Women of Rubies
Author

Women of Rubies

Browsing
In Career Gems By

KIM KARDASHIAN AND PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP ANNOUNCES FURTHER CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM

Kim Kardashian has returned to the White House and stood alongside President Donald Trump as they announced further support for criminal justice reform.

Kim has made several visits to the highest office in US government, and returned on Thursday to announce a ride share partnership for former prisoners, who are given credit for car journeys to and from interviews.

‘Everyone wants the community to be safe, and the more opportunity we have and that they have and the support that we help give them, the safer everyone will be,’ she told reporters and guests, including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, in the East Room.

Earlier she took to Instagram to reveal she was ‘heading to the White House to speak at the second chance hiring and reentry event’.

She added that she was ‘honored to be a part of the announcement that the administration and the private sector are stepping up to create opportunities for these men and women to succeed once home’.

‘While I have been able to offer support to some of the individuals I have met, the obstacles to success are an everyday struggle for thousands and more needs to be done,’ she said.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Kim Kardashian West
The pair are advocating for justice reform (Picture: Getty)
Ivanka Trump and Kim Kardashian West
Kim sat with Trump’s daughter Ivanka (Picture: Getty)

In June 2018 Kim was part of a team who helped to convince the president to pardon 63-year-old grandmother Alice, who was put behind bars in 1997 on money laundering and drug conspiracy charges.

After Alice was reunited with her family, Kim said she couldn’t stop at just one inmate and is now fighting for the release of other inmates.

Credit: metro.co.uk

Photo Credits: Getty Images, BBC News

by
Keep Reading
In Career Gems By

ALABAMA SIGNS BILL INTO LAW THAT CHILD MOLESTERS SHOULD BE CHEMICALLY CASTRATED

(TRepublican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a bill into law Monday that will require some sex offenders to undergo chemical castration one month prior to being released from custody, and will also ensure that offenders have to foot the bill for the treatment.

Under the law, offenders “convicted of a sex offense involving a person under the age of 13” will have to be chemically castrated a month ahead of release and would also be required to continue treatment “until the court determines the treatment is no longer necessary.” Offenders would also have to pay for the procedure, but a denial of their parole could not be based “solely” on an inability to pay.

Chemical castration is defined in the law as “the receiving of medication, including, but not limited to, medroxyprogesterone acetate treatment or its chemical equivalent, that, among other things, reduces, inhibits, or blocks the production of testosterone, hormones, or other chemicals in a person’s body,” according to AL.com.

If a given offender chooses to halt the treatment, the move would be treated as a violation of parole, forcing the offender to resume their incarceration.

“This bill is a step toward protecting children in Alabama,” Ivey said. The bill was passed by both houses of the Alabama Legislature last month.

Credit: themindunleashed.com

by
Keep Reading
In self development By

80-YEAR-OLD GRANDMA GRADUATES FROM COLLEGE WITH ASSOCIATE’S DEGREE

Mrs. Beatrice Lillie, an 80-year old grandmother, has graduated college with an Associate’s degree in business management from Houston Community College’s Business Center of Excellence.

“I would not have believed it, I don’t think, although we can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us,” Lillie told KHOU 11.

Lillie successfully finished her degree after four years of hardwork and determination. She’s also grateful for her younger classmates that kept encouraging her and she inspired them too in return. She remembered them telling her, “I know I can do it, if you can do it.”

She said college has showed her a new perspective about arts and it taught her how to use technology. But before actually getting her first ever college degree in business, she already had a lot of business experiences. She was an owner of her own answering service even before voicemails and cellphones were used. She also served as a secretary in the Harris County Probation Department.

Lillie, who has now been volunteering at the Northeastern Houston Multi-Service Center, decided to go back to school despite her age after Pastor Maceo Dillard Jr. motivated her.

“I said ‘Go for it. You can’t win if you never try,’” said Dillard, who works with the seniors at the center. “It’’ important for people to keep going and engaging their minds, instead of just sitting back.”

Aside from that, Lillie particularly wanted to set an example to her children and grandchildren.

“If Grandma can do it, [they] can do it.”

Credit: Blacknews.com

by
Keep Reading
In Interviews&profile By

MEET TIERA GUINN, WHO IS ONLY 22 YEARS OLD AND ALREADY A NASA ENGINEER

Tiera Guinn Fletcher is an African American engineer who graduated from MIT in 2017 and works for Boeing. She is one of the designers and structural analysts building the Space Launch System for NASA which is set to send people to Mars.

Fletcher was born in the greater Atlanta area in Georgia. Her interest and attraction to math and science began at the age of six and was cultivated by her parents. Her mother Sheila, was an accountant and her father was a construction worker. Her parents encouraged her to calculate things and measure things in her daily life. These exercises – including coupon clipping, totaling up grocery receipts, and learning about the applications of architecture – challenged Fletcher and set her apart from other kids her age. At eleven years old, Fletcher zeroed in on her interest in Aerospace engineering while participating in an aerospace program put on by Lockheed Martin. Fletcher went on to study aerospace in college at MIT.

Fletcher lives in New Orleans, Louisiana where she works on the assembly of the Space Launch System. She was married in July 2018 to Myron Fletcher, another aerospace engineer who also works at Boeing. Both she and her husband share an interest in influencing young people to join the world of STEM along with increasing the diversity of STEM fields.

Fletcher attended Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia. During her senior year of high school, Fletcher received an internship at NASA in Langley, Virginia. She also landed a research internship at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2014. The internship involved assisting in the research of landing performance in aircraft. Through these internships her interest in the field grew and she solidified her choice in pursuing aerospace engineering as a major in college and an eventual career.

Fletcher attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and graduated with a 5.0 GPA and received her Bachelor’s of Science in Aerospace Engineering in June 2017. She participated in a mentorship program to help other students at MIT, this helped instil confidence in herself and her capabilities.

After her first year, Fletcher participated in undergraduate research studying design optimization of aircraft at MIT. Her second year, she again participated in undergraduate research, this time studying Network Analysis. During her junior and senior years of college, Fletcher participated in two different internships at Boeing. From June 2015 to June 2016 Fletcher was a Systems Engineering Intern at Boeing where she helped design, test, and collaborate with other professionals on Boeing products. The following year from June 2016 to June 2017 Fletcher was a Design engineer and Stress Analyst Intern at Boeing where she helped with the design process and analysis of the Space Launch System for NASA.

Fletcher was offered a job at Boeing as a Structural analysisEngineer. At Boeing, she is one of the lead engineers and designers working on the Space Launch System for NASA which aims to put humans on Mars. The Space Launch System is the fastest rocket ever created and the largest. The area that Fletcher works on is the exploratory upper stage of the spacecraft which helps the craft complete its ascent phase. She is part of the Engine Section Task Leading team responsible for this, of which she is the youngest member.

Fletcher received the 2017 Good Housekeeping‘s Awesome Woman Award which recognizes women who are impacting the world for the better by overcoming social constraints and influencing the world around them.

Also in 2017, Fletcher received the Albert G. Hill Prize at MIT which recognizes students in their junior or senior year who have excelled academically and impacted the environment at MIT in a way that improves campus climate for other minorities.

In June 2018, Fletcher participated as a keynote speaker at Impact’18 in Krakow – where speakers discuss innovations and business models to share with the world what work they are doing.

On November 8, 2018, Fletcher won the Most Promising Engineer – Industry Award at the 2019 Black Engineer of the Year Awards.

Source: Wikipedia

by
Keep Reading
In Career Gems By

MERCY JOHNSON SETS TO LAUNCH HER KITCHEN TALK SHOW

Nollywood star, Mercy Johnson Okojiewill be launching her new ‘kitchen talk show’ called Mercy’s Menu from July 2019 where she talks to fellow celebrities on their lifestyle, their opinion on life issues and their intimate secrets while cooking.

The 13-episode show features veteran Nollywood actress Liz Benson and other popular celebrities like AY, Chigul, Omawumi, Niniola, Ufuoma McDermott, Maraji, BusolaDakolo, Kemi ‘Lala’ Akindoju, Ill Bliss and Munachi, Lagos House Wife (Rayo) and of course, her beautiful family, Prince Odi Okojie, Purity, Henry and Angel.

Shot on location at Pedini Bosch Kitchen in 2018, Mercy roots out juicy information from her guests on family, work, scandal and some of the most challenging points of their lives.

The show promises to be exciting, funny and emotional.

See the photos below.

The show is produced by RealMJOTV and WildFlower Productions.

News Credit: Bella Naija

by
Keep Reading
In Career Gems By

NIGERIAN SINGER, ARAMIDE INDUCTED INTO GRAMMY’S ACADEMY RECORDING BOARD

Nigerian Afro-soul singer and songwriter, Aramide Sarumoh, has been appointed into the Washington DC’s chapter of the Recording Academy Board of Governors.

The singer who has been an active voting member of the Recording Academy for several years and previously served on the committees of the Academy took to her Instagram page to announce this major achievement.

She said, “I am proud to have been elected as Board of Governor and look forward to supporting the cause of the Recording Academy. “The Recording Academy plays a vital role in supporting and advocating for artists, producers, songwriters, and other professionals working in the music industry”.

Aramide shot into limelight in 2006 when she contested at Nigeria’s music talent hunt show, Star Quest, where her team came third.

In 2015, she won the award for the best female vocal performance at the Headies following the release of her first single, `Iwo Nikan’.

Credit: fabwoman.ng

by
Keep Reading
In Career Gems By

NASA RENAMES STREET FOR ‘HIDDEN’ BLACK WOMEN MATHEMATICIANS

Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson provided pivotal contributions to space flight research from the 1940s through to the 1960s, when the United States first sent men to orbit and then walk on the Moon.

Despite their achievements, all three had to confront the racial segregation of the era.

They were among dozens of African-Americans, both male and female, who worked as mathematicians and physicists for the US space program, even as they were forced to use separate bathrooms from whites, and were barred from the same restaurants and schools frequented by whites.

The trio’s work was largely forgotten until they were profiled in the book “Hidden Figures” decades later by author Margot Lee Shetterly, later adapted into the 2016 blockbuster of the same name.

Shetterly said the decision to ordain Hidden Figures Way honored “the contributions of unseen individuals who were there at the beginning of the story, and whose persistence and courage have delivered us to where we are today.”

“These female mathematicians were doing the heavy lifting in aeronautical research and many, many other fields long before those chunks of electronic circuitry became the defining feature of our life and work,” she said at a Wednesday ceremony outside NASA.

In 2015, Former US President Barack Obama gave Johnson, who is now 100, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.

Jackson and Vaughan died in 2005 and 2008 respectively.

NASA will next month celebrate the 50th anniversary of the successful Apollo 11 mission and humanity’s first Moon landing.

The agency last month announced its plan to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024 through its “Artemis” program — named for the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology.

Credit: pulse.ng

by
Keep Reading
In Career Gems By

NIGERIA’S CHIAMAKA NNADOZIE SETS RECORD AT THE WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

Yesterday, the Super Falcons won their first game at the 2019 Women’s World Cup. While that victory made Nigeria the first African country to win their second group game, Chiamaka Nnadozie also set a record as the youngest ever goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet in the competition.

(Photo: Brila)

Following Nigeria’s 3-0 loss to Norway in their first game, the coach, Thomas Dennerby, replaced Tochukwu Oluehi with Nnadozie for the second game. According to OptaJoe, the goalkeeper was 18 years and 186 days on the day Nigeria of the match.

Thankfully, the young goalkeeper delivered, making a number of crucial saves during the game. The only effort that would’ve ruined her record came when South Korea’s Lee Guemmin scored a goal, but it was instantly flagged an offside.

Given this performance, she’s sure to be part of the squad when Nigeria takes on France on Monday.

Credit: konbini.com

by
Keep Reading
In self development By

BELINDA BENNETT IS WORLD’S FIRST BLACK WOMAN TO BECOME A SHIP CAPTAIN

Presently, women make up 18 to 20 percent of the cruise ship workforce, with the first woman cruise ship captain not being appointed until 2007. Breaking the glass ceiling in this industry is Belinda Bennett, who is the World’s First Black woman cruise ship captain.

According to Forbes, Bennett has worked for the cruise line Windstar Cruises for 14 years. She came to the cruise ship line in 2005 and worked her way up from second officer, to chief officer to now captain, which is a position she was appointed to in 2016. Currently, she is captain of the MSY Wind Star and is in charge of sailing the ship through the Caribbean in the winter and Europe in the summer.

Growing up on a small island called St. Helena, which is between South America and South Africa, Bennett says she’s always had a love for the ocean. She started her career in the cruise ship industry at just 17 years old, working on the island’s local ship called RMS St. Helena. From there, she went on to train as a cadet and admits that her journey to moving up the ranks has been met with a lot of push back and hard work as a result of her gender and race. 

“Unfortunately, I had a rough start,” she says. “When I was training as a cadet, I sailed with the chief officers who made me work harder than the other guys. During your cadetship you’re starting out as a sailor, so you do every job that they do. I had a chief officer, unfortunately, who made me work later than the sailors, so they would knock off for the day, and I would be left outside continuing to work until it got dark.”

After working on a private yacht of Monaco for two years, Bennett went back to school to get her masters and then tried to work her way into the leadership ranks of the yachting industry. But, she was again met with barriers when she says an agent in Antibes sat her down and told her that finding a job in yachting would be hard because she is more educated than most of the captains, she’s a woman and she’s Black.

Using the criticism to find motivation for a different route, Bennett left the yacht industry and joined the cruise ship industry in 2005 when she landed a job with Windstar Cruises.

Most recently, Bennett’s work in the industry has led her to be awarded with the prestigious Merchant Navy Medal award for Meritorious Service in the U.K. While she says most of the career goals that she initially set for herself have been accomplished, she admits that getting to where she is today has not been an easy feat.

“Being a woman, you have to work extra hard to prove yourself – even more than a man,” she explains. “Some men might not like that, but that’s the way it is. I’m driven. I wanted to be captain, and so, I am.”

Credit: Becauseofthemwecan.com

by
Keep Reading
In Career Gems By

FEMALE LAWMAKER IN KENYA BEATEN UP BY HER MALE COLLEAGUE

The Kenyan police command has arrested a certain Rashid Kassim, a member of the Kenyan Parliament representing Wajir East for allegedly assaulting Wajir County Woman Representative, Fatuma Gedi.

According to reports, Fatuma Gedi, Wajir Woman Representative is said to have been beaten up on Thursday morning June by Rashid Amin in the parliament building. Gedi reportedly got into a heated discussion which led to the assault from the MP.

Reports have it that the MP demanded to know why Gedi, also a member of the budget committee, did not allocate any money to his Wajir East constituency.

Speaking on the incident, Gedi said;

“He called me stupid and nonsense and then he beat me. I was shocked, I could not believe it. He came again and hit me. I told him that Wajir County was only allocated Ksh100 million and we had to allocate money to only areas of priority to the region like water and roads but he told me that was nonsense,” she highlighted.

Gedi who was with the Home Bay Woman Representative when the assault occurred, had her story collaborated by the Home Bay Woman Representative

“They started to converse in Somali so I just stood by to wait for Gedi. A few minutes into the conversation I just saw him hitting Gedi on the cheek, she was crying and bleeding. I didn’t know what could lead to that. I was surprised that a colleague can assault a female member,” Wanga narrated.

Gedi was then taken to the Karen Hospital for treatment.

Credit: www.informationng.com

by
Keep Reading

©2025. WomenofRubies. All Rights Reserved.