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Comcast offers career advice to AmeriCorps
For the fifth year in a row, City Year Jacksonville AmeriCorps members about to complete their year of service in Duval County Public Schools received career advice and guidance from local Comcast senior leaders.
The cable-television provider hosts the annual career day as a part of its local and national partnership with City Year, a nonprofit organization that places corps members in schools in low-income communities to help reduce high drop-out rates.
On March 22 at KIPP Impact Middle School, Comcast employees offered more than 100 AmeriCorps members tips and information on career-related topics including resume writing, interview preparation and networking.
“This event is a great example of Comcast’s continued support for City Year in Jacksonville,” said Dan Foley, executive director of City Year Jacksonville. “Many of our AmeriCorps members will be embarking on their first job searches when this school year is over. Our partners at Comcast are able to offer them helpful and practical information as they prepare to take that next step.”
UNF students dance for children’s hospitals
The ninth annual Dance Marathon at the University of North Florida on Saturday raised $38,385.26 for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
Proceeds will benefit the two Jacksonville Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals: Wolfson Children’s Hospital and the pediatric programs at UF Health Jacksonville.
Students were on their feet for 12 hours and 9 minutes.
The hours matched the typical shift of hospital staff while the minutes symbolized the event’s ninth year in the community.
To keep dancers motivated, children impacted by the hospitals made visits throughout the day to share their stories and interact with participants.
A week earlier, the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Club at Ponte Vedra High School hosted its second annual Dance Marathon in the school gym. Planned by a philanthropic committee of students, the nearly six-hour event raised $8,004.75.
Since it began in 2008, UNF Dance Marathon teams and students have raised more than $160,000 for CMN Hospitals. The money is donated to Wolfson Children’s Hospital and the pediatric programs at UF Health Jacksonville.
Dance Marathon is a nationwide movement involving college and high school students at more than 300 schools.
More students participate in Dance Marathon than any other student-led philanthropy. Since its founding in 1991, it has raised more than $80 million for CMN Hospitals.
For more information or to donate, go to unfdm.com.
Special Olympics is set for Saturday
After 10 weeks of training, Special Olympics athletes from Northeast Florida will showcase their skills in track and field, cycling, bocce, tennis and soccer on Saturday at Atlantic Coast High School.
More than 600 athletes from seven counties will compete in individual and team events in the hope of advancing to the State Games May 19-21 at ESPN Wide World of Sports at Disney World.
Opening ceremonies begin at 9 a.m. and feature radio personality Ashley Wilson from 99.9 Gator Country, the Mandarin High School ROTC Color Guard and the Atlantic Coast High School Marching Band.
Games begin at 10 a.m. and continue throughout the day. Publix Super Markets, 96.1 WEJZ, 99.9 Gator Country and First Coast Honda Dealers are title sponsors of the Area 5 Summer Games.
To learn more, visit specialolympicsflorida.org.
Demonstration set for Earth Day
On Earth Day, April 22, hundreds of advocates for science including scientists, educators and the public will gather for a public demonstration in support of science.
The Jacksonville March for Science will begin at 10 a.m. at the Jacksonville Landing, where speakers from several disciplines in science and education will take the stage for about 45 minutes. After the speakers, participants will march across the Main Street Bridge, ending at the Museum of Science & History for Earth Day programming including robotics, science demonstrations and a program in the Bryan-Gooding Planetarium.
The purpose of the march is to communicate that science serves the common good.
By fostering dialogue through public outreach, organizers hope to demonstrate that science education is critical to build a better understanding of the world and that federal de-funding of science agencies and initiatives could have adverse effects.
“Science and democracy benefit each other and both benefit from transparency, logic and civic engagement. Science is necessary to create policy that is good for the people, especially in today’s increasingly complex world,” says Lucinda Sonnenberg, director of the Millar Wilson Laboratory for Chemical Research and a professor at Jacksonville University. “It is the responsibility of scientists to show that good science is an inextricable thread in the fabric of good governance.”
For more information, visit themosh.org.
Scholarships offered by Jack & Jill
What began nearly 78 years ago as a small group of African-American mothers in Philadelphia who brought their children together for social and cultural activities, Jack & Jill of America Inc. has grown into a national organization that impacts the lives of youth in more than 200 communities.
Members of the Jacksonville chapter, formed in 1968 and comprising 60 families, have awarded more than $30,000 in scholarships to local high school and college students seeking to major in pharmacy or science, technology, engineering or mathematics.
The organization is seeking high school and college student applicants from Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties interested in obtaining a degree in pharmacy at Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University through its Shannon Smith McCants Memorial Scholarship, named in memory of a pharmacist and leader of the Jacksonville chapter.
Students also may apply for Jack & Jill’s new Leaders Emerging As Dreamers scholarship for those who seek to major more broadly in a STEM-related field of study.
Eight scholarships ranging between $1,000 and $1,500 will be awarded to students who meet the criteria and aim to positively impact the community.
For more information or an application, email [email protected] or visit jackandjill-jaxs.com.
Cathedral Arts Project debuts new exhibit
The Cathedral Arts Project exhibition “County Missives – Expressive Works by Incarcerated Juveniles Adjudicated as Adults” is on display through June 30 at the University of North Florida Lufrano Intercultural Gallery.
It’s an exhibition of work by juveniles in CAP’s visual arts program at the John E. Goode Pre-trial Detention Facility.
The student artists are 12- to 17-year-old boys who are jailed while awaiting trial and, due to the severity of their charges, are being prosecuted as adults.
The exhibition also features a short documentary about the program and its impact on the students.
The art is a collection of individual and collaborative works by 10 students — some of whom have been in the class for one or two years and some of whom have aged out of the program or been sentenced.
Proceeds from sale of the works will fund the visual arts program at the detention facility. For more information, visit capkids.org.