SVCC Student Participates in Second Annual Great Expectations Education Forum
Marian Wright Edelman, the president of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) and best-selling author, delivered the keynote address at the second annual Great Expectations Education Forum. The educational forum was hosted by the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education (VFCCE) and sponsored by Verizon to educate the public and business and community leaders about the unique challenges facing Virginia’s foster youth.
Virginia’s First Lady (Left) the Honorable Anne Holton hosted an event at the Governor’s Mansion for those attending the Second Annual Great Expectations Education Forum. Southside Virginia Community College student Andrea Greene (center) was a special guest and appeared on the panel Fostering Success: A Conversation with Great Expectations Students, held during the forum and is shown with another host, Dr. Glenn Dubois (Right), Chancellor of the Virginia Community College System. |
Andrea Greene, a student who attends the John H. Daniel Campus of Southside Virginia Community College, was on the panel, Fostering Success: A Conversation with Great Expectations Students which was moderated by First Lady Anne Holton. Greene is planning to obtain an AAS degree in Human Services from SVCC.
The forum was held at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond on October 23.
Marian Wright Edelman has built a career of advocacy for children and the power of education.
A graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School, Mrs. Edelman began her career in the mid-60s when, as the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, she directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Mississippi. In l968, she moved to Washington, D.C., as counsel for the Poor People's Campaign that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began organizing before his death. She founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and the parent body of the Children's Defense Fund. For two years she served as the director of the Center for Law and Education at Harvard University and in 1973 began CDF. Also at the forum, an online resource center for foster youth, their families and social service practitioners was unveiled.
“We are honored and thrilled to host Mrs. Edelman and the First Lady,” said Glenn DuBois, chancellor of Virginia’s Community Colleges. “Both are strong leaders who have dedicated their lives to challenging the larger community to ensure that every child has the opportunity to meet their God-given potential. And that’s exactly what our Great Expectations program is all about.”
The Great Expectations program is a major initiative of the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education. Great Expectations, currently operating in more than half of Virginia’s 23 community colleges, is geared toward increasing the percentage of foster youth who enroll in and complete a college or workforce training programs and, ultimately, increasing the percentage of foster youth employed in high demand, high wage careers.
(c) 2009. Southside Virginia Community College. All rights reserved.
|
