Contact: Ann Hatch
214-378-1819;
ahatch@dcccd.edu
(515)
For immediate release — Sept. 7, 2012
(DALLAS) — Calling all coaches! Calling all volunteer coaches for the next Super Bowl of brain teasers and crowd pleasers!
It's time once again to help young African-American males in grades 4 through 8 take their place in a competition that will test their brain power and their academic skills in the Dallas County Community College District's fourth annual “Aiming for the Stars” Academic Bowl, scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013.
Participants and their coaches are “Aiming for the Stars” in this event, which is presented by DCCCD, Project Still I Rise Inc. and the University of Texas at Dallas. The program, scheduled at the University of North Texas at Dallas, will feature a day of intense competition and mental focus by several hundred African-American young men who attend schools across Texas.
Facts will fly, answers will make or break the competition and teams will face off during the daylong event, which begins at 9 a.m. This program — now an annual event — is designed to encourage young African-American men to study hard, work hard and achieve their dreams ... to aim high and succeed.
The event, which is the area’s “Super Bowl” of brainy competition, seeks to address the achievement gaps and academic and social pitfalls facing African-American males. Starting at the elementary and middle school levels is key, based on a number of academic studies.
“Public school data indicate that African-American males lag behind standardized benchmarks in school,” explains David Robinson, who is directing the event and who is a coordinator in DCCCD’s outreach office. “Because they are failing in school, they become academically disadvantaged in the classroom, which leads to paths in life that can be both discouraging and destructive. They become socially disenfranchised.
“The African American Male Academic Bowl is designed to liberate, validate and accentuate passion among African-American males to excel in school and beyond,” adds Robinson. “This event is intended to be a positive forum that promotes out-of-school learning and provides supplemental access to information and relationships that can be of paramount importance to lifelong academic success.”
The event competition will be keen as team members seek to out-think and outscore their opponents — just like academic bowls and popular game shows that showcase bright competitors whose brains are filled with facts and figures and where correct answers are the name of the game.
Each team pays a registration fee of $100. A team coach can support more than one team in each category; as a result, the number of team coaches who are involved in the event is based on the number of registered teams. Team coaches must be 21 years of age or older, and they are required to participate in a brief orientation that is conducted by the event committee. Each coach supports a team of three young men.
Teams are forming. The search for team coaches is under way. Study has begun. The stage is set for an exciting day of fun and competition. Now it's time for students and schools to sign up, sponsors to sign on and the community to support brains (not brawn) in the county's fourth annual African American Male Academic Bowl.
Be there … or be “pi squared!”
For more information, contact David Robinson in the DCCCD outreach office, by phone at (214) 378-1728 or by email at
info@aamab.org.
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