Across the nation, only 47 percent of black males graduate from high school on time. More than 60 percent reside in fatherless homes, and 45 percent live in homes that fall below poverty level.

As such, the North Carolina A&T State University Office of University Outreach and Guilford County Schools invite the community to attend the Beyond the Bricks town hall event Saturday, Nov. 5, 9 a.m.–2 p.m., in the Academic Classroom Building on the campus of N.C. A&T.

The event will include a screening of the “Beyond the Bricks” film, presented by Washington Koen Media. The film follows two African American students as they struggle to stay on track in the Newark, N.J., public school system. Weaved into the stories is commentary from some of the country’s foremost leaders, experts and scholars focused on black boys and their education.

Also included in this event is a town hall meeting featuring national and local experts and breakout sessions for discussion. Speakers include Pedro Noguera, the Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University; Ivory Toldson, senior research analyst for the Congressional Black Caucus and associate professor at Howard University; and John Jackson, president of the Schott Foundation for Public Education.

The Beyond the Bricks Project has traveled around the United States, bringing the film and a community engagement campaign to a growing network of individuals, organizations and communities to encourage collaborative conversation and action plans around supporting and building brighter futures for school age black males. The project challenges these stakeholders—educators, parents, policy makers, community members and the students themselves—to examine their responsibilities as role models and communities.

Sponsored by N.C. A&T State University of Office Outreach- K-20 Engagement, GCS Guilford Parent Academy and the Greensboro Human Relations Committee, the event is free and open to the public. To register, please click here. For more information, contact Tara Spivey at 336-334-7607, ext. 3018, or tspivey@ncat.edu.

About the North Carolina A&T Office of University Outreach/K-20 Engagement
The K-20 Engagement and Professional Development arm of the N.C. A&T Office of University Outreach offers a variety of programming and partnership experiences that reach K-12 students, parents, teachers, school executives and other K-12 stakeholders toward the goal of improving student outcomes in urban schools throughout the state. For more information, contact Shawn R. Watlington at (336) 282-4307

Employees and retirees of North Carolina A&T State University have two more ways to make a difference in the world through the 2011-2012 combined giving campaign.

This year’s combined giving campaign is comprised of two fund drives: the University Employees Campaign (UEC), which supports the strategic missions of the university, and the North Carolina State Employees Combined Campaign (SECC), which aims to strengthen and sustain North Carolina communities and their citizens.

In past years, N.C. A&T employees and retirees were asked to support university and community programs through SECC. Now they have an opportunity to designate their gifts directly to A&T through UEC as well as to charitable organizations in communities across the state through SECC. The combined campaign goal is $225,000.

“The University Employees Campaign is important to the continued growth of our university and provides us an opportunity to invest in ourselves,” said Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. “There are numerous scholarships, programs, organizations and activities that deserve your support. It will take all of us pitching in to ensure the continued success of our students and our university.”

As a special request, Martin is asking employees to consider allocating a portion of their gifts to support funding the participation of the university’s band – The Blue & Gold Marching Machine – in the 2012 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade®, which would give the university national exposure.

It is easy to give to both campaigns with cash, check or credit card, or through payroll deduction or stock transfer. UEC also has a bank draft option. Payroll deduction will begin in January 2012. Gift and pledge forms are due on or before Wednesday, Nov. 30.

For more information about UEC and annual giving, contact Carletta Simmons, director of annual giving, at 336-334-7600 or gcsimmon@ncat.edu. For information about SECC, contact Joyce Edwards or James Gooch, SECC co-chairs, at 336-334-7755 or 336-334-7978, respectively.

The North Carolina A&T State University Interdisciplinary Center for Entrepreneurship and E-Business (ICEEB), in collaboration with the N.C. A&T Alumni Association (Aggie Alumni Entrepreneurs Network) and the Office of Alumni Affairs, hosted the Inaugural Aggie Alumni Entrepreneurs Conference, Oct. 13, at the Sheraton Greensboro Hotel at Four Seasons.

The theme for the conference was Entrepreneurship: A Catalyst for Learning and Innovation. Sessions focused on learning how to create a successful startup or buy a franchise, how to take the business to the next level, how to find funding for starting or growing a business, and how to make a business investor-ready. The overall purpose of the conference was to promote entrepreneurship among alumni and to provide an opportunity for alumni entrepreneurs to get more connected with the entrepreneurship students and A&T’s entrepreneurship program.

Over 80 alumni entrepreneurs, students and faculty attended the conference. Presenters included Kevin Gray, founder and president of GFS Investments, Inc.; Bridget Wall-Lennon, director, Office for Historically Underutilized Businesses, North Carolina; Tim Janke, state director, Private Equity Initiatives, North Carolina; Michael Hall, president and owner, FranNet Carolina; Chuck Burch, president, The Burch Financial Group; Herb Gray, president and CEO, Life Enhancement Services; and Blair Abee, Triad Regional Director, Small Business Technology Development Center.

The highlight of the conference was the Elevator Pitch Competition, which was sponsored by GFS Investments and the Sales Institute and judged by Gray and two members of his staff. Five undergraduate and four graduate teams competed for $2,600 in prizes. Each team had two minutes to make its pitch. The winner of the undergraduate competition was Antwon Foreman, a management with entrepreneurship major, for his business idea, WiseGuy, an online magazine. The graduate competition winner was LaKausha Simpson, an industrial and systems engineering major, with her business idea, Eddie Bear, a toy manufacturing company.

The ICEEB, located in the School of Business and Economics, is a joint project of the School of Business and Economics, the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, and the School of Technology. The center coordinates the Certificate in Entrepreneurship Program, the Entrepreneurship Concentration for management majors, the Entrepreneurial Internship Program, the Distinguished Entrepreneur Lecture Series, the Annual Entrepreneurship Week activities and a variety of other activities to help students explore and experience entrepreneurship.

For more information about the ICEEB, contact Thaddeus McEwen, director, at 336-334- 7656, ext. 4030, or mcewent@ncat.edu.