The U.S. business group of Sun Life Financial Inc. honored two nonprofit community organizations and two students with $110,000 in grants and scholarships as part of the Sun Life Rising Star Awards. The winning organizations were Raising Expectations and The Global Village Project. The program — which provides nearly $1 million in grants, scholarships and more across the nation — aims to keep under-served urban youth in schools and promotes their transition into higher education. Those organizations nominated the two winning students, Montavious Williams and Nura Mohammad. Atlanta Hawks basketball player Elton Brand and basketball legend Steven Smith surprised the winning students at Highland Athletic Club.
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Atlanta's Robert Adam Young was awarded a $2,000 Wayne W. Pyeatt Scholarship, a $2,000 OneSight Research scholarship and a $1,000 Dr. Charles Conner Service Award for African-American students for his academic excellence at Southern College of Optometry in Tennessee.
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Clark Atlanta University was granted $40,000 from the Ray C. Anderson Foundation for an award that supports environmental initiatives and sustainability. The financial resources with fund new high performance biodegradable polymer systems from eco-friendly and plant-based polymers. The development aims to reduce solid waste in landfills and dependency on petroleum.
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South Cobb High School business teacher Jaqueline Valentine attended an all-expenses-paid PricewaterhouseCoopers and Knowledge@Wharton High School Seminar for high school educators about business and financial responsibility in Philadelphia. Almost 150 high school educators and administrators came to the three-day event at University on Pennsylvania's Wharton School at the end of October. PwC and KWHS aim to make teachers more knowledgeable about personal finance coursework. They equip high school educators with free financial and business-related curriculum. This seminar has now trained more than 400 teachers with training sessions, panels and discussions hosted by Wharton's faculty and PwC executives.
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