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In This Issue

Wilson on Obama CarePages 2-3

Aspiring Youth Confer-encePage 4

Fatherhood InitiativePage 5

The Health Section

The Fitness MotivatorPage 6

Eating SeafoodPage 7

Alzheimer BookPage 8

Wear Red

Page 9

ChangingPage 10

Deltas' Founders' DayPage 11

Central State Chorus atThirdPage 11

Black History MontheventsPage 12

Where's the MusicPage 13

ClassifiedsPages 14-15

IMA OfficersPage 16

Page 4 The Sojourner's Truth February 01, 2012

Jeff Johnson Insp=res Toledo Youth at EXCEL ConferenceBy Artisha S. LawsonSojourner's Truth Reporter

selections by LeahMcCormick of St. UrsulaAcademy and Kayla Hamp-ton of Toledo School of theArts; verbal narrations byLaVelle Ridley of St. JohnsJesuit High School, CamilleGist of Toledo Christian,Vincent Hill of Bowsher HighSchool, Adam Tran of Uni-versity of Toledo and ElvhinEncarnacio of St. Francis deSales High School.

Mistress of CeremonyAlexis Means of ABC 13Action News opened the pro-gram. Elected officials anddignitaries offered greetingsand thanked parents for at-tending this morning with

their children, all followedby a moment of silence forone of the program' s originaladvocates, Alice Skeens,Ph.D.

"Dr. Cooks is the founderof Toledo EXCEL and quickto remind us without the con-tributions of Dr. AliceSkeens, Toledo EXCEL inall likelihood would not ex-ist. Dr. Skeens walked in theproposal to Toledo EXCEL,23 years later here we are.Dr. Skeens passed away ear-lier this year, and we feel thatloss. She served on our jointcommittee every year, tu-

tored, wrote proposals, made

needed," said David Young,director of Toledo EXCEL.

Keynote speaker, UTalumnus, award-winningjournalists, MSNBC con-tributor, White House corre-spondent and weekly com-mentator Jeff I. Johnson ad-dressed and encouraged stu-dents and parents to strivefor excellence.

"It's important to recog-

nize when we're talking aboutplanning and success and as-piring minority students thatwe don't start at the successpoint. It's sometimes over=whelming to hear my resumeread here, I made more mis-

phonecallsandwhateverwas, takes here than anywhere

else, and people questioningme if my accomplishmentswould ever happen," saidJohnson.

He went on to encourageyoung men in our communi-ties to take advantage of allopportunities. "There is a tar-geted attack on you to be-lieve that the only you canbecome successful is by us-ing your body, or entertainsomeone or believe the hypethat you will fit into a boxwith thousands of people whodid not make it," saidJohnson. "If you can playbasketball then play, but playenough basketball to get a

(Continued on Page 5)

Over 300 aspiring youngminds, accompanied by theirparents, mentors and neigh-bors, filled The University ofToledo's Student Union Au-ditorium for the 28th annual

Conference for Aspiring Mi-nority Youth last weekend.

The Saturday, January 28event featured a variety oftalented Toledo-area EXCELstudents including musical

Jeff Johnson(Continrted from Page 4)

full-ride to Stanford to playbasketball."

The afternoon concludedwith separate student andparent sessions. While stu-dents were focusing on waysto use foresight in day-to-day decision making withpresenter George E. Rice III,CEO of Triple Threat Enter-prises, LLC; parents learnedabout ways to assist their chil-dren for future planning.

Facilitators TalmadgeThomas of Mt. Zion Mis-sionary Baptist Church andTeresa Quinn of Ella P.Stewart Academy for Girlsworked with parents on toolsnecessary for action plans,understanding critical think-

ing and encouraging opencommunication.

The University of ToledoJoint Committee which hasworked in collaboration sinceJanuary 1985 has 23 mem-bers representing educationalinstitutions: UT, MonroeCounty Community Collegeand TPS; nonprofits ONYXand United Way of GreaterToledo; corporations OwensComing, Managed WealthFinancial, Superior IndustrialSupply and Services, Inc, andHuntington; State Represen-tative Michael Ashford andMt. Zion Baptist Church.

Conference sponsors in-

cl,de UT, 13 ABC ActionNews, TPS, NANBPWC, hzc.Toledo Club, Lathrop, Buck-eye Cable, The Andersons,Cooper & Walinski, UPS,

The Sojourner's Truth, FifthThird Bank, Alpha KappaAlpha Sorority lnc, Zeta Al-pha Omega Chapter, All)haPhiAlpha Fraternit3.J bw, Al-pha Xi Lambda Chapter,BASF Corporation, DeltaSigma Theta Sorority Inc,Toledo Alumni Chapter, Jack& Jill of America, hÿc, To-ledo Chapter, ParamountAdvantage, PromedicaHealth Systems, The Coali-tion for Quality Education,Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity,hw, Omega Psi Phi Frater-nity, Inc, NAACP Youth Or-ganization, The NationalSorority of Phi Delta Kappa,Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity andZeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.