News Items

S.A.A.B. acknowledges all of the chapters and other guests who helped to make the 1st Northern Regional Student Leadership Conference a true success. The conference (held in Toledo, Ohio) proved to be one of the largest regional conferences to date with several hundred participants from more than twenty (20) colleges and universities along with a significant number of high school students and advisors. The 2008 Northern Regional Conference will be held in Chicago, Illinois (Tinley Park), April 11-12, 2008. Stay tuned for more information regarding all of the SAAB regional conferences for the 2007-08 school year.

S.A.A.B. welcomes newly formed start-up initiatives at the College of the Mainland, William Patterson University, SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Stony Brook and Pittsburgh High School (TX).

S.A.A.B. is proud to continue its recognition of the recent partnership with the South Metropolitan Higher Education Consortium (SMHEC) for deciding to launch seven (7) new individual institutional SAAB chapters throughout the greater Chicago area. The SMHEC continues to work toward a regional approach in addressing the achievement gaps for African American and Latino males. Seven of its 15-member institutions have agreed to form SAAB chapters on their respective campuses to include Governors State University, Prairie State College, Kankakee Community College, University of Saint Francis, Joliet Junior College, Northwest Business College and South Suburban College. The SMHEC has a diverse membership with institutions to include 2-year, 4-year, private and public in nature. The SMHEC will assist in coordinating the 1st Northern Regional Conference in the Chicago area next April 2008.

S.A.A.B. congratulates its founder, Dr. Tyrone Bledsoe, for being recognized by the Northwest Black Media Association (NBMA) of Ohio for his service (through SAAB) in the community locally, regionally and nationally. SAAB will be recognized at annual banquet of the NBMA, May 11, 2007.

S.A.A.B. members were honored by The University of Toledo at the Student Minority Leadership Banquet on Thursday, March 29, 2007. Mr. Greg Braylock received the Community Spotlight Award; Mr. Brandon Tucker received the Distinguished Minority Student Leader Award; and Joel Todd received the The Excel Award for their accomplishments toward leadership and diversity on the UT campus. Congratulations Gentlemen!!

 

S.A.A.B. is featured in The University of Toledo President's Commission on Diversity Diversity Horizons online newsletter with an article on "Rising Young Black Men" about The UT S.A.A.B. Chapter.

 

S.A.A.B. gears up for the 1st Northern Regional Student Leadership Conference to be held in Toledo, Ohio, March 23-25. For more information regarding the conference, please visit the national web site www.2cusaab.org and click on the conference banner or contact the SAAB National Office at (419) 530-3221. All SAAB conferences are open to all persons interested in seeing our students as future leaders realize their fullest potential.

 

S.A.A.B. congratulates its founder, Dr. Tyrone Bledsoe, for being selected by the Ashoka Organization as one of the leading social innovators in the world. Ashoka is a global association of the world's leading social entrepreneurs---men and women with innovative and practical ideas for addressing the world's most urgent social problems. Since its founding in 1980, Ashoka has provided start-up financing, professional support services, and connection to a global peer network for more than 1800 leading social entrepreneurs in over 60 countries. Dr. Bledsoe is 1 of only 16 Ashoka fellows chosen from the United States this year and was officially inducted at a ceremony hosted by Google in San Jose, California, held on November 14, 2006.

 

S.A.A.B. is proud to announce the recent and continued support from the Lumina Foundation for Education for its continued support and commitment to our shared mission by their recent grant of $750,000 to the Indiana University System to expand SAAB throughout the state of Indiana. SAAB looks forward to working with the Lumina Foundation and the Indiana University System to address the low high school and postsecondary persistence and graduation rates of African American males in the state of Indiana. Stay tuned for updates about this initiative. For more information on the Lumina Foundation, please visit www.luminafoundation.org.

 

S.A.A.B. is proud to announce the recent partnership with the South Metropolitan Higher Education Consortium (SMHEC) for deciding to launch seven (7) new individual institutional S.A.A.B. chapters throughout the greater Chicago area. The SMHEC is working toward a regional approach in addressing the achievement gaps for African American and Latino males. Seven of its 15-member institutions have agreed to form S.A.A.B. chapters on their respective campuses. The SMHEC has a diverse membership with institutions to include 2-year, 4-year, private and public in nature.

 

S.A.A.B. is proud to announce the recent partnership with the University System of Georgia African American Male Initiative (AAMI) under the direction of Ms. Arlethia Perry-Johnson. The USG AAMI was launched in the fall of 2002 to address the recruitment, retention and graduation rates of Black males. Stay tuned for more exciting updates on this wonderful opportunity for the students of the state of Georgia.

 

S.A.A.B. founder, Dr. Tyrone Bledsoe, has been invited to serve as a featured speaker for the Institute for the Study of Transfer Students to be held in Fort Worth, Texas, January 28-30, 2007 at the Fort Worth Hilton. For more information about the conference please visit the conference site at http://www.unt.edu/transferinstitute/.

 

S.A.A.B. founder, Dr. Tyrone Bledsoe along with several S.A.A.B. students will appear on the Channel 13 Live at 5 talk show hosted by Channel 13 in the Toledo, Ohio viewing area. The focus of the show will be to highlight the accomplishments of SAAB and discuss the significance of the contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

S.A.A.B. is proud to continue promoting the newly released book titled "African American Men in College" edited by Dr. Michael Cuyjet of the University of Louisville. Jossey-Bass is the publisher and SAAB is highly spotlighted as a successful and proven mentoring program throughout the book. Book Info