Illinois students apply research and robotics in the Illinois FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge state championship
Creativity and science will come together this Saturday at the FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge Illinois State Championship at Elgin Community College, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin, Illinois, where 56 teams of 9- to 14-year-old students and coaches will demonstrate their problem-solving skills, creative thinking, teamwork, competitive play, sportsmanship, and sense of community. The tournament is open to the public. The robot table competition portion of the event starts at Noon on Saturday, February 14th.
WDB L.E.G.A.C.Y. Weekend Celebrates 20 Years of Empowering Black-Owned Businesses
WDB Marketing and its nonprofit division, WDB Cares, will celebrate a historic milestone in 2026: 20 years of WDB Marketing and 10 years of the L.E.G.A.C.Y. Awards platform—two decades of building brands and a decade of building legacy through entrepreneurship and community impact. Since its inception, the L.E.G.A.C.Y. platform has awarded over $250,000 in cash and prizes to young and emerging entrepreneurs, fueling business growth, job creation, and generational wealth across the region.
Kerry Washington Honored with Elevate Prize Catalyst Award at Sundance
The Elevate Prize Foundation presented the Elevate Prize Catalyst Award to Emmy Award–winning actor, producer, director, author, and activist Kerry Washington during the Sundance Film Festival today. The honor recognizes Washington's career-long commitment to using storytelling as a powerful force for democracy. For more than a decade, Washington has advanced that mission through Simpson Street Productions, the award-winning company she founded to expand whose stories are seen, heard, and valued on screen with past productions including Hulu's Little Fires Everywhere and HBO's Confirmation.
G-SHOCK Collaborates with Hardies NYC on a Limited-Edition DW6900 Inspired by Skate Culture and Street Utility
Casio America, Inc. is proud to announce a new limited-edition collaboration between G-SHOCK and Hardies NYC, the New York–based skate brand founded in 2015 by Tyshawn Jones, starting as a skate hardware and accessory brand rooted in New York City's streets and skate culture. The collaboration introduces the DW6900HH-5, a reimagined take on G-SHOCK's iconic DW6900 silhouette, infused with Hardies' unmistakable street and skate DNA.
Zelle® and Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, in Partnership with Community Development Investors, Launch New Scholarship to Invest in Black MBA Students Pursuing Small Business Ownership
As millions of American small business owners prepare to retire – and thousands of Main Street businesses face closure – popular person-to-person service Zelle® and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), in partnership with Community Development Investors (CDI), today announced a new scholarship for students at select Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) that aspire to keep those businesses alive, local and Black-owned.
The Advanced Leadership Institute and Carnegie Mellon University Kick-Off the New Program Year with the 2026 Emerging Leaders Program
The Advanced Leadership Institute (TALI), in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, announces the launch of its 2026 programming year with the fifth cohort of the Emerging Leaders Program – one of TALI's cohort-based programs designed to educate, develop, connect, and position Black leaders and their allies for success. The program welcomes a new class of talented professionals and introduces key enhancements for the year ahead.
Kelley Robinson Joins Kettering Foundation Board
The Charles F. Kettering Foundation today announced that Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign and Human Rights Campaign Foundation, has joined the Kettering Foundation board of directors. Robinson previously served as a Kettering Foundation senior fellow from 2024–25.
