Candidates for 5th Congressional District Seat
Will Answer your Questions Sept. 7

August 26, 2010—A public forum for candidates seeking party nominations in Maryland’s 5th Congressional District for the seat currently held by Steny Hoyer will be held 6:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, September 7, at Auerbach Auditorium in St. Mary’s Hall at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. All four Republican and three Democratic candidates on the ballot for the September 14 primary have been invited.

Voters may submit questions to candidates either during the evening's program or in advance by e-mailing question to arlyons@smcm.edu with Candidate Question in the subject line. Though the forum will be limited to 5th Congressional District candidates, which covers Southern Maryland, as well as portions of Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties, all local candidates are invited to "meet and greet" the public and to offer campaign literature on the grounds of St. Mary’s Hall prior to the forum.

The forum is sponsored by the college’s Center for the Study of Democracy and the St. Mary’s County branch of the NAACP.

The Center for the Study of Democracy was founded as a joint initiative of St. Mary's College of Maryland and its partner institution, Historic St. Mary's City, the site of Maryland's first capital. The Center provides a forum for presentations by government officials, journalists, and scholars, and encourages and supports public participation in political processes. You can learn more about the Center by visiting www.smcm.edu/democracy or by following the Center on Facebook www.facebook.com/SMCMDemocracy.

The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination. The St. Mary's County Branch was chartered in January of 1946. You can learn more about the St. Mary’s County branch by visiting www.stmarysnaacp.org.

For information, contact arlyons@smcm.edu or 240-895-6432.

 

Stop the Hate Petition

In an effort to continue the momentum created during the NAACP’s 101st National Convention, we are asking all members to sign the Stop the Hate Petition that is currently on the NAACP’s website. The pledge can be found here: http://action.naacp.org/page/s/stophatepledge

Basic Mediation Training

The Community Mediator Centers of Southern Maryland are looking for a few good volunteers!  Learn to be a mediator and make a difference in your community.

Basic Mediation Training consists of a 3 hour orientation to Transformative
Mediation, followed by 40 hours of theory and practice of mediation in the
transformative framework.

ORIENTATION:

CLASS SCHEDULE:

Place: Orientation and classroom sessions will be held at Wyle Aerospace Conference Center, 22309 Exploration Drive, Lexington Park, MD 20653.

Trainees must attend the orientation and be present all of the training days.

Cost: $75.00 to cover the Training Manual, Mediator's Handbook, a copy of Promise of Mediation, and food [snacks and all meals]. The training itself is offered to you at no cost in the expectation that you will honor a commitment to volunteer for a minimum of 10 hours per calendar quarter in each of the following
two years. If cost creates a hardship, please speak to us about a scholarship.

For an application, call: 301-475-9118 or 443-975-4973

For more information on mediation, visit:
www.calvert-mediation.org or www.st-marys-mediation.org

Sponsored by the Community Mediation Centers of Southern Maryland

SMCM Photo Exhibition Captures the Weather
Part of International Conference on Light and Color

Press Release #10-113

(St. Mary’s City, MD) May 18, 2010—Photographers have always been inspired by the earth’s relationship to the atmosphere: Storm clouds in a dark sky, the burnt orange halo around the sun, and of course eye-popping rainbows. This summer, St. Mary’s College of Maryland will hold a juried exhibition June 12-Sept. 30 of more than 130 stunning photographs taken by scientists, meteorologists, and amateur photographers that capture these amazing atmospheric conditions. The exhibition, “The Atmosphere Exposed: Photographs of Halos, Mirages, Iridescent Clouds…and more,” is part of the International Conference on Light and Color in Nature being held at the college June 16-20.Sponsored by the Maryland State Arts Council, The Patuxent Partnership, and Wyle, the exhibition of photographs at the college’s Boyden Gallery in Montgomery Hall is free and open to the public during gallery hours; (Wednesdays 11-1:30 and Friday afternoons from 4-7 p.m. before the weekly River Concert Series until July 30) For more information, see www.smcm.edu/boydengallery and www.smcm.edu/colorandlight.

Other highlights:
The photo show kicks off with a lecture at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 12, “Weather and Art,” in Schaefer Hall, room 106, followed by a reception at 5 p.m.in the Boyden Gallery. Dr. Stanley Gedzelman, professor at the City College of New York’s Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, describes how various artists have painted the sky, and explains the meteorological content.

A second presentation brings together the scientists and educators from the International Conference for a panel discussion and reception at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 16, at the Boyden Gallery.

A free and open session of the Conference occurs on Saturday, June 19, from 2-4 p.m. in Schaefer Hall, room 106, where a general audience presentation will feature rainbows, iridescent clouds, and other sky phenomena.

Area high school science teachers are invited to join the Conference for a luncheon beginning at noon on Saturday, June 19, to discuss using atmospheric optics in teaching physics, meteorology, and geology. There are five $100 stipends available for local-area high-school science teachers interested in attending the luncheon and the afternoon open session; to apply for one, contact SMCM professor Charles Adler, cladler@smcm.edu, for information.

Explore and Discover the New
NAACP INTERACTIVE TIMELINE

February 27, 2010

Today, we are proud to unveil our new NAACP Interactive Historical Timeline, which provides a dynamic look at our history as an organization and our role in the civil rights movement.

The Timeline, generously funded through a grant from the Verizon Foundation, is the only online resource of its kind, with archives of photos, video and film clips to bring history alive.

Here are some of the many interactive features you can explore:

• Watch President Obama's Inaugural Address or Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech
    
• Learn the role of individuals like Cesar Chavez, Ruby Dee and more players of the civil rights movement
     
• Discover the lesser known heroes and events that shaped our world that have gone largely overlooked by history
    
• See the broad geographic reach of historic milestones, like Brown vs. Board of Education
    
• Check out our specially-produced videos featuring notable celebrities like Laurence Fishburne, Tatyana Ali, and Chandra Wilson

We trust that the NAACP Interactive Historical Timeline will provide a deeper understanding of the people who sacrificed and triumphed to move civil rights forward and build one nation versus one divided by race.

Please take a look around, explore, discover and learn at the NAACP Interactive Historical Timeline.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Todd Jealous President and CEO NAACP

St. Mary's County NAACP
Establishes Claudia Pickeral Memorial Scholarship