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The RACP grant marks next step in university’s successful transformational efforts to attract science-based companies to campus, bringing innovation, revenue, and paid student internships  

CHEYNEY, PA – Cheyney University of Pennsylvania’s plans to serve as a regional bioscience innovation center for private companies has received a major boost – a $5 million grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The “ThinkUbator” will extend the model Cheyney has been building since 2017 with life science companies moving their operations to campus. Most of those companies operate in the university’s Science Center, providing a revenue stream to the school and paid internship opportunities for Cheyney students who work for these on-campus companies.

The ThinkUbator, which will be built out in a 70,000-square-foot building, is designed by Integrated Project Services, LLC (IPS), the same company that built Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID vaccine labs. The four-sided building with an open middle sets up perfectly for lab space and will accommodate the needs of a wide range of companies from small start-ups to larger companies that have the need for greater space.

The building will allow small businesses to incubate new programs and work with other like-minded scientists in a communal space.

“The companies already operating on our campus working with our student interns provided proof that our concept works for all parties, the university, the students and the businesses,” said Cheyney President Aaron A. Walton. “The businesses we have brought onto our campus and into our lab space have a real interest in being here. This grant from the Wolf administration gives us a major spark to continue to expand on that model in a more robust way. The financial commitment on the part of the Governor Wolf, US Senator Bob Casey, State Senator Vincent Hughes, and other supporters is greatly appreciated.”

“As America’s first historically Black university, Cheyney has a long history of supporting determined, innovative students and putting them on the path to a brighter future,” Governor Wolf said. “The ThinkUbator is helping to bring the life sciences community to Cheyney’s campus, through partnerships that will advance groundbreaking research while also helping to train a new generation of life science leaders and innovators.”

The Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant, along with an additional $400,000 in federal appropriations funding advanced by Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Bob Casey’s office, will go toward building the first phase of the project, which will cost $10-$11 million. Mosaic Development Partners, the Philadelphia-based African American-owned real estate development company which has helped guide Cheyney’s campus transformational efforts over the past three years, is leading the effort.

“We believe we can build the most diverse pipeline of student talent available for companies in the greater Philadelphia region that are looking for science-based students that have real-life experience,” said Mosaic Principal and Managing Member Greg Reaves. “These students are, and will be, working side-by-side with great technicians, scientists and physicians. We want them to get hands-on experiences while they’re in school.”

The Chester County Economic Development Council (CCEDC) has also played a major supporting role on moving this project forward and will be helping with a significant portion of the financing.

“CCEDC and Cheyney University have been longtime partners, so establishing the university as a center for life sciences innovation through the ThinkUbator is an exciting next chapter,” said Patrick Hayakawa, CCEDC’s Vice President of Innovation & Marketing. “We see a rising need in the region for wet labs, space for young companies to grow and collaborate, and for life sciences workforce development. The ThinkUbator addresses all these components and brings high-quality jobs and training opportunities to the county. To have it housed at the nation’s first HBCU makes this project even more unique and impactful.”

The project will renovate the building’s infrastructure including the HVAC system, increased electrical capacity, plumbing, and new windows. The interior space will be renovated into bench space (the space where work is prepped, experiments take place, readings are taken, and lab equipment is stored and used), wet labs (labs with sinks), a training facility, and cold and dry storage. Special equipment and casement will also be installed. This will allow the ThinkUbator to offer biologics, cell, and gene therapy companies the opportunity to pursue their science in a campus setting.

IPS, one of the world’s top lab designers, developed the idea for the ThinkUbator before the original COVID outbreak, but put the project on hold until after it became clear people would again be willing to work together in person, notwithstanding the current temporary surge from the Omicron variant.

Thomas Piombino, IPS’s Vice President and Biotechnology Process Architect, said for him as a Chester County native and his company, taking on this project is part of their mission.

“We want to develop an ecosystem that promotes entrepreneurs that are minority, or not, and can use the student population to grow their business,” Piombino said. “We are positioning the building to accommodate a company that needs a whole lab and wants that autonomy where there’s not a company right next to them doing similar work, and we want to also be able to rent a lab bench or two. We also want to attract companies that aren’t even at the bench yet. These could be start-ups that have a great idea and maybe some foundational science or a service to offer the life sciences industry and need space to incubate their company.”

Cheyney’s 275-acre campus sits amid a beautiful area on the Chester-Delaware County border. The university’s model monetizes that real estate by appealing to companies who prefer to operate in this kind of a setting and with motivated students available to help them build on their ideas. Cheyney has intentionally attracted science and math students, projecting that within two years 30 percent of all students will be STEM majors.

Another partner in this venture is CBS BioPharma, a Philadelphia pharmaceutical and biotech company that has been instrumental is creating Cheyney’s academic partnership with the Wistar Institute life sciences program.

The company will open a pilot plant as a contract manufacturer to support start-up biotech companies or companies with products at the end if their lifecycle to scale up or scale down production.

“There has always been a gap in minority representation in the biotech-life sciences field,” said CBS BioPharma Managing Partner Calvin R. Snowden Jr. “By launching this ThinkUbator at Cheyney and having these companies on campus, my hope is not only that these companies thrive but also that it leads to opportunities in the industry.”

President Walton believes that making Cheyney a regional bioscience center will help the university grow its student body from its current enrollment of about 650 and continue to attract high achieving students. He also said recruiting for businesses will continue during construction.

“We already have the interest. We just don’t have the space,” Walton said. “There are a number of businesses that would prefer not to go into a large city, and so we want have a home for them. We don’t want them to leave the state or this area. We offer an alternative where they can do the work they want to do where they want to be. So why not do it at an intimate college campus like Cheyney?”

Mosaic’s Reaves said construction should begin in the coming months.

“Given the urgency around life sciences, we should have the first phase done in 2023,” he said. “The additional phases will follow as we generate more interest and financing.”

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Cheyney University provides many benefits and opportunities to its students to learn, grow academically and envision prosperous careers for themselves. Among those opportunities is the chance for STEM students to participate in paid internships in the different science and technology companies based on the university’s sprawling campus.

Sophomore Kishore Owusu is one of those students. A major in biology with a concentration in pre-med, he is a member of the STEM Club, a student trustee and an intern at the ASI Chemicals facility. ASI Chemicals is a startup company that manufactures chemicals for pharmaceutical products. Kishore said he’s been given a unique opportunity that affords him real life experience in the sciences and broadens his view of his chosen career trajectory.

His path to an internship started through a mix of networking and being part of a cohort of students helping in the different labs, which includes the STEM Club. He would help organize the labs and keep them orderly and often hung out in the Science Center, talking to different professors.

“That’s how they came to know my name,” said Owusu. “One day Ms. Atkins (Vanessa Atkins, Director of the Life Sciences and Technology Hub) asked if I knew of anyone who might be interested in working as an intern for ASI. I didn’t think it was for me, but at the time I had misconceptions about organic chemicals. I thought it would be very hard, so I gave her someone else’s name. She asked me why was I offering the position to someone else? So, I put myself in the running.”

Owusu said ASI provided him with several shadowing sessions and then offered him an internship for the semester.

“What I’m doing is not what you would expect an intern to do,” he said. “I’m doing chemical analyses, helping to synthesize organic compounds and molecules, and running through different chemical reactions. It’s very involved and detailed. It’s not every day that a student is working with a company that’s making real products and moving that production process along. I have the title of intern, but what I’m doing is exactly what the staff does every day.”

ASI Chemicals launched its operations in the university’s Science Center in 2020. It is part of the growing list of corporate partners that have set up shop on the campus.

Rich Tyburski, president of ASI Chemicals, said when the company was looking for lab space, he knew Cheyney was the right fit for a home base. ASI was formed by two principals formerly with IsoSciences. Tyburski said they were looking for students seeking a science degree to intern with them but also students who may be interested in seeking business or marketing degrees.

He also said he recognized early in their relationship that Kishore was perfect for the intern position.

“I started as an intern for a company right before my junior year at Villanova University, which was how I got my first job,” said Tyburski. “That company hired me as an entry-level scientist, and I worked my way up. There’s nothing like getting that real-world experience and that’s what we’re doing for Cheyney’s students.

Tyburski continued, “Kishore jumped right in, which was unusual because our work can seem a little daunting, but he picked up things quickly. We give students hands on experience with the technology to learn what a career in this business is like. You could definitely say he’s raised the bar.”

Owusu’s first visit to the campus was when his older brother Samuel graduated. Kishore said he was proud and inspired by his brother who was valedictorian that year and went on to study medicine at Morehouse College. He said if he were talking to a high school student thinking about higher education, he would definitely recommend Cheyney.

“I had the opportunity to see the campus and the way the students and faculty were so enthusiastic about education. I also knew the history of the university and that made me realize I wanted to be here,” he said. “There are a lot of great programs and opportunities at Cheyney that people who don’t choose this school overlook. As a student trustee, I understand a little more than most of how President (Aaron) Walton has rebuilt Cheyney. The university would not be expanding and growing the way it is without him; I’m so grateful for him and proud to be a part of this university.”

At a press conference Tuesday, officials unveiled the high-performance liquid chromatography, or HPLC, instrument donated by Waters Corp., a 7,800-employee analytical research company based in Massachusetts with offices in Collegeville.

The company is also providing scholarship awards for two students to conduct their research projects on campus at the school’s nine-year-old science center.

The HPLC separates substances, breaking them down to the molecular level, and then analyzing them for use in the food and medical industries.

Cheyney President Aaron Walton said the gift showed the positive results of the public-private partnership that the university began pursuing four years ago.

“In our new model, private companies locate their businesses on our campus — that brings paid internships to our students and much needed revenue to the university,” said Walton. “For our partner companies, the model provides modern, affordable facilities for their operations and a ready pool for their intern talent.”

Six companies have moved onto the campus and Walton said they have room for more.

ASI Chemicals, a biotech company, is one of those companies. Their staff assisted students in preparing proposals to use the HPLC in support of their research.

Youheng Shu, vice-president of ASI, said the move to Cheyney gave the company a jump start when they arrived in January 2020, just weeks ahead of the COVID-19 shutdown.

Despite the pandemic, the university helped them survive and in return his firm has been able to help students in their labs.

“ASI helps the student gain real hands-on experience in our lab,” Shu said. “We are very glad to have Cheyney as our partner and I am very confident it will be much more fruitful in years to come and we welcome more students to take the internship.”

Companies calling Cheyney home include: Navrogen, Sure-Biochem Laboratories, Epcot Crenshaw, Herban Farms and Mosaic Development Partners.

American Additive Manufacturing and Advanced Alchemy Labs are expected to move to campus soon, officials said.

“Our job is to prepare Cheyney students for 21st-century jobs, including in fields in which Black and brown people are severely underrepresented,” Walton said. “With our on-campus private industry partners like ASI and this new relationship with Waters, we are again demonstrating how our public-private model is benefiting our university, our students, and the companies with which we collaborate.”

He also noted that in the past four years, Cheyney has doubled the percentage of students majoring in STEM.

The HPLC gift is part of Waters’ Kory Morrow Research Award, named for a Waters principal systems specialist who died unexpectedly in 2020. Not long before his death, Morrow, a graduate of Tuskegee University, began a program extending opportunities to people of color, focused in the STEM fields at Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the country.

“We know there is a wealth of up-and-coming scientific talent at Cheyney,” said Julius Aguila, Waters Corp. director of services, East Region. “We’d like to help develop skills and interests in analytical sciences through the use of technology such as the HPLC instrument.”

Aguila said analytical research is the foundation of all science and it involves the early stage development and quality control of food and medicine that assures purity, efficacy and safety of products.

He said the use of the HPLC gives students analytical experience which will help them in their education and careers going forward.

Part of the donation from Waters includes scholarships and two students receiving those awards were on hand to discuss the research they have been doing with the new equipment.

Zainab Sulaiman, a senior biology major at Cheyney, is using the HPLC to measure perception versus reality in the concentration of capsaicin, the active component in chili peppers.

“I’m a pepper lover so the outcome of this project, to see what really makes peppers hot, holds great interest for me,” said Sulaiman, who plans to go on to medical school and eventually become a surgeon. “I am so grateful for this opportunity to conduct research with this technology.”

Sophomore Kishore Owusu is working with the HPLC to research vitamin D metabolites.

“There are many forms of vitamin D. I’m trying to make a method using the HPLC to separate all of them,” Owusu said, when asked to describe his work in the simplest terms. “I’m trying to make it as efficient and effective as possible.”

Owusu said the HPLC system is commonly used in clinics and science and having the chance to use it at Cheyney will give him lab experience needed to stand out.

Two other schools received similar awards — Delaware State University and Clark-Atlanta University.  Students from the three universities will present their findings at a Waters virtual symposium in June.

By PETE BANNAN | Pbannan@Mainlinemedianews.com | Daily Local News

By Johann Calhoun

Joyce Abbott always wanted to be a teacher.

For the Hamilton Elementary School educator, who is the namesake of the hit show “Abbott Elementary,” the road to becoming a teacher took some turns, but ultimately hit pay dirt at Cheyney University outside Philadelphia.

“A lot of people don’t know, but I did my undergrad studying business and economics, because I thought that was something I really wanted to do at that time,” she said. “But the love for teaching has always been a part of my life with my family.”

Abbott attributes her success as a teacher to the small classes, student collaboration, and strong professors at the university, which celebrated the 185th anniversary of its founding last week.

The oldest historically Black college, or HBCU, in the country, Cheyney is looking to rebuild the university’s legacy of producing teachers like Abbott at a time when many are leaving the profession. University leaders are also looking to improve teacher diversity numbers, as white teachers still account for the majority of U.S. teachers. According to a recent report from the Pew Research Center, about 79% of U.S. public school teachers are white; Black teachers accounted for about 7% of the country’s teaching force, while Latino teachers accounted for 9%, and Asian American teachers 2%.

The Philadelphia school district has struggled with recruiting and retaining teachers of color and also has seen a midyear surge of teacher resignations. In the city’s district schools, about 24% of teachers are Black, but the district is predominantly Black and Latino.

Abbott returned to Cheyney after serving in the military and attended the school’s graduate program for elementary education. She will retire at the end of this school year after teaching for 40 years.

“I will tell you a lot of the stronger teachers in Philadelphia obtained their education degree from Cheyney,” Abbott said. “They would go into schools and just be phenomenal. And that was a direct result of the instruction and training they received from Cheyney.”

Cheyney was founded by Quaker philanthropist Richard Humphreys in 1837 as the African Institute and later renamed the Philadelphia Institute for Colored Youth. Training Black teachers became the foundation of the school’s success.

When the institute opened its doors, it became the first high school for Black people in the U.S. — 28 years before the Thirteenth Amendment was adopted to officially abolish slavery, freeing more than 3.9 million enslaved Black people. In its mission, Humphreys called for the school “to instruct the descendants of the African race in school learning, in the various branches of the mechanic arts, trades and agriculture, in order to prepare and fit and qualify them to act as teachers.”

The school’s first location stood at Seventh and Lombard streets in South Philadelphia, then it moved to a larger building at Ninth and Bainbridge streets in what is known as the Samuel J. Randall School. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

One of the most famous figures associated with the early years of the institute is Fanny Coppin, a former slave who became a principal and was credited with advancing the school’s curriculum. Last year, the city’s Board of Education renamed Andrew Jackson Elementary School in South Philadelphia after Coppin, who is also the namesake of Coppin State University, an HBCU in Baltimore.

The institute also is mentioned on HBO’s “The Gilded Age” – Peggy Scott, a lead Black character, tells white observers who are fascinated by her advanced writing skills that she is a graduate of the institute in Philadelphia.

The university got its name after moving in 1902 to a farm named after another Quaker George Cheyney. It was renamed the Cheyney Training School for Teachers in 1914 and then Cheyney State Teachers College in 1951, a reflection of its focus on educating future teachers. During this time the majority of the university’s graduates studied education and went on to be teachers in nearby cities like Baltimore, New York City and Philadelphia.

“Cheyney became the option, the place to go for Blacks to have undergraduate and graduate education,” said Robert W. Bogle, a Cheyney graduate and member of the State Board of Governors, which oversees Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education that consists of 14 colleges and universities including Cheyney.

“Our sister institutions did not want Black students at their schools,” Bogle said. “Being a teacher became a profession needed for our community but desperately needed to prepare African American or Black children, and Cheyney was the largest of its kind in preparing teachers, particularly for the Philadelphia public school system, which was growing in a Black population.”

As time went on, job opportunities for Black people grew, and training and education became needed in other areas. The most popular majors at Cheyney today are science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, business management, liberal arts and psychology.

“There was a time that Cheyney relied almost 100% exclusively on the training of teachers,” said Aaron Walton, president of Cheyney University. “And that was an admirable thing to do. But Cheyney has had to make some changes in the way they’ve operated in terms of being able to be sustainable. So it has to offer more than one type of education, because it has to satisfy many demands.”

But Cheyney might have a reason to emphasize its education program again.

At a Board of Education meeting last week, officials in the Philadelphia school district discussed data showing that teacher resignations were up almost 200% midyear, compared to last school year. The resignations are coming at a time when the ratio of students to teachers of color in Pennsylvania is among the worst in the nation.

District officials say they are committed to improving those numbers through several strategies, including higher salaries, retention bonuses, and early notification of intent to retire or resign.

Monica Lewis, spokesperson for the school district, said, “we believe that it’s important for our workforce to reflect the rich diversity of our student body. We have a multi-faceted approach to increasing teacher diversity throughout our schools.”

Walton said he thinks Cheyney could assist with both issues, in part, through its summer program, Aspire to Educate or A2E. The enrichment program was built to inspire high school students to consider a career in education. It’s free and is designed to introduce students to the rewards and benefits of teaching, Walton said.

The program is a collaboration among Cheyney, the School District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Department of Education, and the Community College of Philadelphia to track students who are in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades, and encourage them to go into teaching. To apply to the program, a student has to be a graduating senior with a minimum GPA of 3.0. The student must also achieve at least 1,000 or higher on the SAT.

On the collegiate level, Cheyney offers degrees in early childhood education, early childhood education for prekindergarten to fourth-grade, and special education for prekindergarten to eighth-grade, through its Department of Business, Education and Professional Studies.

“With the model that we’re creating here at Cheyney, bringing private industry on campus, with a focus on having those partners provide internships for our students, it’s giving them an experience that they would not get anywhere else,” Walton said.

For Black students to study at an HBCU and return to the community as a teacher is where true change can happen, said Abbott. She believes it’s important for Black students to see people who look like them in a professional setting. The connection with students, she said, resonates.

“A lot of times in their neighborhood they don’t see a lot of positive role models. And as a Black teacher you can relate to the things they are going through,” she said.

America’s oldest HBCU aims to be driving force again in producing teachers | Chalkbeat.com

As the nation’s first historically Black College and University, Cheyney University recently got involved with the national Keep Black Love Alive initiative.

Launched by the Chromatic Black organization, it’s an effort to combat misinformation in vaccine-hesitant communities.

Dr. Marietta Dantonio-Madsen, Chairperson of Humanities at Cheyney University, helped bring the message straight to the Cheyney community.

“To educate the public especially black and brown individuals the necessity of getting vaccinated and how getting vaccinated keeps black lives alive,” said Dr. Madsen.

The University hosted a special event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day that combined this message with art.

“The event was a collaboration of artists painting and creating imagery around how COVID affected them individually and affected their families and community.”

Not only were students able to express themselves through art, but they were also able to learn more about the COVID-19 vaccinations through speakers.

Over 200 students lined up to receive vaccinations that day.

For Black History Month, Dr. Madsen organized a virtual exhibit with the same “Keep Black Love Alive” theme. All submissions are a creative cultural response to COVID-19.

The official opening of the virtual exhibit is on February 24th.

 

Cheyney University to students: Keep Black Love Alive | PHL17.com

As part of the celebrations and events held throughout Black History Month, Cheyney University students had the honor of participating in The Great Debate, a forum for HBCU students to discuss current issues and social problems from the perspectives of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, better known as Malcolm X, and a synthesis of the points of view of the two African American political leaders.

Nine students; three each from Cheyney, Prairie Valley A&M, and Tennessee State University presented their arguments during the Feb. 2 virtual event around the following public policy debate: Black Colleges Need Reparations and Africana Studies Departments to Overcome Decades of Arrested Development and Cultural Alienation. Judges declared Cheyney as the runner up with 851 points, slightly behind the winner Tennessee State with 862 points.

Prairie Valley students Ari King, Maia McFarland, and Kennedy Sauls argued the theme from the point of view of Dr. King. Tennessee State students argued from the perspective of Malcolm X and the Cheyney students Amir Curry, Adam Hansen and Harold Mitchell presented the argument from the synthesis perspective.

Amir Curry is a junior and distinguished member of Cheyney University’s Honors Academy. He is a passionate orator and public speaker. Adam Hansen, a computer science and biology major in his second year of undergraduate studies admits he likes to argue and thinks there are many aspects of growth that are associated with a comparison and clashing of ideas.

Harold Mitchell is a senior and business management major and believes that life is a great journey full of memorable experiences. He considers it like a prism with many different colors and lights depending on the angle of the person’s point of view.

Each participant had five minutes to state their position.

In giving the synthesis point of view, Cheyney student Harold Mitchell came right to the point.

“Absolutely we need reparations,” he said. “King and Malcolm had a shared idea of revolution. Reparations is a narrow window, and we need control of the resources. We need to control the platform, otherwise, wealth is circulating back to where it came from. Malcolm believed wealth is not just an African American problem, it is an international problem. Education is critical.”

In his rebuttal synthesis remarks Adam Hansen argued that reparations and increased HBCU funding were not something either Malcolm X or Dr. King would have advocated for in the quest to remove racism and inequality in America.

“I would say both Malcolm X and MLK would reject this. Seeing that the trend of the past decades in America, it is said that HBCU’s receive less funding that the average college. Where implicit bias and sociological dynamics have pushed back the progress of HBCU’s,” Hansen said. “This is a systemic problem that reparations will not fix. MLK recognized this, evidenced by his continued protesting even after several racist laws were repealed. In response to the need for an Africana department, this would only slow down the decay we have already seen.”

In the closing segment of the debate Amir Curry said in his synthesis argument that regarding the systemic disinvestment of HBCU’s, it must be understood that the racial order is bound to the economic order of exploitation.

“In his final book Where Do We Go From Here, Dr. King wrote ‘Racism in America is no mere phenomenon. Its vicious grasp knows no geographical boundaries,” Curry said. “Racism and its perennial ally, economic exploitation provide the key to understanding most of the complications of this generation. What King is expressing is racism and capitalism work together. So, the question then becomes; how can the systems which have exploited us even begin to solve our problems?”

The Great Debate echoes traditional debates between African American leaders such as the Frederick Douglass and Henry H Garnet debates (1840’s), Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois debates (1890s-1910s), as well as the historical debates on Slavery such as the Abraham Lincoln and Steven Douglas debates of 1858.

In addition, the debaters for Prairie Valley and Tennessee State made several compelling arguments throughout the event.

Prairie Valley student Kennedy Sauls gave the definitions of reparations, Africana studies departments, and the need to overcome.

She stated that reparations would bring HBCU’s up to the levels of predominantly white institutions, “HBCU’s have experienced steep declines in federal funding. We should bring HBCU’s up to predominantly white institutions funding expectations which would guarantee equity of funding. MLK would have supported reparations for all who have been discriminated against and suffered trauma.”

Maya McClary of Tennessee State gave an emotional argument of the theme from the perspective of Malcolm X. “In order to overcome alienation, we must make Africana studies essential in historically Black colleges. It restores Black culture; it builds Black economic foundation and restores human rights. We need more African history books written by Black authors. Black colleges should also teach financial literacy courses to teach us how to better manage our money.”

A recording of The Great Debate is available here.