11/4/2004

Contact: Ann Fahrbach Branden, Continuing Education,
(785) 864-7889.

More than 500 students attend KU's 19th Black Leadership Symposium

LAWRENCE - More then 500 students from junior high and high schools in Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas spent the day at KU for special workshops and related events at the 19th Black Leadership Symposium Oct. 21 at the Kansas Union.

Each year the symposium brings to KU more than 500 African-American high-school students and their faculty sponsors. Student participation is coordinated through schools and based on leadership potential, with preference given to those with a 3.25 precollege grade point average. Workshops and events were focused on leadership, the importance of postsecondary education and preparation for college.

In keeping with the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court school desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, this year's symposium theme was “Brown v. Board of Education: Our Past Opening Doors to Our Future.”

State Rep. Barbara W. Ballard, associate director for civic programming and public outreach with the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at KU, was keynote speaker and leader of the black female workshop sessions. She has been associated with KU since 1980 as associate vice provost for student success, associate dean and director of the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center.

Anthony Daniels, coordinator of African-American student services at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, led the black male leadership workshop. Robert N. Page Jr., director of KU's Office of Multicultural Affairs, met with the students' faculty advisers and counselors.

Melva Landrum, Minneapolis, Minn., junior majoring in journalism and mass communications (strategic communications emphasis) and Edward Bradley Thomas II, Kansas City, Mo., junior in architecture, were student symposium coordinators for the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Landrum, a graduate of Patrick Henry High School, is the daughter of Janet Odugunwa. Thomas, the son of Joyce Thomas, is a graduate of Southeast High School.

Landrum and Thomas led a question-and-answer panel presentation on university life. Other activities included a student talent show and multicultural information fair showcasing programs and resources available to KU students.

As part of the symposium, Kourtney Williams, Maize High School sophomore, was named the $100 winner of the “Reading Gets You There” contest for her review essay of “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years,” by Sarah and Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth. Williams was recognized along with her sponsoring high school counselor, Diane M. Close, by Marshall Jackson, associate director of KU's Student Development Center.

Other KU leaders who addressed the group included Tammara Durham, director, Freshman-Sophomore Advising Center; Kerri Lesh, multicultural admissions counselor; Andre McCloyn-Fortune, assistant director; and Claudia Mercado, associate director, all from the Office of Admissions and Scholarships; and Pamela Scott, associate director, Office of Multicultural Affairs.

The conference was sponsored by the Office of the Provost, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Office of Admissions and Scholarships, Multicultural Resource Center and Continuing Education.

Names of students who attended are listed by name, high school and high-school location, including Goddard, Junction City, Kansas City, Kan., Lawrence, Leavenworth, Maize, Manhattan, Olathe, Overland Park, Paola, Shawnee, Stilwell, Tecumseh, Topeka and Wichita in Kansas; Independence and Kansas City, Mo., and Bentonville, Ark.

The students attending, listed alphabetically by hometowns and high schools: