IN THIS EPISODE:
- The Halliburton Charitable Foundation has been helping others for 30 years.
- Ruth Simmons discusses her new autobiography, and how she became the first African American president of an Ivy League University.
- A Houstonian is also fostering students love for reading in Ghana.
Watch Houston Newsmakers on KPRC 2 and KPRC 2+ at 10 a.m.
Halliburton Charitable Foundation celebrates 30 years of giving
Lisa Modica is the President of the Halliburton Charitable Foundation and says this year’s check of almost $4 million was split among more than 90 charities, several of them receiving checks of $50,000 each! The Be An Angel Fund was one of those nonprofits.
“We’ve been serving special needs children in Houston, and now, throughout the state now for the last 10 years,” said Marti Boone, the Executive Director of the Be Angel Fund. “And, we provide adaptive equipment, and hearing aids, and wheelchairs, and anything that a child or the family cannot afford through Medicaid or insurance.”
Boone said the Halliburton application process was quite thorough, and the organization is putting the money to good use immediately!
Ruth Simmons writes autobiography dedicated to students
The book is titled “Up Home, One Girl’s Journey,” and is the improbable story about the youngest of 12 children who grew up in a shack of a house in the 1940s in segregated Texas. Ruth Simmons, Ph.D., went on to become the first African American president of an Ivy League University and two more colleges before retiring earlier this year. Simmons says this book is for students, who need to understand that challenges and setbacks can turn into opportunities. She says one of the keys to success (and she certainly has achieved plenty) is to be receptive to help.
“You have to be open to people entering your life and giving you the benefit of their knowledge and their gifts,” she said. “I had teachers who stepped onto my path and, knowing that I was very poor, just made things happen for me.”
Also this week please watch NEWSMAKERS EXTRA WITH SIMMONS as she talks more about the unique challenges she faced while growing up and about the state of college campuses today.
Vision leads to library in Ghana
Alice Otchere didn’t grow up in Houston wanting to start a library in Ghana but after a trip to the country several years ago, the visionary seed was planted. She said she formed a nonprofit in order to raise the funds to make her vision a reality. Literacy for Life was founded and now several years later, the library has been built and the country of Ghana has bought in big time. “The education system offered us a librarian as part of their support for the nonprofit Literacy for Life, and the librarian came and did library training for all the classes from the school for two weeks solid,” Otchere said.
Find out how you can support this library and Literacy for Life in the information below
For more information on this week’s Houston Newsmakers
· Lisa Modica, President, Halliburton Charitable Foundation
· Website: https://www.halliburton.com/en/about-us/serving-communities/halliburton-foundation-granting-programs
· Marti Boone, Executive Director, Be An Angel Fund, Inc.
· Website: https://beanangel.org/
· Ruth Simmons, Ph.D. Author, Up Home, One Girl’s Journey
· Website: https://www.dallasfed.org/fed/bod/simmons
Website: https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/08/29/ruth-simmons-brown-memoir-review/
· Alice Otchere, Founder, Literacy for Life
· Website: https://literatelife.org/