ThinkCOLLEGE Center @ Freedom

Friday, July 18 will go down as a historic milestone for Freedom Regional Library as it marks the date that Communities in Schools relocated the ThinkCOLLEGE Center to the Freedom corridor. Nicole Martinez, ThinkCOLLEGE Coordinator, set up her new office today and library staff are extremely excited about all the new collaborative opportunities that await this fall when school starts back up in August. ThinkCOLLEGE will offer their full array of resources to the community and the students from area schools including:

• Guidance on prospective careers
• Choosing colleges
• Finding scholarships and navigating the financial aid process

ThinkCOLLEGE @ Freedom is a huge win-win for the community, Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology and Harding University High, PLCMC and Communities in Schools during the 2008-2009 Academic Year and for many more years to come!

Adrena Ifill visits Freedom Regional

On February 26^th, Freedom Regional Library culminated our month-long celebration of Black History Month with a visit from award-winning documentary director Adrena Ifill. Ms. Ifill traveled to Charlotte from her home in Washington D.C. for her presentation to students from Philip O Berry high school and other members of the library community.


As a child, Adrena Ifill always looked forward to watching the “Eyes on the Prize” documentary every February. Her own curiosity and her parents’ guidance instilled a deep love of history in her, and eventually inspired her to become a documentarian herself. She created DoubleBack Productions to bring life to the little-known stories of people of African descent. Ms. Ifill is a graduate of the competitive Documentarey Center of George Washington University in Washington D.C., and has earned her MBA Howard University, as well as a B.A. from Williams College.

Attendees of the program had the pleasure of viewing Ms. Ifill’s latest documentary, the 19^th century rags-to-riches story of congressman Robert Smalls who went from slave to Civil War hero and master politician in South Carolina. This documentary, 10 years in the making, features interviews with several descendants of Congressman Smalls as well as scholars and historians from South Carolina, and was voted Best Documentary in 2007 by the Arizona Black Film Showcase.

Prior to the program, not one student out of the thirty in attendance had ever heard of Congressman Smalls. Following the viewing, Ms. Ifill shared stories of her inspiration and educated the students on how to conduct interviews and do research. There was also a short Q&A session where students and community members were able to ask Ms. Ifill questions about her documentary and career.

Special thanks to Ms. Harris for bringing her English History class and to the school administrators, Dr. Barnes, Principal Fennoy and Media Specialist Naima Hakim for their support in making this a successful event for the students and for encouraging student participation.

Literary Adventure with Cherokee Elder - Myrtle Driver

Every year CMS and the Public Library collaborate to offer the Literary Adventure, a highly successful component of the Library's Novello Festival of Reading where renowned children's book writers and illustrators visit with students in CMS schools. One of the featured authors this year is Charles Frazier, who spoke about his latest work Thirteen Moons. Cherokee Elder Myrtle Driver is translating Frazier’s book into the Cherokee language. On October 11th high school students from Phillip O. Berry were entralled by her presentation about Cherokee culture, history and the Cherokee language.

Ms. Driver provided the students with a rare glimpse into the mind of a native American from the sovereign Cherokee nation.