The Huntsville Times/al.com reported that "Huntsville colleges move up in U.S. News & World Report rankings. Read reporter Paul Gattis' story here. 

  

  

  

  

  

 

 

Justin Brown, a junior Composition and Recording Arts major, will  represent Oakwood in a Composition Master Class on September 16, 2013, at the University of Alabama, Birmingham's Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center (ASC).  Brown currently studies composition with OU's music professor Dr. Eurydice Osterman.

 

OU student  Justin Brown

The master class, with clinician Yotam Haber, is part of the commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

 

The ASC has commissioned as the clinician, Yotam Haber, to create a new work for orchestra and choir. As part of this project, ArtPlay (the Education and Outreach Department of the ASC) invited young composers in high school through college to submit proposals for new works that in some way address the Civil Rights Movement or present-day struggles in the U.S. and abroad. The culmination will be a workshop on September 16 in which the participants will have a reading session with members of the Alabama Youth Symphony in the Jemison Concert Hall at UAB's Alys Stephens Center. The event is open to the public. 

 

For a complete listing of September's "Hope Takes the Stage" events at UAB, visit the ASC website.   

 

 

 

 

Jorge Borge (pictured, below), an MIS student in the Business and Information Systems Department was selected to participate in Duke's Summer 2013 Institute. He and other students selected received a stipend and an iPad for the two-week institute, where activities were geared to help them learn more about how they can contribute to academia by pursuing a Ph.D. in business and other related fields.

  

"My experience at Duke is one that has changed my life. It gave me an opportunity to see that a Ph.D. in Business is something I can accomplish," Borge said.

Jorge was thrilled that he was selected in a very competitive process from among other students attending universities throughout the country. During the two weeks,  he was required to write, present and defend a proposal, an exercise that he welcomed although he admitted that it was extremely challenging. The opportunity to meet and network with professionals in business was priceless.

 

In September, 2012, Oakwood's Dean of the School of Business and Adult Education, Hyacinth Burton, visited Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, to begin a partnership between Duke and Oakwood in the Ph.D. Pipeline Opportunity Program (PPOP). The mission of the PPOP is to inspire and inform undergraduate students to prepare for careers as business faculty, with special emphasis on students in under-represented populations.

 

The PPOP is designed to help boost awareness and address the critical shortage of under-represented (African-American, Hispanic-American, Native American) faculty in Ph.D. programs in business and related fields. The PPOP wants to enlarge the number of minority faculty who can serve as role models, mentors, and public policy leaders as well as pursue their academic careers.

 

The three more explicit reasons for the PPOP initiative is to help undergraduate under-represented students 1) learn about the advantages of a career as a business school faculty member; 2) understand the steps necessary to prepare for a career in higher education teaching and research; and 3) acquire a supportive network for success in doctoral programs and faculty careers (Reuben, 2012).

 

The main intentions of the PPOP are fivefold: 1) to form partnerships with diverse institutions with the objective of promoting best practices that will encourage targeted students to pursue careers as business faculty, 2) to attend a two-week capstone Summer Institute with faculty and students from across the nation at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, 3) to express the value of academic research through a variety of issues, especially those that affect minority communities, 4) to create awareness about the benefits of the faculty lifestyle, and 5) to partner with the Ph.D. Project to take advantage of both programs (Reuben, 2012)

 

Oakwood University has joined a list of other prestigious universities in becoming a partner in the PPOP, and envisions a continuous relationship with Duke University as we work together to prepare students for careers in academia.

 

Ph.D. Pipeline Opportunity Program 2012 Abridged Report (L. J. Reuben, Program Director)