eCampus Lunch & Learn Session

The eCampus Lunch & Learn Session designed specifically for persons interested in Project Management Certifications is happening this month at Central!  The eCampus PMP Certification Info Session will take place August 22, 2017 at 12:15pm.  The first session was in Alpharetta earlier this year and was well attended.  This will be the second session.  My final session for the series will be at a location in south Fulton  later this year.

Ms. Davidson is an amazing dynamic facilitator.  As Chair Emeritus with the PMI Institute for Greater Atlanta, Ms. Davidson is well known in the Atlanta business community as a walking ‘wealth of knowledge’.  As a seasoned Sr. Project Manager, her professional expertise is strongly rooted in the Supply Chain industry covering Distribution/Warehousing and all modes of domestic and international logistics and associated systems.  She currently works as a consultant managing Digital Asset projects at the world headquarters of Intercontinental Hotels in Atlanta. 

Ms. Davidson delivers a unique combination of ‘edu-tainment’ blending humor and information which will no doubt result in a Lunch & Learn you’ll never forget.  With her as a partner with eCampus - you will laugh, and you will learn.

This program is free and open to the public.  RSVP is needed and encouraged.  Internet accessible devices are welcome.  Please feel free to post and share.

Auburn Avenue Research Library To Host The Hip Hop Architecture Camp™ Celebration and Community Discussion

On Sunday, August 13, 2017 at 2:00 p.m., the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System will host the Hip-Hop Architecture Camp™ Celebration and Community Discussion at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History (AARL). The group will celebrate the conclusion of the week-long camp, along with participants and their families, including the debut of the Hip Hop Architecture music track and video summarizing participant’s designs. 

This summer, 10-17 year old youth from across Atlanta were given the opportunity to attend a free week-long camp, where Michael Ford, the “Hip Hop Architect” brought together local architects, hip hop artists and industry professionals to encourage and motivate participants in creating their ideal city.  The melding of architecture and hip hop music, a concept architect Michael Ford developed as a student at the University of Detroit, has helped the camp grow to a four city venture, this summer.  Camps in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles and Detroit held week-long sessions where participants were taught basic architectural skills such as reading tape measures and scales, sketching and drawing techniques, and 3-D and physical model-making. At the end of the week, student participated in the making of a music video as part of the class project.  The music video is debuted in grand style with family and friends, at a celebration event following the camp’s conclusion. 

An exhibition of the physical design models created by the participants will also be on display in AARL’s 2nd floor gallery space beginning August 13, 2017.  The celebration will be immediately followed by a panel discussion on encouraging children of color toward careers in Architecture through Hip-Hop, which will feature Ford along with local architects, urban planners, designers, community activists and hip hop artists.

Michael Ford is a designer, born and raised in Detroit. Ford received his Masters of Architecture degree from the University of Detroit, Mercy (UDM), where he completed his graduate thesis titled “Hip Hop Inspired Architecture and Design.” He has worked as a designer at Hamilton Anderson Associates located in Detroit, Michigan and as an adjunct professor at his Alma Mater. Ford has also worked as a designer at Flad Architects located in Madison, Wisconsin.

The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System was honored to partner with Ford for the first Atlanta Hip-Hop Architecture Camp by introducing camp participants to the Library, providing library cards for those that didn’t have one or needed new cards, giving campers a “Fresh Start” by clearing existing library card fines to encourage card and library usage, signing participants up for the library’s Summer Reading Program, to promote continued reading through the summer months.

More information about the camp and how to register for future sessions is available at http://hiphoparchitecture.com/.

Library volunteer awarded full tuition scholarship

The Library System is proud to work with over 900 teen volunteers every year who provide programs and assist with book sales, clerical tasks and shelving. Our youth service librarians offer teen programs on college applications and scholarships across the System and through eCampus. Aerionna Stephenson is a Palmetto Library teen volunteer and a recent graduate from Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School. In January, she received a full tuition academic merit scholarship from The Posse Foundation, Inc., a national scholarship program that started in New York in 1989 and has now branched into 23 states, including Georgia. According to www.possefoundation.org, “Posse identifies public high school students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential who may be overlooked by traditional college selection processes. Posse extends to these students the opportunity to pursue personal and academic excellence by placing them in supportive, multicultural teams-Posses-of 10 students.” The program’s approach has proven successful with a 90% graduation rate. The scholarship has a three round interview process and while 1,500 students were nominated in Atlanta, only 60 students were chosen, including Aerionna, to receive the full tuition, four year scholarship. In a few weeks, she will join 900+ other first year students attending Brandeis University which is a private research university nine miles west of Boston located in Waltham, Massachusetts. We are truly grateful to Aerionna for serving over 50 hours this past year at the Friends of the Palmetto Library Book Store and wish her all the best in college.

If you or a teen you know is interested in donating time and talent at the library, please go to our website to print, complete and return a teen volunteer application to vol.services@fultoncountyga.gov or call 404-730-1963.

Aerionna Stephenson (middle of the back row) poses with her Atlanta Posse at their Induction Ceremony. The Posse meets weekly January-August to participate in leadership workshops and will travel to Brandeis together to embark upon a four year journey.