Ronda “Baby Diva” Robinson

By Lue Dowdy

(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK (ENN)— Reality Star Baby Diva is What it Do! 

Ronda Robinson cast member of ‘Diva Gamma’s,’a new reality show airing on the Punch TV Radio Network is kicking ass. The show features grandmothers over the age of 40. I absolutely love the show and Robinson’s role in it. She was able to secure her spot by knowing the legendary Turner family.  

I met this beautiful Queen through a mutual friend, Jonathan Fields a.k.a. Mr. Swagnificinat. I had a chance to interview Ronda one on one in her lovely home. It was so easy talking to her and getting to know more about her on a more personal level. When I laid eyes on her I, notice her extremely long and decorative nails. Turns out that Ronda is a professional nail technician with over 18-years’ experience and the spokesperson for X’steme Nailz International. Her gorgeous nails are a show stopper!  

This beautiful and talented Diva is most definitely turning heads. Currently under management with Dark Gable Productions you can find Ronda all over Southern California and other States promoting her brand.

You can catch Ms. Ronda, on Saturday, August 11 in Moreno Valley at the Grand Opening of Club Thick and Beautiful promoting. She will also will be a guest speaker on Sunday, August 26 for LUE Productions 2nd Annual BBW/Plus Size Model Competition, ‘bringing awareness to domestic violence’. The event will take place in San Bernardino at the San Bernardino Women’s Club.

Make sure you follow this star on all social media sites. I’m Lue and this is What it So! Until next week L’s! 

Here are five things you may not have known about Rhonda Robinson:

What is your favorite place to visit and why?

Magic Mountain! I love roller Coasters and the thrill it brings. I also so love Marvin the Martian.  

What’s your favorite meal?

Carne Asada Tacos

What was your favorite subject in school?

History! Everything repeats itself!  

Is there a cause near and dear to your heart?

Alcoholism and cancer

A must have of yours is what?

God, Coffee, nails and polish!

(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK (ENN)— SAN BERNARDINO, CA— Norton Elementary School sixth-grader Selina Vasquez never imagined she would one day share her love for STEM with Chinese children.

A unique summer exchange program started by Principal Elizabeth Cochrane-Benoit made it possible for Selina and about 60 fellow Norton students to spend two weeks in July immersing seven Chinese students in educational activities related to science, technology, engineering, and math, better known as STEM.

The program, thought to be the first of its kind for foreign exchange students in elementary school, is the culmination of two years of collaboration between Cochrane-Benoit and Guohai “Jack” Tang, the CEO of Chinese high-tech company Keeson Technology Corporation.

“We’re teaching the students to use 3D printers and they’re teaching us how to speak Chinese,” Selina said. “We’re excited that we might end up going to China as exchange students.”

Norton teachers and students are showcasing technology like computer-aided design and 3D printers to show the exchange students how STEM education and applied learning have transformed education at the downtown San Bernardino school.

“They’re so impressed with all that our Norton students are doing in elementary school,” Cochrane-Benoit said. “The technology our students use on a daily basis is the same technology Keeson employees are using.”

Students are also participating in daily field trips, including one to Keeson-owned company Ergomotion in Redlands, which manufactures technology for adjustable beds.

San Bernardino City Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Dale Marsden welcomed the students to Norton by greeting them in their native Mandarin through an online interpretation app.

“I’m pleased to welcome our young people from China,” Marsden said. “I’m so glad that we can participate in this exchange opportunity.”

Subheadline: Exclusive interview with director Eva Tillman and her core staff 

By Naomi K. Bonman

(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK (ENN)— In traditional public schools’ certain classes have been getting cut from the curriculum and others have never been offered which leaves students lacking necessary life skills to survive in the “real world”. This is where charter schools come in.  Charter schools not only provide students with the basic K-12 programs, but they also incorporate courses that will help youth become successful beyond their school endeavors.

Savant Preparatory Academy, led by Eva Tillman, Jea Brown-Reese and Jennette Balcazar, leads students to experience an enlighten that will awaken a passion for lifelong learning outside of the core subjects which include English, math and science.

“We recognize that a true experience will help children develop a sense of purpose that will be the driving force of success or the rest of their lives,” Tillman states. “And we intend to give children the space to explore their abilities that will make them great entrepreneurs and leaders.”

At Savant, they make learning enjoyable to the students to where the kids are excited to go to school each morning. I recently interviewed the core team of the academy where I was able to hear first-hand about the excitement and journey of Savant Prep.

Listen to the interview below:

https://soundcloud.com/naomi-mznay-bonman/interview-with-the-core-staff-at-savant-prep

Lou Coleman-Yeboah

By Lou Coleman-Yeboah

(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK (ENN)—“Are ye yet without understanding [Matthew 15:16-20]? Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? Do you not know that if anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him? The temple of God is holy…. [1 Corinthians 3:16-17]. What an embarrassment to God and to the Church! What a disgrace to the Cross! Jesus Christ died not only for our soul and spirit, but also our body. Being involved in any act that defiles God’s temple attracts serious judgment of God. You better know that you know!

Justifying smoking Marijuana by saying, “but the “Doctor,” says it will cure my disease, and it do relieve my pain.” You dare not justify your unholiness or make excuses for it.  God commands, “Be ye holy!”What part of that do you not understand?And what happened to believing the Word of God that says, “By His Stripes You Are healed. Why want you just tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; you like getting high! You like the way Marijuana makes you feel. Talking ‘bout, it relieve your pain! Naw, what it does is numb your brain which causes you to think it relieves your pain.  Killer Bud!Don’t you know as Solomon said; it is difficult enough in life to resist Satan and keep God’s commandments when one has all of their wits about them. How much more do you think it is when you are all “K.G.B?”

“I tell you the most blatant form of sorcery in the book of Revelation is the multi-BILLION dollar pharmaceutical-medical industry, which just happens to be one of the biggest frauds being perpetrated today. And maybe you never thought of this, but you should know that drug use opens you up to spiritual attacks. There are specific demonic spirits associated with liquor and marijuana and cocaine and heroin, and opium, prescription drugs, illegal drugs, and any mixture of drugs, etc., and every time you use these substances, you could unknowingly be opening the doorway for these demonic spirits to come into your life. Leaving yourself wide open to demonic possession. How can God use you as a witness to others if you have no self-control, are setting a bad example to others, and are behaving just like the world? God’s Word tells us that for us to be used by God; we must be sober and avoid intoxicating substances. Substance abuse is dangerous and detrimental – physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually.  Why want you pass instead of puff!

Take the steps to cleanse yourself of all filthiness of the flesh that you may present yourself without spot or wrinkle before Jesus when he comes in glory. He is coming soon!

(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK (ENN)— SAN BERBARDINO, CA— It’s been a busy summer for the GEAR UP program at Cal State San Bernardino.

It began when nearly 100 high school students from the San Bernardino City Unified School District, who will enter their junior year in August, met at CSUSB to embark on “Explore 23,” a two-week tour of all 23 California State University campuses.

A day later, more of their peers arrived on campus for the nearly four-week GEAR UP University, which kept the second-floor classrooms of the John M. Pfau Library buzzing with activity.

As Summer Steele, director of GEAR UP, sees it, this is part of an effort to make students, and their parents, aware of the opportunities available to them to attend college, and what the students need to do so that they can determine their own future.

GEAR UP — which stands for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs — is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and the CSUSB program is one of 41 nationwide that received federal grants in 2014.

The Cal State San Bernardino program was awarded $14.2 million over six years, which allows it to work practically year-round with a cohort of about 3,600 students who will graduate from San Bernardino City Unified’s comprehensive high schools in 2020. While some students in this cohort have transferred in and out of the district, GEAR UP essentially has been working with this group of students since they were in the seventh grade.

Steele said GEAR UP has three over-arching goals: increase the academic performance of students in middle school and high school to prepare them for college; increase the high school graduation and enrollment rates into college; and increase the awareness of students, and their parents, of educational options after high school and the financing tools that can help fund them.

And within each of those goals are measurable outcomes to meet annually, such as pre-algebra/algebra pass rates or course failure rates, as GEAR UP site coordinators, academic advisers and tutors, who are assigned to each district high school, work with the students during the school year.

“It’s really by providing a whole lot of services and targeted services,” Steele said.

Emily Sanchez, a student at Indian Springs High School in San Bernardino, said the program helped her to focus on her schoolwork. As a middle schooler, Sanchez didn’t think school was all that important. By the time she was a high school freshman, she said, “it was really bad. My family, they would see my grades and say, ‘Well, just do your best.’ I really didn’t know what my best was.”

Sanchez began working with the GEAR UP academic adviser at her high school who showed her how to study, and how to approach her classroom work and homework. That put her on track, and she says attending college is now a goal.

“It’s like a big family,” said Tyler Scantlebury of GEAR UP. She attends Cajon High School near the CSUSB campus, and once thought she would join the military out of high school. “They don’t treat you like an outsider. Everyone is equal or the same. And when you need help, they help you. There are some programs that say they will help you, but you don’t get the help that you need. But GEAR UP, it does help.”

Both students say the biggest lesson they’ve learned from GEAR UP is responsibility, showing them how to own their successes as well as when they fall a little short.

“The way they talk to you is not in a demeaning way, like, ‘Get your grades up,’ ‘Do this,’ ‘Do that.’ They’re not like that,” Scantlebury said. “They’re comforting — they comfort you to get your grades up and do well. Like, ‘You know this is right, I can’t force you, but I would rather you do this.’ I feel we need more of that, and GEAR UP gives that.”

Steele said she’s seen the growth in students, especially those who have been working with GEAR UP since the seventh grade.

“You see the tremendous growth from last summer to this summer,” she said. “You can just see the growth, not just in attitude toward education, but they’re becoming responsible young adults. There’s a big difference between a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old. I’ve definitely noticed some of those shifts in both the way that they’re thinking and speaking.”

And as for measurable outcomes, Steele points to these as some of the highlights, when compared to the incoming senior Class of 2019:

• The 2020 cohort has seen its course failure rate drop by 4 percent;
• In the A-G requirements — the courses required by students to qualify for admission to a public four-year state university in California — the 2020 cohort has seen an increase of 4 percent; and, Steele said,
• The 2020 cohort has a higher percentage of its students who passed pre-algebra and algebra.

Steele also points out that GEAR UP is not going it alone in the effort. Because the federal grant was a partnership grant, the CSUSB program had to find community partners to match that grant through services and in-kind assistance. In addition to the university and the San Bernardino City Unified School District, joining GEAR UP is the College Board, EduGuide, Elevate Consulting, Elevated Achievement Group, Gorilla Marketing, Nestlé USA, the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE), The Princeton Review, Thinkwise Credit Union, and Tutor.com.

GEAR UP also involves the parents of its students to get them involved through workshops on topics such as financial aid and even bringing them along on college campus tours.

Moreover, just as important, Steele said, the program involves teachers, providing professional development opportunities that give educators more tools to use to help their students achieve. “GEAR UP at its core is about sustainability and systemic change,” she said. “So part of what we have done with GEAR UP is we’ve provided a lot of educator professional development.”

As the Class of 2020 nears its finish line, Steele said she hopes to see funding to get another cohort of students through its high school graduation while preparing them to succeed in college.

Moreover, she said she hopes to see a change in the way students and their parents view a college education.

“I really want to see it become a systemic change so that there is a college-to-career-going culture for all of the students,” Steele said. “It can be attainable for everyone, it can be an option for everyone. It’s just about shifting those mindsets and having those conversations early enough on.”

Visit the California State University, San Bernardino GEAR UP websiteat csusb.edu/gearup for more information.

Also, follow it on social media:

• Facebook, search @CSUSBGU;
• Twitter, @GEARUP_CSUSB; and
• Instagram, @gearup_csusb.

(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK (ENN)— LOMA LINDA, CA —- Loma Loma Linda University (LLU) has been honored as a 2018 “Great Colleges to Work For,” by the Chronicle of Higher Education, a leading trade publication for colleges and universities, in partnership with Modern Think. 

The program is designed to recognize institutions that have successfully created great workplaces for their employees and to further the research and understanding of the specific factors, dynamics and influences that impact an organization’s culture.

“This honor speaks highly to the dedication and passion our employees and faculty demonstrate each day,” said Richard H. Hart, MD, DrPH, president of Loma Linda University Health. “Their commitment to the mission of continuing the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus Christ is truly inspiring for the entire institution.” 

The results were released on July 16 in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s 11th Annual Report on The Academic Workplace and are based on a survey of more than 50,000 people from 253 academic institutions. Of that number, 84 institutions made the list as one of the “Great Colleges to Work For.” 

LLU won honors in seven of the 12 recognition categories, including collaborative governance; confidence in senior leadership; facilities, workspace & security; work/life balance; professional/career-development programs; job satisfaction; and respect and appreciation.

The survey results are based on a two-part assessment process: an institutional audit that captured demographics, benefits, communication, and workplace policies, and a survey administered to faculty, administrators and support staff. Employee feedback was a primary factor in deciding whether an institution received recognition.

Participating institutions receive a survey that measures the extent to which employees are involved or engaged in their organization. Results are categorized by small, medium and large institutions, and LLU was included among the medium-sized institution with 3,000 to 9,999 students.

The institution was also selected for the 2018 Honor Roll distinction, which is awarded to institutions that are recognized most often across all of the recognition categories. 

“Our institution comprises a family of extraordinary people who live to serve and make a difference,” said Ronald Carter, PhD, provost of Loma Linda University. “I am inspired by the teamwork of our faculty and staff, and their commitment to academic excellence, spirituality and service.” 

Great Colleges to Work For is one of the largest and most comprehensive workplace studies in higher education. 

For more information, visit llu.edu or to begin a career with Loma Linda University, search Find a Job.

By Marisol Beas | California Black Media

 (EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK (ENN)——Leo Hickman, the founder of Classy Hippie Tea Company, has been in business for seven years. Hickman said under the current economy “there is monetary value, even if you are losing” because Trump “just put in tax breaks for owners,” the American Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, that can be written off.

The American Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in December and will have some benefits to small business owners. The National Federation of Independent Business  says small business owners will be able to file as “pass through entities,” which allows owners to file and pay as an individual.

In addition, the NFIB says business owners can deduct up to 20 percent of claimable income. According to the NFIM, taxpayers will not have to file deductions to claim the deduction, “and may simultaneously claim this deduction and the standard deduction.” 

Hickman said he started his tea company after backpacking around the world. He noticed how all of the different cultures sat over tea and talked about the community, and how “from there at a community level you could activate and start changing the community.”

Hickman says that although the Trump economy is helping his business the system was “not built for us.” But he believes that African Americans are not “excluded, where [they] are included is in the programs as workers and the laborer” but that “you have to figure out a way to get access to get to the other side.”

Once you are there Hickman says, “There is going to be bigotry, racism, and hatred that will try to keep you where you are at… but you have to figure out how to bubble up.” Because Hickman says, “If you are going to be in this country you have to be about money.”

Hickman says there are no actual losses when you can write things off, “that’s why this side is set up for them, it was built for you to take a risk.” But Hickman says that African Americans need to “take the small risk of…thirty five dollars to get your business filed,” because if you don’t “we miss out on a couple hundred grand.” 

“You are creating your own economy… it comes down to how much effort you are going to put into educating yourself, and it opens up the world; that’s were freedom lies.”

Cheryl Brownlee, the CEO of CB Communications, started her small business 20 years ago. Now, under the Trump economy Brownlee said, “A lot of things [African American business owners] had the opportunity to be a part of before are changing” and those “opportunities are being taken away.”

Brownlee started her business 20 years ago in her living room as an idea, launching CB communications officially in 2000. CB Communications has partnered with organizations like The Black Advocates for State Services, Café De California, The International Black Women’s Policy Institute, and the California Black Expo.

“We started out…in Sacramento and now we are international,” Brownlee said, working in countries like “Belize, the Bahamas, Bermuda, and [now] Ghana.”

Brownlee and Hickman’s businesses are clear cases of success but perhaps anomalies in the Trump economy. The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics projects the growth rate of the Black labor force to be slower than the growth rate of the black population between 2018-2026. Furthermore, the overall labor force of Black Americans has been on the decline and is between 5.4 percent-10.1 percent in California.

Brownlee said, “I don’t think that when you are a small business. You have many resources” they are “limited.” The Guidant Financial Small Business Trends and Statistics show that 67 percent of small business owners face the lack of capital, marketing, and advertising efforts.

African American small businesses exist in California but a majority of them are not certified in the State, Brownlee stated. “The small business administration …[found] that there is ten thousand African American businesses in the state of California.”

Brownlee said the Black Chamber of Commerce is making efforts to find the business owners to help them get registered. Brownlee said this is important because this gives African American business owners the “opportunity to be on the list, so when individuals are looking for businesses they can be contracted.”

Under the Trump economy, Brownlee says, it is “big businesses [who take] contracts and if they want to work with small business they may work with small women owned businesses, not African American women, just to meet that check box.” According to the Public Law Research Institute this check box is the federal preferences in public employment, contracting, and education based on ethnicity to eradicate discrimination. “In business, the mindset is the same… racism is becoming blatantly more open” Brownlee said.

“It’s really hard” for small minority businesses, there has to be “organizations advocating on your behalf, to show the value” of African American businesses Brownlee said.

African American businesses need more access to education and tools, Brownlee stated. We need to have “more partnerships” within the African American community.

African American business owners “have to be more conscious, more aware, because we are not going to survive in this administration or any administration really going forward, unless we really understand what business is.”

(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK (ENN)- SAN BERNARDINO, CA— Fifty student leaders with the Sierra Club’s youth chapter gathered outside the Nestle Bottling Facility in Cabazon, CA today to protest the company’s privatization of public water resources. They awarded Nestle with a “#1 Water Thief Award” in a mock recognition ceremony, noting that the company has been diverting water from national forests using an expired permit.

“Nestle doesn’t have a right to claim that this water is theirs to profit off of. Water should be a human right, not something that international corporations can exploit from our communities,” said Sam Rodriguez, youth leader with the Sierra Student Coalition from San Bernardino.

Nestle has withdrawn 62.6 million gallons of water per year for the past 68 years for bottling, all from public sources. While California remains in a historic drought and local residents face mandatory water restrictions, Nestle continues to divert publicly-owned resources. Sierra Club youth activists cited corporate privatization and climate change as factors that have exacerbated ongoing water shortages in California and around the world.

“Nestle is taking water from our communities and then trying to sell it back to us for profit, while also worsening environmental degradation with plastic water bottles and packaging, and a pipeline that goes through the forest,” said Erika Ruiz, San Bernardino resident and youth leader with the Sierra Student Coalition. “It’s a danger to our generation’s future and an insult to our communities.”

More information and petition language at sc.org/Nestle

Live video and photos at facebook.com/SierraStudent

(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK (ENN)—RIVERSIDE, CA— Each year, families line up to receive a free backpack. The Adrian Dell and Carmen Roberts Foundation will once again be distributing backpacks at its 17th Annual Free Backpack Giveaway event on Saturday, August 4th from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at Castle Park in Riverside.

This back to school event is an opportunity for the Adrian Dell and Carmen Roberts Foundation to provide educational resources to school children ages K-12 in the community for the upcoming school year. This is a free event and early arrival is strongly suggested. Backpacks will be handed out on a first come first serve basis and the school age child must be accompanied with the parent or guardian to receive a backpack. Sponsors include: Assemblymember Jose Medina, Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes, Castle Park, Summit College, Riverside City Fire Department, Riverside Police Department, NAACP Riverside, Raceway Ford, Riverside Unified School District, and Cold Cutz.

For more information visit www.adcrfoundation.org.

Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital (LLUCH) recently gained two young benefactors after brother-sister duo Ashton and Alyssa Jean-Marie donated over $1,000 to the LLUCH Birthday Club.

For their birthdays this year, the siblings raised money by asking for donations to the hospital in lieu of birthday gifts. They set a goal to raise $500 but were able to raise $1,005.

“There are things far more important than toys,” said Alyssa, 11, during the check presentation ceremony on July 2. “It makes us happy to help sick kids, and hopefully this will make a difference.”

The Birthday Club was established in 2016 to honor and celebrate extraordinary kids who want to give back to other kids in need after Ulysses Hsu became the hospital’s first junior philanthropist. Funds raised through the club will benefit Vision 2020 – The Campaign for a Whole Tomorrow and the construction of the new Children’s Hospital tower.

Rachelle Bussell, MA, CFRE, senior vice president of advancement at Loma Linda University Health, said she was moved by the generosity of Alyssa and Ashton, 4.

“These kids are teaching the next generation the value of giving back and making a difference for someone else,” Bussell said. “Donating in honor of a birthday to our Children’s Hospital brings valuable dollars to kids and families during some of their most difficult times, and we hope it has made you feel incredibly special birthday. You are special to us.”

Alyssa and Ashton are the youngest members of the Birthday Club and the first siblings to donate.

Alyssa said she learned a lot through the process and would do it again.

“I’ve learned to be more selfless and appreciate what we have.”

To learn more about donating your birthday to LLUCH, visitLLUCH.org/BirthdayClub.