Photo: The Citadel cadet float in the MLK Day Parade, Charleston, Jan. 21, 2019

MLK Picture Awards 2019 to honor Citadel community leader, Dr. Conway Saylor

Jan. 29
1 p.m.
Charleston Music Hall

The 2019 MLK Picture Awards, hosted by Rep. Wendell Gilliard, will honor the work of Conway Saylor, Ph.D., the director of service learning and civic engagement for The Citadel’s Krause Center of Leadership and Ethics. Saylor will be among those recognized during Gilliard’s annual celebration honoring local leaders dedicated to serving and uniting all members of the community.

Saylor developed more than 35 partnerships between The Citadel and the Lowcountry community, and created the programs through which cadets and students serve those partners. One of the partners is Charleston County School District’s Title I schools served by volunteer cadets regularly. Through Saylor’s leadership Citadel cadets, students, faculty and staff provide more than 20,000 hours of volunteer service annually.

“Dr. Saylor leads a highly successful and critical part of our leader development program at The Citadel: Service Learning and Civic Engagement. Her learned work in the field of psychology, masterful directing of the service learning program, and exemplary work within the Charleston Community defines who she is and why she is so valuable to the college. Most importantly, her leadership and mentorship have left an indelible mark on numerous students, faculty, staff, and others both inside and outside The Citadel.”
Col. Tom Clark, USMC (Ret.), Director for The Citadel’s Krause Center of Leadership and Ethics 

Black History Month Intercollegiate Consortium MLK Program

6:30 p.m.
Jan. 29
Trident Technical College, Thornley Campus, Campus Center (Building 920)
Free, open to the public

The Citadel is proud to recognize Julie Lipovsky, Ph.D., as the 2019 recipient of the Black History Month

Intercollegiate Consortium’s MLK award. Lipovsky, a professor of psychology, served as The Citadel Assistant Provost for Diversity and as a co-chair of the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Council for years. She currently serves as the team leader for the National Coalition Building Institute program at The Citadel and has had direct involvement with more than 1000 faculty, staff, and students receiving diversity and inclusion training through the NCBI program since the program was introduced in 2011.

The Black History Intercollegiate Consortium is comprised of representatives from Charleston Southern University, College of Charleston, Medical University of South Carolina, The Citadel and Trident Technical College. The consortium’s mission is to promote the study of Black History and to coordinate the programs that each institution plans in celebration of Black History Month. The consortium’s flagship program is the collaborative program for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration where each school recognizes and individual who has embodied the characteristics of Dr. King in serving their institution and/or community.

Black History Month keynote speaker: Dr. Daniel E. Walker, social change agent

6:30 p.m.
Feb. 5
Bond Hall 165, The Citadel Campus

Daniel E. Walker, Ph.D., refers to himself as a storyteller and social change agent. The author, scholar and filmmaker says he provides his audiences with “the strategies and inspiration to fight through current situations, pursue academic excellence, and to work together to positively impact their school, community, and world.”

Walker is the author of No More, No More: Slavery and Cultural Resistance in Havana and New Orleans, writer/director of the documentary films Sol Brothers, When Roosters Crow, Let’s Have Church, and The Ten. Additionally, Walker is a producer on the Emmy Award-winning television series Artbound, founder of the Long Beach Indie International Film Festival, and lead historian for the exhibit How Sweet the Sound: Gospel Music in Los Angeles currently running at the California African American Museum.

Walker holds a B.A. in Psychology from San Diego State University where he was also the president of the student government association, an M.A. in Latin American History from the University of California, Riverside, and a Ph.D. in Latin American and African American History from the University of Houston. In 2018, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Claremont Graduate University for his global contributions to arts, design, and innovation.

Gullah Tours of Charleston

Feb. 6 & 20
3 – 5 p.m.
Bus departs from Mark Clark Hall
Free, for Citadel cadets, students, faculty and staff only
Registration required

The theme for The Citadel’s Black History Month celebration is Black Migrations. Part of the special events planned for cadets, students, faculty and staff includes tours to learn the history of the place where many Africans first entered the U.S., the Lowcountry sea islands.

“Gullah is an English-based, creolized language that naturally evolved from the unique circumstances of, and was spoken by, the slaves in South Carolina and Georgia. It is not written language. It is sometimes referred to as the patios of the Lowcountry. Along with many of the African and English words and expressions, it also contains some other foreign languages or whatever could be picked up, depending on the nationality of the slave owner. The word Gullah is believed to be a mispronunciation of the African word Gora or Gola, which were names of tribes living in Sierra Leone, West Africa. The Via people, or Gala, or Gallinas are believed to be the African connection for the Gullah people in the Sea Islands.”
Gullah Tours by Alphonso Brown, author of A Gullah Guide to Charleston: Walking Through Black History (American Heritage)

There is no cost to take the tour, but members of the campus community must sign up in advance by emailing pickeringr@Citadel.edu, as seats are limited.

Citadel Republican Society and Charleston County Republican Society host 2nd Annual Black History Celebration

Feb. 8
6-9 p.m.
Holliday Alumni Center, 60 Hagood Ave.
Ticket purchase required

The Charleston County Republican Party (CCRP) and The Citadel Republican Society (CRS) are holding their 2nd Annual Black History Celebration on Saturday, Feb. 8, at the Holliday Alumni Center which is across from the college’s Johnson Hagood Stadium. The event will recognize and pay tribute to some of the community’s African American leaders.

Sen. Tim Scott will be the keynote speaker for the event. Scott is currently the only black Republican serving in the Senate, where he has represented South Carolina since he was appointed by former Governor Nikki Haley in 2013. He has previously been honored by The Citadel Republican Society at the the club’s 2015 Patriots Dinner.

Dr. Ben Carson, who was originally planned as the keynote speaker, has since had to cancel his appearance. Carson is a philanthropist, politician, author and surgeon, and serves as the 17th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, appointed by President Trump in March of 2017.

Those being honored will include:

• Ken Battle, Commissioner for South Carolina Minority Affairs
• Eric Mack, Chairman of CCSD Board
• The Honorable Tamara C. Curry, Charleston County Probate Court associate judge and the first African-American president of the National College of Probate Judges (NCPJ)
• Art Gilliard, Director of Art Forms & Theatre Concepts
• Samuel Rivers Jr, former SC Representative of District 15

Tickets can be purchased on the Eventbrite listing located at this link. 

This is not a Citadel event being held by the college. It is being hosted and managed by the CCRP and the CRS.

Annual Black History Quiz Bowl

8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Feb. 16
Grimsley Hall Auditorium, Room 117, Campus Map
Free, open to the public

The Citadel collaborates with the Mu Alpha Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. to serve as the host site for the annual Black History Quiz Bowl. Students from schools in Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, and Dorchester counties are invited to participate in the competition each year. The student teams will compete at the elementary, middle and high school levels.

The winner of the high school competition will compete against the winner of the upper state competition for a chance to represent South Carolina against the winner of the North Carolina competition at the District level in March in Myrtle Beach.

The Citadel Gospel Choir Black History Month concert

Feb. 24
4 p.m.
Summerall Chapel, The Citadel campus
Free, open to the public

Back by popular demand, the highly acclaimed Citadel Gospel Choir, and their guests, The Citadel Cadet Chorale, Chamber Choir, and other musical guests return for an afternoon of uplifting music and celebration. Cadets and students volunteer to be part of the choirs, which are run by faculty, staff and volunteers. They choirs use their voices to share songs of joy and praise intended to touch hearts and lift spirits.

The concert will be streamed live on the college’s Youtube channel.

Other February events at The Citadel

Shape Note Singing from the Southern Harmony

Feb. 6, 13, 20 & 27
7-8 p.m.
Summerall Chapel
Free, open to the public

Join cadets, students, faculty, staff, and guests of The Citadel in singing Shape Note tunes from the 1847 edition of the Southern Harmony and Musical Companion at Summerall Chapel.

Shape note singing is a long-running American tradition of learning to sing a capella which uses shaped note-heads to assist a singer to discern tonal intervals quickly by sight. This “FA SO LA MI” system came to the continent from the English, but became uniquely American during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

The Citadel group sings together Wednesday evenings in February and throughout the spring when the Corps is on campus and classes are in session. Copies of the Southern Harmony and Musical Companion are available for visitors. For more information please email Stephen Jones at sjones3@citadel.edu or call (843) 953- 5876.

Storm The Citadel 2019

Feb. 9
8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Free, open to the public

The 2019 Storm The Citadel competition will bring changes presenting trebuchet competitors with increased math and engineering challenges as they design, build and test their medieval-style catapults.

The Feb. 9 event will once again bring up to 3,000 visitors to campus for what is now a tradition for many of the teams that compete. But as STEM teachers from K-12 schools, engineering mentors, business, community, college and military team leaders consider their strategies, some of them have a new puzzle to ponder.

The rules are changing for competitors in the Centurion division which includes 6-12 grade students, college students and military personnel. They can plan and they can practice, but they won’t know the actual target distance they’ll be aiming for until just days before the competition. The teams will be informed of three possible distances to be used in the matches two weeks out. They will have to choose one of them and report their selection a week before competition day.

Back for its second year will be the Trebuchet Video Award, which shows competition attendees the stories behind building and testing the trebuchets. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related activities will be available for students between competition times for the second year as well.

Co-hosted by Google and The Citadel’s STEM Center of Excellence along with the School of Engineering, Zucker Family School of Education and the Swain Family School of Science and Mathematics, Storm The Citadel promotes STEM education and allows students to use the skills they learn in the classroom in tangible, exciting ways. This will be the ninth year teams from around the state travel to campus to battle in the day-long event that includes four competitions:

• Bridge building
• Robotics
• Trebuchet
• Water bottle rocket competitions

Zucker Family School of Education Wall of Fame Awards

Feb. 13
Francis Marion Hotel
Ticket required; media welcome

The Zucker Family School of Education at The Citadel will honor the recipients of its 2019 Wall of Fame Awards on Feb. 13 at the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston. The purpose of the Zucker Family School of Education’s undergraduate and graduate programs is to serve the people of the Lowcountry, the state of South Carolina, the Southeast, and the nation by providing high quality programs in the preparation of middle and secondary teachers, professional educators, and school counselors.

The Awardees include:

Merrie Koester, Outstanding STEM Educator

 

Merrie Koester, Ph.D. is a science literacy/arts integration specialist and science teacher educator for the University of South Carolina Center for Science Education. In partnership with community STEM and arts experts, civic leaders, and phenomenal teachers, Merrie’s projects position students as change agents who understand and employ the power of evidence-based reasoning to make informed decisions and develop educative resilience.

 

Teachers’ Supply Closet, Outstanding Contribution to Education in the Lowcountry

 

Teachers’ Supply Closet is a North Charleston non-profit devoted to supplying cost-free teaching supplies to teachers and students. The organization has provided $5.5 million in school supplies to Lowcountry classrooms in its 10 years of existence.

 

Kiawah-Seabrook Exchange Club, Zucker Family Educational Leadership and Innovation Award (Service Organization)

The Kiawah-Seabrook Exchange Club has a history of important contributions to education, particularly in under-resourced communities on Johns and Wadmalaw Islands. Two of its noteworthy educational projects are a summer reading and math program at Angel Oak Elementary and scholarships for high school graduates to attend Trident Technical College.

Deon Jackson, Outstanding Alumnus of the Zucker Family School of Education 

 

Deon Jackson, Senior Associate Superintendent for Operations and Administration  for the Berkeley County School District, earned bachelor’s, master’s, and specialist degrees from The Citadel. Jackson has supplied outstanding leadership to Berkeley County School District as it has built new schools and grown substantially.