Happy Monday! I know most of us are still recovering from the amazing 10 day festival, Digital Capital Week. I can’t believe how most of us kept going like the Energizer Bunny, partying hard from Sunday to Sunday! I hope you all had a great time, but I need your energy again this week.

Please come out this Wednesday (June 23) and support this great cause. Social Good (#socialgood), right?? Let’s do this! Gia love the chi’lin (children) and I hope you do too!

(information courtesy of www.adivastateofmind.com)

Capital Partners for Education provides DC youth with private high school scholarships, adult mentors and academic support services for all four years of high school.  In CPE’s 17-year history, the organization has helped nearly 400 students get on a path towards college. Without the support from CPE, many of these students’ talents would be unrealized. Our students face numerous obstacles on their path to college, including limited family income, unsafe neighborhoods, and a lack of positive role models.

Despite these challenges, our students are earning academic distinction, giving back to their communities through service and most importantly and are becoming the first in their families to attend college. Not only do 99% of all CPE graduates enroll in college, they graduate college at 5.3 times the rate of their DC public school counterparts.

Please join me at the Mix It Up Fundraiser Happy Hour at Midtown Loft on June 23rd from 6:30 – 8:30 pm.

Ticket price includes top shelf open bar, hors d’oeuvres and great raffle prizes. Contributions are tax deductible.

$50 – Sponsor (1 raffle ticket) : Sponsors the cost of one CPE student’s
participation in our Career Pathways program for one year

$75 – Cum Laude(5 raffle tickets) : Sponsors a CPE mentor/mentee match for one
year

$150 – Magna Cum Laude (10 raffle tickets) : Sponsors the cost of textbooks and
uniforms for a CPE student who could otherwise not afford them

$200 – Summa Cum Laude (15 raffle tickets) : Fulfills an Emergency Fund Request
to cover school-related expenses for a CPE family experiencing temporary
financial insecurity

To purchase tickets to the event, please visit http://bit.ly/mixitup
Designation: Mix It Up Event

You can also find out more information about the organization, the event and ways to donate on CPE’s website: www.cpfe.org.

By supporting CPE, you can help us continue to provide life changing opportunities to motivated, !low-income students who would likely not graduate and enroll in college if not for our program’s support. I hope you and your friends make it!!!

I hope to see you all there!!!

Midtown Loft
1219 Connecticut Avenue NW Washington, DC

If you can’t purchase tickets in advance, they are available at the door for $55 and include top shelf open bar and hors d’oeuvres

I am just tickled for being able to help bosslady (Amanda Miller Littlejohn) and Margie Newman (Flack Rabbit) with this event in such a short amount of time. We had a very nice crowd show up with attendees from USATODAY, Washington Post, TBD, and even a young lady who just moved to DC less than a week ago from Canada (she found us on Google, lol). We took over the patio at Corner Bakery Cafe, mingling, laughing and sharing our DCWeek event stories. I want to thank everyone who came out and supported the event. We hope the coffee helped to continue on with the evening events for DCWeek. Yay!

Check out the pictures here.

-Ms. Parker
My Motto: People Helping People

DCWeek's Media Day 2.0

There’s nothing better than sitting in an auditorium filled with hungry, innovative minds. Each mind coming with some type of purpose: to be inspired, to learn more, to share their thoughts, to share their frustrations, or to seek some type of common ground in technology. DCWeek’s Media Day 2.0 brought all that and then some this past Tuesday (June 15).

The morning kicked off with a great session: Social and Traditional Media: How News and Media Organizations are Getting Social and Why They Need To Do It. From personal conversations, this session seemed to be the attendees’ top favorite for the day.

Panelists included: Andy Carvin – Senior Strategist for National Public Radio’s Social Media Desk,  Robert Michael Murray – VP of Social Media for National Geographic,  Benet Wilson – Online Managing Editor for Aviation Week’s Business Aviation and Co-Chair of the National Association for Black Journalist’s Digital Journalism Task Force USA, USA TODAY, and Brian Dresher- Manager of Social Media and Digital Partnerships for USA TODAY. The panelists definitely brought their A-Game and moderator, Carlos Roig, VP of Digital Media Strategy at Home Front Communications did an excellent job keeping the flow of conversations consistent and interesting.

Online Managing Editor for Aviation Week and Co-Chair of the National Association for Black Journalist's Digital Journalism Task Force USA, Benet Wilson

Online Managing Editor for Aviation Week and Co-Chair of the National Association for Black Journalist’s Digital Journalism Task Force USA, Benet Wilson (@AVWeekBenet), took the time to speak with me about the future of employment within media and journalism. She was a pleasure to speak with.

“We really don’t need to be sitting at our desks anymore. I told my boss that all I need is my laptop, mobile phone, and I can cover a story anywhere,” says Wilson.

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