said the water is deep and the current is strong.

Students were very emotional Thursday night, some upset the search was suspended overnight. Authorities said after three hours of searching, there was nothing else they could do until sunrise Friday.

It started with 12 black men at the University of Minnesota who started a social club in 1911.

The club became a chapter of the national Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity in 1912. In less than a week, the fraternity will celebrate its 100th year on campus.

The historically black fraternity will celebrate in conjunction with the 80th Midwest Regional Convention of the national organization. The convention is a celebration of all chapters in the region.

Every year, chapters from the Midwest apply to host the convention. This year the Minnesota chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha will host.

“It’s been a long time coming; this is something we’ve been planning since we put in a bid about a year ago,” said Emeka Okafor, a pre-medicine and psychology senior.

The fraternity will start the event next Thursday at the McNamara Alumni Center. The evening will feature speakers, including communication studies senior and chapter President Anthony Gnakadja. Other student organizations on campus are scheduled to speak in recognition of the chapter. The convention will continue through April 15.

The convention will also serve as a commemoration of those who were initiated into the Minnesota chapter of the fraternity years ago. A room will display pictures of members since 1912. Many members who were initiated in the Mu chapter in the 1930s and ’40s are attending.

In preparation for the anniversary, the University provided the chapter a grant to help fund the convention and anniversary. The grant helped fund buses that will transport attendees from the University to the Marriott Hotel in downtown Minneapolis, where a large portion of the convention will be held.

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. was first founded in 1905-1906 at Cornell University, after half of a dozen black students didn’t return to school the previous year because of the racism they experienced on campus. The fraternity is the oldest black fraternity in the nation.

Notable members of Alpha Phi Alpha include Duke Ellington, Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Black greek life in its entirety benefits from the success of Alpha Phi Alpha. Since 2009, four other historically black fraternities and sororities have returned to campus.

“We, as men of Alpha Phi Alpha, we want to be leaders; we want to improve the community to the best of our abilities,” Gnakadja said. “But we cannot always do that by ourselves. We need help.”

The brothers see their accomplishments as largely supported by the black sororities on campus.

“What are men without women,” Okafor said.

Members of the fraternity have worked long hours to pull the centennial celebration together. Most express excitement and anxiety in tandem.

“It’s going to be a really big event on campus,” Okafor said. “There’s going to be a lot of people here, and it should be really fun.”

Members and friends of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity collect donations to help the homeless.

They are calling it a sleepout. Beginning at 9:00 p.m. Thursday, some 20 members and friends of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity camped out on both sides of Vine near 20th Street. Their mission, to collect donations to help the homeless.

Fraternity spokesman Bryan Colbert Jr. said the fraternity has been holding this event in Omaha near 72nd and Dodge for years. This is the first event held in Lincoln.

Holding signs on both sides of the street as cars pass by was effective too. A number of vehicles stopped and asked what was going on. Some even came back to drop off items.

Food, clothing and cash donations are all passed on to a number of Lincoln area agencies who support the homeless.

Colbert said, “It’s a great thing to come out, a lot of people come together and do something for other people.”