The Women of Ground Zero

Soledad O'Brien in New York City taping a documentary on the women of Ground Zero. The special for CNN will air late summer prior to 9-11 10th anniversary.

Soledad with Michael Arad, who designed the 9-11 memorial.

Soledad O'Brien Speaks at Spelman College

Soledad O'Brien was the keynote speaker at Spelman College's 7th Annual 'Woman Of Color College Leadership Conference' awards dinner.

Women heard the edict: "put self first" to attain greater health, career success and overall well-being during the May 11–12 conference.

This year's conference theme, "Reset: Sustaining Women for 21st Century Leadership," offers best practices to help women achieve better personal and professional sustainability. Conference dialogue will address how society's assignment of gender roles on women.

Soledad O'Brien, CNN anchor and special correspondent, shared personal insight on how she sustains while covering world affairs, during her keynote speech at the Legacy of Leadership Awards dinner. This signature event will recognize outstanding women who have faithfully served our country in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The two-day conference was held at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis and at Spelman College.

www.spelmanwomenofcolorconf.com

O'Brien Headlines Women's Business Conference in Las Vegas

Soledad O'Brien will headline the Women's Business Enterprise National Council's (WBENC) 12th Annual National Conference and Business Fair – The Opportunity Connection – in Las Vegas, NV, on June 21-23, 2011.

The three-day event – the largest of its kind in the nation – is expected to convene over 3,000 corporations and women business owners seeking to acquire cutting-edge knowledge about business trends and marketplace demands that affect their industries and their companies.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien to Headline Women's Business Enterprise National Council 12th Annual National Conference & Business Fair in Las Vegas June 21-23 - Press Release - Digital Journal:

CNN’s Soledad O’Brien visits Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy

Soledad with seventh grade students

CNN anchor, special correspondent and author, Soledad O'Brien, visited with students at the Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy recently after giving the keynote address at the 2011 Odyssey Luncheon and Awards honoring local women and girls for accomplishments in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

O'Brien told the students she never took classes in journalism and started out focusing on pre-medical science, thinking she was going to be a doctor, while attending Harvard University.

Eventually deciding to focus her career on journalism, O'Brien found her first job combining the two backgrounds working with a medical reporter in television.

O'Brien spent time Tuesday afternoon dropping in to several classes throughout the school, stopping for longer question and answer visits with 6th, 9th and 10th grade classrooms.

The school's goal is to provide girls and young women in grades 6 to 10 with a rigorous college preparatory education focused on math, science, and technology in a supportive environment.The leadership academy is Tennessee's first and only all-girls, public charter school.

"Every day there are opportunities to do great things or to do miserable things. Do you want to be the person that does kind things today? You have to use your voice. That is leadership. Interviewing is a great skill no matter what you decide to do. You should ask people about their experiences so you can learn. Find people who inspire you, steal a little nugget of what they do, then move on."

O'Brien was in Chattanooga to present the 2011 Supernova Award at the Odyssey Luncheon to Dr. Cecelia Wigal, assistant dean in the college of engineering and computer science and professor of engineering at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
The inspiration for the Supernova award came from the Young Women's Leadership Academy Foundation work as the founding sponsor of the leadership academy, according to a press release. The Supernova recognizes the exceptional achievements of women working in the STEM career fields in Hamilton County.


CNN’s Soledad O’Brien visits Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy | Nooga.com

Soledad's Column in Latina Magazine

CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien has joined Latina magazine as a contributing editor with a quarterly magazine column highlighting the social and cultural issues affecting Latinos.

Her new column, Beyond the Numbers, debuts in the June-July 2011 issue.

Her first column explores education in the United States and profiles Maria Castro, a brilliant young Latina student who is smart, talented and ambitious - but still finds the educational system is failing her.

“To get into a good university,” she tells me earnestly, “I have to have taken—at a minimum—calculus.” Maria’s sights are set very high. Her first choice college is Stanford. “She’s an exemplary student. I am very proud,” her mother tells me in Spanish as I sit on the Castro front porch.

Although Latino students make up one-fifth of the school-age population in America and will be 30 percent of the national adult population by 2050, 2011only half of Maria’s Latino peers graduate on time. At her school, half of the students don’t pass Arizona’s proficiency exams, which means they don’t meet the bar for basic knowledge in math, reading and science."

Soledad, herself a Harvard graduate, most recently completed the CNN documentary Don’t Fail Me: Education in America which first aired May 15.

O'Brien's "Don't Fail Me" Education Documentatry

A number of readers of this blog - especially teachers - have written or commented that they would like to purchase a copy of the Don't Fail Me documentary to use. CNN does not generally make copies available and does not maintain an online archive of programs.

However, some of Soledad's previous documentaries, such as Black in America and Almighty Debt: A Black in America Special, have been made available as DVDs.

CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien reported on the human cost behind a crisis in public education, which has aligned business leaders and politicians concerned about American students not receiving the rigorous math and science education necessary to qualify them for the technology jobs that define the global 21st century marketplace.

In the special,  O’Brien follows a national high school robotics competition called FIRST to answer the questions about the future of education in this country and what is working. Tracking the progress of three teams from three different states across the country, she learns more about the success areas and the gaps in the nation’s preparation for future competitiveness.

Only 31 percent of American college students actually graduate in four years, and the most recent international tests ranked U.S. high school students at 17 in the world in science and 20 in math.

Don't Fail Me  is part of the network's continuing "In America" series.

 

O'Brien at Newark Peace Education Summit

Soledad O'Brien spoke and hosted a panel at last week's Newark Peace Education Summit in New Jersey. The Summit was a three-day conference focusing on peacemaking practices from around the world. The conference was structured as a comprehensive, exploration of the many aspects of peacemaking, beginning with the practices of finding peace within the self, then subsequently radiating outward to peace within the home, peace through education, peace in the community, the world and the planet.

Large-scale panel discussions broke into practical workshops for further exploration of the various topics discussed.

In an interview on beliefnet.com, Soledad said:

I was thrilled to be asked. Anything with the Dalai Lama attending and someone like Mayor Corey Booker – sort of a nice group of people to be asked to participate with. The connection is our new documentary, Don't Fail Me, which takes a look at the crisis of education in America. 

Her own educational background has had a huge impact on her life's work. Her mother and father were both teachers who valued education. Soledad and her siblings attended Harvard.

I went to high school and then on to college, but a lot of my job is about being educated. It’s about reading, learning and discovering new things. The only way to get new experiences and to grow is to be educated by exposure. It’s so crucial. The more you can be exposed and the more you can be educated, the more you see opportunity in your life and the more you see chances to do something else and different versions of what an end outcome can be. All those things lead to more peaceful solutions. People who are desperate and hopeless look at violence as the way out, and I think anybody who sees opportunity doesn’t.

Most of Soledad's work for CNN the past few years has been in "educational" documentaries. She says that though the Black in America on CNN touched a lot of people, she realized that " We had just scratched the surface. There were dozens and dozens of great stories to tell. We discovered we should be doing this all the time."

CNN's  "In America" series has continued and will be looking at women who were rescue workers in 9/11, miners in West Virginia, Latinos and profiles of other groups.

Speakers at the Newark Summit included Nobel Peace Laureates, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights advocate, Jody Williams, the American anti-landmine activist, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Martin Luther King III, Robert Thurman, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Goldie Hawn, Soledad O’Brien, Ed Norton, Donna Karan, Van Jones, Jeffrey Sachs, Majora Carter, the Kogui Shaman of Columbia, South America, Somaly Mam, Cameron Sinclair, Russell Simmons and may more distinguished peace advocates from a wide cross section of cultures, disciplines and perspectives.

The event was held at the NJPAC (New Jersey Performing Arts Center) in Newark, New Jersey, May 13-15, 2011.

CNN's Don't Fail Me Will Reair May 21

Soledad O'Brien's latest CNN documentary, Don't Fail Me, will be rebroadcast on May 21 at 8 EDT.  The special is part of the network's continuing "In America" series.

Soledad O'Brien TV Pilot?

According to the NYPOST.com

"...CNN shot a new pilot with Soledad O'Brien after a failed attempt, Inside Cable News posted details of the second go-round. The Web site described a contentious phone interview with Donald Trump in which O'Brien challenged his 'birther' allegations against President Obama. Trump quickly changed the topic to China, but O'Brien countered that China wasn't the reason people are supporting Trump in the polls. Then came a segment with Kimora Lee Simmons and Dr. Drew Pinsky on padded bikinis and makeup for 8-year-olds and a roundtable finale of 'middle-aged royal wedding groupies.' Fun! CNN declined to comment."

Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC

On April 26, 2011 CBS’s Julie Chen was in New York being honored with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC Communications Award. CNN’s Soledad O’Brien was the Mistress of Ceremonies at the 32nd annual Sidewalks of New York Awards Dinner at The Waldorf-Astoria.

blacktiemagazine.com/society_2011_may/BBBS_32nd_Annual_Sidewalks_of_NY_Dinner.htm

O'Brien Speaks at Kent State

Kent State University hosted an evening with CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O'Brien on March 10 in the Kent Student Center Ballroom.

Danya Rhodes, event programmer for Kent State's Black United Students, said O'Brien's speech will be valuable to both the general public and the university community.

'O'Brien is the host of CNN's 'Black in America' series,' Rhodes said.

'We believe it is important for the students of Kent State to learn firsthand of her perspective on the series, as well as the issues prominent in our society.'

O'Brien is the anchor for 'CNN: Special Investigations Unit' and has covered global news such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 South Asian tsunami and the war in Iraq.

O'Brien is recognized as an award-winning newscaster, receiving a Gracie Allen Award for her 2007 coverage of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, and the George Foster Peabody Award and Alfred I. DuPont Award for team coverage with CNN.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien to speak at Kent State | Call & Post

     

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