COLUMBIA, S.C. (courtesy auyellowjackets.com and allenuniversity.edu) – Allen football will return to action in a homecoming matchup against the Columbus State Cougars on Saturday, Oct. 26.

“Homecoming is an exciting time for the university,” said Teddy Keaton, Allen football head coach. “This is our second season and we’re looking to get a win for the university and our fans. We are coaching a great group of guys who are shaping up for the challenge amidst adversity. We’ve been working very hard for two seasons to build a foundation and a mentality of perseverance and we’re looking for that to pay off.”

Kickoff for Saturday’s homecoming game is at 1:30 p.m. at Benedict College’s Charlie W. Johnson Stadium.

The schedule for other homecoming activities may be viewed here. Other homecoming events include:

• Greek Stroll – Thursday, Oct. 24 (Johns Hurst Adams Gymnatorium, 6-10 p.m.)
• Bonfire and Pep Rally – Friday, Oct. 25 (Campus Mall, 7-9 p.m.)
• Homecoming Celebration Parade – Saturday, Oct. 26 (Starts at 10 a.m. at the intersection of Sumter and Calhoun Streets, and finishes at intersection of Sumter and Lady Streets)
• Greek Step Show – Sat., Oc.t 26 (Johns Hurst Adams Gymnatorium, 7-10 p.m.)

ANDERSON, S.C. (courtesy andersonuniversity.edu) — Anderson University intends to add football as its next intercollegiate athletic program, having secured a $3 million challenge gift to raise an additional $3 million needed to field a team, University officials announced Oct. 4.

“After years of discussion, careful consideration and operating from a position of academic and financial strength, Anderson University’s Board of Trust is adding a Trojan football program as its next successful athletic team,” said Anderson University President Evans P. Whitaker, Ph.D. “In the past several years, Anderson has experienced exponential growth in enrollment, added innovative academic programs and enjoyed the best national and regional rankings in the history of the University, among them being recognized as 27th in the nation for student engagement by the Wall Street Journal, and being named an Apple Distinguished School for the last six years. With this firm foundation, and the magnificent gift we’ve secured, the time is right to offer Trojan football to our community.”

Upstate South Carolina philanthropist and friend of Anderson University, Dr. Melvin Younts, is providing $3 million as a challenge gift in support of the initiative. University officials are seeking partners to realize Dr. Younts’ gift and bring in a total of $6 million to launch the program. The goal is to field a team for the 2024 season that will play NCAA Division II competition as a member of the South Atlantic Conference (SAC).

Those joining Dr. Whitaker and Dr. Younts at the announcement included Anderson University Board of Trust Chairman Kip Miller; SAC Commissioner Patrick Britz; City of Anderson Mayor Terence Roberts; Anderson County Administrator Rusty Burns; and members of the AU administration, faculty, staff and student body.

“The Trojan football program is being built on the same foundation that has made Anderson into one of the best Christian universities in the country,” said Vice President for Athletics Dr. Bert Epting. “Our administration will recruit student-athletes and coaches who are excellent ambassadors of our university who excel on and off the field. The future of Anderson University in general—and our athletic program specifically—is very bright.”

“Launching football from a position of strength means two things: that football will maintain Anderson’s student selectivity and high academic standards, along with its equally high standards for student-athletes’ personal and professional development, and that paying for football will not take resources from existing academic, athletic or student-life programs. We are most grateful to Dr. Younts for his vision and his generosity which are the catalysts for this expansion,” President Whitaker said.

“Football is expected to be an addition that all students and the surrounding community will enjoy,” said Anderson University Vice President for Student Development Dr. Jim Fereira. “Already recognized for its exceedingly high level of student engagement, we are certain that football will make AU an even more engaging campus for students and fans.”

“Anderson expects to initiate football in the fall of 2024, or possibly sooner contingent upon the completion of meeting the terms of the challenge gift and the construction of campus football facilities. We are absolutely thrilled to compete in the South Atlantic Conference, which is known to be one of the best NCAA Division II football leagues in the nation,” President Whitaker said.

South Atlantic Conference members that field football include longstanding members Carson-Newman University, Wingate University, Lenoir-Rhyne University, Mars Hill University, Newberry College, Tusculum University and Catawba College.

Anderson University currently fields 18 intercollegiate athletic teams, with men’s lacrosse beginning play in 2021.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (courtesy charlestonsouthern.edu) — As an undergraduate student at Charleston Southern University, Napiya Nubuya was taken aback by the lack of women, and especially women of color, in the computer science program. Once she was in the workforce, she realized how serious it really was.

So, she set about to change it. In August, Charleston Southern hosted the inaugural Charleston chapter of The Next IT Girl. No one is prouder of Nubuya than Dr. Valerie Sessions, chair of the computer science department.

The Next IT Girl’s mission is to educate and mentor women and girls of color in the IT field. The nonprofit began in Indianapolis and has chapters there, Atlanta, and now in Charleston. “The turnout was incredible – 15 young ladies – as well as S.C. state house representatives, J.A. Moore and Krystie Simmons,” said Sessions.

Nubuya identified with Sessions, the only woman in the computer science department when Nubuya attended, as someone who had blazed the trail.

Nubuya graduated in 2014 and began looking for a job and applying to grad school. A year went by, and she was told in interview after interview that she needed more experience. She was about to head to graduate school when a company in Indianapolis reached out to her. She had written out her goals in 2014, with number one being finding a job in her field. The Indy company sent her an airplane ticket for July 15, 2015 – a year to the date she had written down her goals. “I said, God is that really you?” said Nubuya. “It scared me to death.”

On her tour of the company, she was excited to observe it was a diverse company. The company hired her as a data analyst and within a month she was living and working in Indianapolis. The company has given her opportunities to grow and promotions. She still works for the same company but now lives in Atlanta.

Once on the job she learned that although the company was diverse, the IT department was not. Until just recently, she was the only woman in IT.

Nubuya said her college friends seemed to have things they were doing outside their professions, so she decided to give a fashion blog a try, since that was one of her interests. She called it The Next It Girl, but it never really got off the ground. She found she wasn’t interested in posting pictures of fashion every day.

About that same time, a coworker’s daughter asked her what it was like to be a woman in the tech world, specifically a black woman in tech.

“I started wondering if a lot of girls were wondering the same thing,” said Nubuya. She said African American women make up just 3% of the tech field. She also noticed that women came into the tech field but didn’t stay.

All of those experiences led to The Next IT Girl. “If you can see it, you can be it,” said Nubuya. She set out to let young women of color know that there are thousands of opportunities in the tech world. “There’s more to tech than coding,” she said.

The Next IT Girl will celebrate four years in December. The nonprofit hosts summer workshops and works with girls ages 8-22. “We started with eight, because at that age kids start understanding the concept of careers,” said Nubuya. “And, we went up to 22 because they are looking for mentorship about jobs, and negotiating salaries, etc.”

Bringing the Next IT Girl to Charleston feels to Nubuya like coming full circle. “It was awesome holding the workshop at CSU because it was a great opportunity for the girls to be on a college campus and to see Dr. Sessions as the chair of the computer science department,” said Nubuya.

She said, “When I started at CSU in 2009, I didn’t know if tech was for me. Pursuing computer science has been well worth it. It has helped me get where I am today.” She said what she loved about her time at CSU was being exposed to everything in the tech field, not just an emphasis, and the fact that the program is faith based. “Seeing the fruits of the labor now is really cool,” said Nubuya.

She said starting a nonprofit is about facing your fears. “Face your fears and give it multiple tries,” she said, “And have faith.” South Carolina Representative JA Moore serves on the nonprofit’s board and has been an advocate for The Next IT Girl. Charleston Women in Tech and the CSU computer science department have also been advocates.

“We are always looking for supporters through donations and partnerships,” said Nubuya. She would love to see fellow alumni get involved with The Next IT Girl. Learn more at thenextitgirl.org.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (courtesy thetandd.com) – South Carolina is one of only four states to participate in Project Pipeline Repair, an exclusive initiative of the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) utilizing collaborative partnerships with historically black colleges and universities and state higher education agencies to cultivate a highly qualified pool of minority male teachers and change the “teaching narrative” and critical role of minority males through targeted and early recruitment.

Claflin University is the partnering HBCU in South Carolina. State project leads from all participating states were responsible with identifying exposure opportunities and supporting related programmatic activities. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has provided generous support, used in part to promote the profession, raise awareness of the need and support recruits.

South Carolina Commission on Higher Education has partnered with Banton Media, a full-service marketing agency out of Myrtle Beach, to design, develop and deliver an integrated multimedia advertising campaign. The campaign will highlight the importance of minority male educators in the teaching profession, including existing and aspiring minority male educators, hoping to encourage minority males in high school and beyond to pursue teaching as a career. Banton Media’s services for the campaign (scheduled to launch in early August) will include graphic design, photography and video services, website development, public relations, social media, digital advertising, streaming TV and other traditional media.

Why the need? Recent data from the National Center of Education Statistics estimates that since 2014, ethnic and racial minorities make up more than half of the student population in U.S. public schools, yet people of color make up about 20 percent of teachers and a mere 2 percent are black men. South Carolina data reflects the national distribution. Statewide, people of color make up about 22 percent of teachers in South Carolina, with black men representing 2.8 percent and other male ethnicities at even lower percentages as reported by the South Carolina Department of Education.

Dr. Rusty Monhollon, CHE’s president and executive director, believes “Project Pipeline Repair is not only an opportunity to address the racial and gender disparities in our educational workforce, but it is also a viable solution to addressing the teacher shortage crisis that we currently face as a country and state. We must elevate the discussion to consider unconventional methods and untapped resources as possible solutions to this crisis. Minority men are an untapped resource, especially in the field of education.”

“This work is not new to South Carolina but requires concerted efforts and collaborative participation from essential stakeholders to create a pipeline of high quality and efficacious teachers and educational programs. CHE and other state agencies joined these efforts over three decades ago,” said Dr. John Lane, director of the CHE Division of Academic Affairs. “PPR is one of several initiatives developed to improve teacher education, and ultimately raise student academic achievement and address the teacher shortage crisis in South Carolina. However, it has uniquely helped CHE think about the role of HBCU’s contributing to education preparation.”

Dr. Regine Rucker, program manager in the Division of Academic Affairs with CHE and the project lead, added, “We were pleased to work with SHEEO and Claflin on this transformational project. Representation matters! It is imperative to do our best to provide an educational environment for all students that is inclusive and mirrors the national and global landscape. If efforts to prioritize the recruitment, retention, and advancement of minority males (students, teachers and administrators) at all levels of our educational system are to succeed, we must hear from them directly. Their insight and perspective on the challenges faced as minority men, as well opportunities missed, is often absent from many conversations, including education. Through this project, we wanted to give a face and voice to the experiences of minority males as students and professionals.”

The SHEEO project director of PPR, Dr. Denise Pearson, said, “Project Pipeline Repair: Restoring Minority Male Participation and Persistence in Education Preparation Programs is an innovative and bold attempt to collaborate with states toward mitigating teacher shortages, increasing teacher diversity, and shifting to a more productive narrative about the teaching the profession. The South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, through the leadership of Drs. John Lane and Regine Rucker, demonstrates a commitment to student success and educational equity, with clear acknowledgement of the relationship between policy and practice. It remains an honor to work with the Commission on this initiative – I look forward to building on what we started almost three years ago with generous funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.”

For more information, visit https://minoritymaleeducators.org/.

HARTSVILLE, S.C. (courtesy coker.edu) — This past summer, four Coker students participated in an REU, or Research Experiences for Undergraduates. One of those students is Ashley Hogg (December ‘19). REUs are competitive research programs for undergraduates studying science, engineering or mathematics, and are sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Hogg is a computer science major, an intern in Coker’s IT department, and a member of the women’s soccer team. She first heard of REU opportunities from Dr. Paul Dostert, and then discovered her specific REU on the National Science Foundation website. Hogg spent her summer at the University of South Florida in Tampa participating in an REU in which she developed an Android app that can help medical staff get more accurate wound measurements.

“It does this by taking a 3D image rather than using the invasive measurement tape and cotton swab method,” explains Hogg. “Using the Intel RealSense SDK 2.0, I was able to develop an application with Android Studio that allows for Android devices to take advantage of the Intel RealSense D435 camera technology. This camera uses point cloud software to create a 3D representation of the wound that can measure the length, width, and depth of the wound using an algorithm.”

Hogg says that she learned several valuable things during her REU experience. She learned about computer vision, point cloud, and image acquisition. Hogg also learned how to use Android studio to program an Android application. Additionally, she learned how to write research conference papers and create posters to present her work. Finally, she learned more about the process of applying to graduate school and the benefits of getting graduate degrees.

During her time at the University of South Florida, Hogg lived in the Magnolia dorms, which are located near the engineering building. She met a lot of new people who were also participating in the REU. Hogg says that those people were from many different places.

“Five of the ten participants were from Puerto Rico and another participant was from Israel,” says Hogg. “It was very exciting to become friends with a group of people who have similar interests as I do.”

When asked how she thinks this experience will help her after graduation, Hogg said that it will help her find a job after graduation as she feels she is now more prepared to apply for jobs. Because she gained new skills and knowledge, she believes she will now have a more impressive resume. The experience has also boosted her confidence because she gained real-world working experience with professionals in her field and she learned how to manage her time more efficiently.

“My favorite part about this experience was the exposure to other areas of computer science I was able to have, such as learning about computer vision and machine learning…I am very grateful for that exposure.” explains Hogg.

Hogg thinks that participating in an REU is beneficial for undergraduate students. It gives them the opportunity to research real-life problems and gain new knowledge about those problems, new experiences, and boosts their confidence. “It also offers students the chance to learn more about the process of applying to graduate school,” says Hogg. “and it may help them decide whether or not it is the right choice for them.”

COLUMBIA, S.C. (courtesy ciu.edu) — Pastor Andrew Brunson, a 1985 graduate of Ben Lippen School, is concerned that the younger generation of American Christians is not ready for a coming persecution — something very familiar to him.

That was the message Brunson had for middle and high school students from his alma mater, as he addressed them in Shortess Chapel on the Columbia International University campus. Ben Lippen, a ministry of CIU, is a Pre-K3 to 12th grade Christian school. He also addressed a CIU Chapel, offering much the same message.

Brunson, a missionary church planter and humanitarian worker for 23 years in Turkey, was held for two years in Turkish prisons after being falsely accused of terrorism in October 2016. Due to a worldwide prayer movement and significant political pressure from the U.S. government, he was finally sentenced to time served and released in October 2018.

“I have an urgency in my heart for your generation because I think there is persecution coming and your generation is not ready for it,” Brunson warned the students. “There is such hostility (toward Christianity) and I think many are not ready for what is coming.”

Brunson said they will be challenged in speaking the truth especially in the areas of morality and the exclusivity of Jesus and what He demands.

“There is a spiritual battle going on in the political and cultural realms of our day,” Brunson said. “Who’s going to define truth, who’s going to define morality, who’s going to define identity? For those who stand for Jesus, for those who desire to live a godly life, it’s going to mean a loss of prestige sometimes, or a loss of a job or maybe worse than that. Are you prepared to stand when the Twitter mob attacks you?”

He reiterated that the time for the students to prepare is now, and not when they find themselves in the middle these challenges and have to respond to them.

Near the end of his imprisonment, Brunson thought he would spend the rest of his life in a Turkish prison, never to see his family again. That’s when he realized he had to do something that he challenged the students to do — cultivate a passion for God by accepting God’s will for their lives.

“If your assignment for me is prison, then I want to embrace what you have for me,” Brunson prayed in prison. “I don’t want any of Your plans to fall to the ground.”

And then he urged the students to focus on cultivating that passion and devotion to Jesus, “because it is what will help you stand in the future.”

CIU freshman Kayla Gardener, appreciated the message because “persecution is something the church doesn’t talk about a lot.”

Will Beers, a junior added, “It was a needed exhortation.”

“I’m really humbled to have had him here. I really appreciated the message,” Beers said. “It was just unfiltered and pure. It was not an easy message but was really needed on a lot of levels. It was sobering.”

On behalf of CIU, President Dr. Mark Smith presented Brunson with an Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree, “recognizing an individual’s unique and noble contributions furthering what CIU stands for — impacting the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Smith announced.

Hear Dr. Andrew Brunson’s address to CIU, and his address to Ben Lippen that includes a Q&A, on the CIU Chapel podcast page.

ABC Columbia TV was also at the event. View their coverage.