My favorite tool to get the job done editing!

This is my start to shooting Beauty. Shooting it is not hard but it’s not easy. The bulk of the difficulty is in the editing.

Overview of The Freckle Face Project

The Freckle Face Project was designed to exhibit the beauty of freckles and what it means to be beautiful and different. The exhibit features 10 models that all have freckles on their face and captures the exquisiteness of a feature that everyone doesn’t have.

“The turnout was more than I expected,” said College Fair Volunteer Loni Holcomb, “People were lined up at the door at 9AM ready to get inside.”  The steady flow of students and parents helped to keep the momentum of the event going strong all day.  Several groups of students and parents traveled over an hour from different parts of the state to participate in the college fair.  When asked about their trip one student said, “It was well worth the drive.”

The economy has everyone worried, especially parents who have children that are looking to attend college.  Many of them are wondering how they are going to pay for school and what type of scholarships and programs are available to help their children get into school.  Most of their questions were answered at the college fair throughout the various workshops that took place during the event.  The free workshops, which were open to students and parents, varied in topics from; College Readiness to Being Your B.E.S.T., Picking the Right School, Getting Involved on Campus, and The ACTs of Preparing for School.  In addition to the workshops, students and parents were entertained by music from DJ D Boogie and The Big Man Konata from Power 107.5 FM who served as the host MC for the day.  Participants were also awarded with wonderful door prizes ranging from gift baskets from Glory Foods, free meals from Chick-Fil-A, college gift basket from HBCUConnect.com, a digital camera and $25 gift card from Big Lots and more.

“This is such a wonderful event,” said Janet Williams, a native of Columbus who is the mother of two teenage daughters. “I brought my girls here last year and I wanted to bring them back again so that they can continue to learn more about these schools.  I didn’t go to an HBCU, but I am encouraging my children to take the journey that I missed out on.  They are already talking about attending Spelman, Hampton or Howard.  Who knows, maybe they can go to all three!”

The significant growth in attendance over the past two years is a clear indicator that there is a great need for such an event.  The founders of the Ohio HBCU College Fair, Ray Miller III and Elynor Moss, have decided to add another component to the brand by introducing a step show in the winter of 2011.  “The purpose of this step show is to further expose young people to the culture and lifestyle of college life, especially on the campuses of our HBCUs,” said Miller. “This event will also become a major fundraiser for our annual college fair so that we can expand our event and eventually offer scholarships to students to help them attend school.  One of the major factors that prevent young people from attending college is finances and if we can do anything to make that part easier, then we have done our job.”

The official date, time and location of the step show is to be determined, however, their goal is to kick-it off in February of 2011, during Black History Month.  More information will be available on the website (www.hbcucollegefair.com) over the next couple of months.  Traditionally, step shows are one of the major cultural events of HBCUs that are used to raise money and awareness for their schools.  In addition, the competition between Black Greek organizations creates a healthy competition of groups who are trying to win a prize and title as the best step team in their region or area.

The future of the Ohio HBCU College Fair seems to be on the right track.  With the addition of the step show, the group plans to increase their outreach and build upon their momentum and hopefully expand their reach into other cities such as Cleveland and Cincinnati.  “The ultimate goal is to make Ohio into an HBCU recruiting gold mine,” said Co-Founder Elynor Moss. “No matter what, as long as our HBCUs are standing, there will always be a need for an HBCU College Fair and we will be there to make it happen!”

To see pictures and video from the 2nd Annual Central Ohio HBCU College Fair, visit http://hbcucollegefair.com/