6A « July 22, 2020 « THE JOURNAL RECORD « journalrecord.
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BUSINESS STRATEGY
Black landmarks
receive planning grant
Two of Oklahoma City’s African
American historic sites, the Lyons Man-
sion and Brockway Center, will receive
funding from the National Trust for
Historic Preservation, provided through
the African American Cultural Heritage
Action Fund. The funding will be used
for a local planning process that includes
a reuse feasibility study and business
plan for each property.
Over the past two years, the National
Trust funded 65 historic African Ameri-
can places and invested more than $4.3
million to help preserve landscapes
and buildings imbued with Black life,
humanity and cultural heritage.
The Lyons Mansion in the Deep
Deuce District was
finished in 1926
by S.D. Lyons who
started the East India
toiletries company
and whose real estate
holdings were among
the most prominent
in Oklahoma City’s
CATHY Black community.
O’CONNOR Deep Deuce was a
roaming place of
Ralph Ellison, Charlie
Christian and many more and served
as a cultural and entertainment hub
for Black Oklahoma City residents. A
demolition intervention success story,
the 1915 Brockway Center was the
headquarters of the Oklahoma City Fed-
eration of Colored Women’s Clubs for
almost 50 years. Both sites are vacant, in
need of restoration and are two of only
a few historically significant African
American landmarks still standing in
Oklahoma City’s urban core. Lyons
Mansion was purchased in the last few
years by Oklahoma City Urban Renewal
Authority with the goal of preservation
and Brockway Center was acquired
last year and saved from demolition
by the Oklahoma City Redevelopment
Authority.
Through the Action Fund, OCURA
will receive a $75,000 planning grant to
develop a community-driven plan for
preserving and reusing the Lyons Man-
sion and Brockway Center. In support
of the Action Fund, Oklahoma City
preservationists and community activ-
ists Leslie and Clifford Hudson donated
$100,000 to the National Trust. This
funding will scale up the Action Fund’s
impact to help preserve Oklahoma City’s
African American history and culture.
These efforts recognize the historic
and contemporary cultural disruptions
and economic loss our Black communi-
ties experienced as a result of federal
and local policy decisions. The physical
and psychological effects disproportion-
ately impacted generations of African
Americans. As an institution, OCURA is
committed to the rebirth and activation
of these historic jewels of Oklahoma
City’s past and look forward to working
with the community to preserve, cel-
ebrate and reinvest in these assets, their
namesakes and their stories.
Cathy O’Connor is the president of the
Alliance for Economic Development of
Oklahoma City.
PERSPECTIVES
AROUND TOWN
Commission seeks student art on women’s right to vote
The Oklahoma Commission on Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and
the Status of Women is seeking the U.S. Virgin Islands. (Surely,
students to create artwork com- Oklahoma students will come up
memorating 100 years of women’s with a winner.)
right to vote. For information, visit
“For years, www.womensvote100.org/
women lobbied buildingthemovement.
for equal voting
rights in the Beat the heat
United States,” The Tulsa Zoo is helping guests
said OCSW Ex- stay cool this summer by continu-
ecutive Director ing to open at 8 a.m. Starting July
Kitti Asberry. 1, the zoo returns to a 5 p.m. clos-
“The Building ing time, which means buildings
JOAN the Movement and attractions will close at 4:30
GILMORE exhibit is an p.m. to allow time for guests to exit
opportunity for zoo grounds by 5 p.m.
our younger All guests, including members,
generations to learn about and are required to reserve advance
celebrate the incredible efforts of tickets online at tulsazoo.org/
the advocates who led the women’s tickets, with 2 p.m. being the final
suffrage movement and who guest entry timeslot.
achieved a profound victory for Tulsa Zoo welcomes about
equality that has shaped the past 700,000 guests each year.
century of our nation’s history.”
The exhibit will display one Photography time
selected artwork submission from The flowers are colorful; the
students in each of the 50 states, bushes are blooming and the grass
the District of Columbia, Ameri- is green. Our world is beautiful
can Samoa, Guam, the Northern and it’s time to photograph that
CAREER CORNER
Career pivot – is it time for you to make the move?
The unexpected pandemic of you search for a new job, the job de-
2020 has decimated many jobs, scriptions you’ll find posted online
and some industries. The Bureau are very specific. Fortunately, job
of Labor Statistics reported that descriptions are often a wish list of
unemployment for June was at nice to haves rather than must haves.
11.1%. If you’re one of the millions Don’t get me wrong. There are
of people who have been affected at certain fields, like medicine and law,
work by COVID-19, you are likely where a very specific education is
trying to decide what’s next. And, I required. But, there are many more
don’t blame you. careers where the requirements are
There is no clear quite flexible.
end in sight at Start by preparing a new resume.
this point. Google “functional resume format.”
Very often, You’ll find a resume that is format-
when someone ted based on what you know about,
decides it’s rather than which jobs you’ve had.
time to switch Create a list of both hard skills and
careers, the soft skills that are transferrable
very first thing between different industries.
ANGELA they think of is You would be surprised at how
COPELAND going back to people skills at one job might
college. It seems translate into sales skills at another
logical that you’d job. Or, how writing for a newspaper
need a certain college degree to do might translate to writing business
a specific role. But, in many situa- requirements for a technology de-
tions, this just isn’t the case. If you partment. Now is the time to think
ask other people how they got into outside of the box.
their line of work, you’ll often find If you feel certain that new train-
a winding road that did not begin ing is a must, look around for online
with the perfect degree. options that are inexpensive. For ex-
Another reason it is assumed a ample, Google recently announced
certain degree is required relates that they are giving away 100,000
back to the job description. When scholarships for online learning.
JOURNALRECORD.COM/LISTS Buy individual lists or
packages in Excel or PDF formats
perfection. Yes, I know that CO-
VID-19 is out there but put that
mask on and be careful.
This message is inspired by Joy
Reed Belt, owner of JRB at the
Elms, 2819 N. Walker Ave.
To make Joy’s suggestion more
attractive, she has invited Julie
Maguire, director of the Bret
Weston Archives, to provide some
facts about photography.
Her facts include that the word
photography began being used in
the 1830s and what became the
modern photographic process was
invented about 1826 or 1827. From
the beginning, photography was
compared with painting. In1925,
Leica introduced the 35 mm pho-
tography format and the first color
photograph was taken in 1861
but a mass produced color format
didn’t become available until the
1930s.
The first digital camera was
invented in 1975 and despite the
popularity of digital images, black
and white film sales have increased
5% annually over the last five
years.
The career certificates take approxi-
mately six months to complete and
do not require previous experience.
Certificates are currently being
offered for information technol-
ogy support specialists. In the
future, Google also plans to offer
certificates for data analysts, project
managers, and user experience de-
signers. The average salary for these
roles ranges from $50,000 to $90,000
per year.
If you would like to be consid-
ered for one of the scholarships,
start by Googling “Google Career
Certificates.” Click the blue button
that says, “Explore the IT Support
Certificate.” Then, click the “Get
started” button. You’ll find that the
courses are available on Coursera,
and although you will pay a monthly
Coursera fee, the course itself should
be free.
In this unstable and unexpected
world of COVID, there is no better
time to make a fresh start. A career
pivot is never easy, but it’s almost
always worth the effort.
Angela Copeland, a career expert
and founder of Copeland Coaching,
can be reached at
copelandcoaching.com.