MCC Presents 2018 Black History Month Leadership Awards
Manchester, Conn. (February 23, 2018) – MCC continued its Black History Month celebrations as it bestowed its annual Leadership Awards at a ceremony on February 21. The 2018 Black History Month Award winners are Professor Stephania Davis, recipient of the Employee Leadership Award; GPA Principal Tory Niles-Outler, recipient of the Community Leadership Award; and SGA President Brianna Nelson, recipient of the Student Leadership Award.
From left, Davis, Nelson, Niles-Outler.
The award ceremony, which took place in Great Path Academy Community Commons on the college campus, kicked off with a performance by the MCC Madrigal/Chamber Singers of “Wangol” — a folk song from the country of Haiti — which they sang in the native Creole language.
The Employee Leadership Award is given in honor of Mary McLeod Bethune-Cookman, an educator and civil rights leader best known for starting a school for African-American students and as an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Davis, a native of Bridgeport and current resident of Manchester, is Communication department chair and teaches journalism, public speaking and creative non-fiction writing. She serves as faculty advisor for the MCC student newspaper, The Live Wire. Her career as a working journalist includes working at the Hartford Courant, the Des Moines Register and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Community Leadership Award is given in honor of U.S. Representative Shirley Chisholm from N.Y., who in 1969 was the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress. A Democrat, Chisholm also was the first major-party black candidate to run for the presidential nomination. Niles-Outler, of Middletown, began her career with the Hartford Public Schools as a paraprofessional in 1994. She became a substitute teacher, then a teacher and, in 2007, was appointed principal of the Hartford Public High School Freshman Academy. She became principal of Great Path Academy in 2012. The magnet school received the 2014 PBIS Model Banner School Award, the School of Distinction Award by Magnet Schools of America in 2015 and was recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of American’s Best High Schools.
The Student Leadership Award is given in honor of Jibreel Khazen, an African American civil rights activist who was one of the “Greensboro Four,” a group of young men who in 1960 sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch counter, challenging the store’s policy on segregation. Nelson, of Hartford, is an Early Childhood Education major at MCC and president of the Student Government Association. Her contributions to campus life include teaching incoming student orientations classes, spreading the word about the on-campus food pantry, and motivating her peers to get involved on campus. She has served as president of the Black Student Union, where she worked with members to create a peaceful protest, community service projects, and more.
Black History Month at MCC is sponsored by the Office of Student Activities and the MCC Minority Caucus.
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