Vol. 3, No. 8                                                                   February 22, 2013
 

Oakwoodite to succeed retiring Oakwoodite! al.com: Brenda Martin, Huntsville's multicultural affairs director, to retire in April  

 

Brenda Martin, who has spent the past five years trying to fulfill Mayor Tommy Battle's "One City, One Vision" campaign pledge
Brenda Martin announces her retirement as Huntsville's director of multicultural affairs at a news conference on February 19.  Looking on are Mayor Tommy Battle, left, and Martin's successor, Kenneth Anderson (Steve Doyle | [email protected]).
, is retiring from the city.  Martin plans to step down from her position as multicultural affairs director on April 27.  Kenneth Anderson, currently dean of humanities and social sciences at Calhoun Community College, has been tapped to replace her.

"Servant-leaders know when to pass the torch," Martin, 65, told a packed City Hall news conference Tuesday. "It's my time."  Read the rest of the story here.

 

 

  

 

 

 

   

Did you vote today?  OU students show pride for 'the Oaks'

by Lauren Foster, senior, public relations major 

 

The Home Depot has launched its fourth annual "Retool Your School" Campus Improvement grant program, giving HBCUs a chance to get involved, unified and vote for their school. This year, The Home Depot has increased the number of grants offered, creating an additional Tier II Grant award in the amount of $10,000, for a total of 12 Tier II Grants. It will also continue to award the $50,000 Tier I Grant, and the $ 25,000 Campus Pride Grant. The Campus Pride Grant will go to the school with the most votes and social media activity. Oakwood University went literally from the bottom (of the list of 75 institutions) to the top in a matter of hours -- thanks to our dedicated students.

 

The social media participation regarding the "Retool Your School" contest is "through the roof!" With Oakwood being the only Adventist HBCU in the competition, our students and staff have asked for a little help from our fellow Adventist institutions, such as Andrews University, Southern Adventist University, and Southwestern Adventist University. On the second day of voting (February 19), Oakwoodites made the hashtag  #OakwoodRYS2013 a "trend" on Twitter in the United States.

 

In addition, people are sharing the voting link -- www.retoolyourschool.com -- to multiple social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Students have really come together and formed a unified bond to promote our school. The progress that Oakwood has made is tremendous -- going from last place, to 12th place, to 5th place in a matter of hours, and was at 1st place by 10:00 p.m., where we have been ever since.  Imagine what we can do by the April 15th deadline!

 

If you haven't voted yet, make sure you get online and vote!! And tell your friends - family - church members - all of your Facebook contacts, Twitter followers, etc.  Let's do this!!

   

OU welcomes home new Enrollment Management Director

 

By James Hutchinson, Director, Student Enrollment Services, and Dawnette Chambers, senior, public relations major

 

On February 4, Ms. Nikki Lawson, (Oakwood, class of '96) was formally introduced to her staff as the new Enrollment Management Director by Dr. George Ashley, Assistant VP of Academic Affairs. 

 

Ms. Lawson is an accomplished administrator with years of experience in implementing organization strategies and measures of continuous improvement and efficient program operation. Her ability to multi-task and to rapidly respond appropriately to changing circumstances in the fast-paced enrollment-recruiting world make her a perfect fit for the role as Enrollment Management Director.

 

Ms. Lawson hails from South Bend, Indiana, where she has worked more than 16 years in various educational settings. Her positions have included teaching, being the Assistant Director of Career Services at Ivy Tech Community College North Central, a high school Career & College Specialist, and the Assistant Director of Youth Services for the Alcohol and Addictions Resource Center.

 

Her professional strengths include but are not limited to: budget management, team leadership, marketing, program development, performance evaluation, customer service, event coordination, workload prioritization and problem-conflict identification and resolution.

 

In her spare time she loves to travel, working with community organizations, working with youth organizations tutoring and teaching character building skills, and has a passion for singing. Despite the many things she has conquered in her life she says "my biggest accomplishment is my strong relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

 

Her favorite Bible verse is a favorite for many: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11). Ms. Lawson says, "This verse gives me encouragement that no matter how hard it may be or how dark the day is, God has it all in control and together they will be Victorious!"

 

On her first day at the office, Ms. Lawson was treated to a scrumptious luncheon befitting of "royalty." The home-cooked meal was prepared by staff members in Student Enrollment Services (SES), the Center for Academic Success (CAS), and Enrollment Management. The room was tastefully decorated by Enrollment staff who also gave their new director a beautiful welcome basket. The luncheon was attended by members of the President's Council, Dr. George Ashley, department directors whose offices are in the new Cunningham Hall, and the staff of SES, CAS and Enrollment Management.

 

Together with Enrollment Management, the editors of OU? Oh, Yes! say: "Welcome back to 'the Oaks,' Nikki -- may God bless you!"

   

     

 

Pulitzer-prize winner Isabel Wilkerson to address Oakwood

  

Ms. Isabel Wilkerson is the guest speaker for OU Chapel on February 28.
(Photographer: Joe Henson)
Isabel Wilkerson will be the special guest speaker for chapel on Thursday, February 28, at 10:00 a.m., in the Oakwood University Church. A book signing will follow the program.
 
Ms. Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her work as Chicago Bureau Chief of The New York Times  in 1994, making her the first black woman in the history of American journalism to win a Pulitzer Prize and the first African-American to win for individual reporting in the history of American journalism.  

 

She spent 15 years interviewing more than 1,200 people to write The Warmth of Other Suns, her award-winning work of narrative nonfiction that tells the epic story of three people who made the decision of their lives in what came to be known as the Great Migration. Tom Brokaw praises the book as "an epic for all Americans who want to understand the making of our modern nation."

 

 

 

 

 

The Great Migration was one of the biggest underreported stories of the 20th Century. It lasted from 1915 to 1970, involved six million people and was one of the largest internal migrations in U.S. history. It changed the cultural and political landscape of the United States, exerting pressure on the South to change and paving the way toward equal rights for the lowest caste people in the country. During the Great Migration, Wilkerson's parents journeyed from Georgia and southern Virginia to Washington, D.C., where she was born and reared.

 

Wilkerson is a gifted and passionate speaker who has addressed the topics of migration, social justice, urban affairs and 20th Century history at universities across the country and in Europe. She has appeared on national programs such as CBS' 60 Minutes, PBS's Charlie Rose, NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, NBC's Nightly News, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and others. 

 

 

   

 

  
 

  

   
al.com: Columbia movie producer DeVon Franklin to speak at Oakwood University Church
  
Columbia Tristar-Sony Pictures senior vice president and faithful
DeVon Franklin, a senior vice president at Columbia Tristar Pictures, will receive an award and also speak at the Oakwood University Church, on Saturday, February 23, 2013. (Courtesy of DeVon Franklin)
  Seventh-day Adventist DeVon Franklin will speak in Huntsville at Oakwood University Saturday, February 23, 2013. Franklin's appearance at Oakwood comes as part of the historically black university's celebration of Black History Month.
  
Read the rest of the story, and view Franklin's "Produced by Faith" video here.

    

  

 

   

  

al.com:  OU alum Carmela Monk-Crawford takes the helm at 'Message' magazine 

 

Carmela Monk-Crawford, 47, pauses during a recent tour of the Clara Peterson-Rock Museum (at Oakwood's Eva B. Dykes Library), and stops at the pictures and artifacts from "The Morning Star," a paddlewheel boat that plied the rivers of the American South in the years after the Civil War. 

 

Read the rest of the story here.

      

 

  
  
  
  
  
  
   

 

 Huntsville.about.com: OU campus eateries score "A's"!

 

  

As OU? Oh, Yes! reported in September, 2012, Sodexo Dining Services opened Zebi's (short for "ZEsty BIstro"), at the entrance of the University Market Square. Zebi's is a totally healthy eating alternative, located at Oakwood University and in Alabama - and why not?

 

 Given the well-documented health

Oakwood's 100% vegetarian  Student Dining Hall is located in Blake Center.

disparities in Black America, OU still has the first and only vegetarian/vegan eating facilities at any of the 105 HBCUs. Alabamians desperately need such healthy initiatives as Zebi's and Oakwood's Student Dining Hall, since Alabama is:

  

(a)    The country's 2nd most obese state;

 

(b)    Holder of the 2nd highest rate of high blood pressure; and

 

(c)    Overall, the nation's 5th (or, by some ranking #3) "unhealthiest state" in terms of smoking, obesity and diabetes.

  

Recently, both the Student Dining Hall (also more commonly known as 'the cafeteria') and the University Market Square received high scores from the Madison County Health Department.

 

Sodexo/Oakwood University Market 

7000 Adventist Blvd 

90 

Sodexo Cafeteria at Oakwood 

7000 Adventist Blvd 

94 

 

Read the rest of the Madison County weekly health ratings here.