On Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012, Dillard University’s Martial Arts Club will host its first Eye of the Tiger Self-Defense Seminar. Attendees will learn a variety of self-defense techniques. Guest instructor Master Arthur Robertson, a fifth-degree black belt in Jun Tong Mu Sool, will teach this beginner's class in Taekwondo and Hapkido. Robertson has 30 years of experience in Korean self-defense and has been featured in publications such as Martial Arts in America and the Taekwondo Times. Members of Dillard's Martial Arts Club and students from Robertson's school in Kenner will perform martial arts and traditional weapons demonstrations.

Instructor Norward Sears founded the Dillard University Martial Arts Club in 2011. The group has performed throughout the New Orleans area, at locales including Lakeside Mall, New Orleans Arena, and Medard H. Nelson Charter School.

The Eye of the Tiger Self-Defense Seminar is open to the community. Attendees may spectate ($5) or participate full-on in the training session ($25). For more information, contact Norward Sears at (504) 307-9659 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dillard University athletics have much to crow about with the announcement of a recent graduate and star player's next move.

Ariel Mitchell, a native of Louisiana and a Dillard alum from the Class of 2012, has signed with the legendary Harlem Globetrotters. She is one of only 11 women to ever to play for the basketball team, and the first to come out of a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school. The Dillard University Athletics Department will honor her at a formal announcement and press conference on Friday, Sept. 28 at 11 a.m. in the Dent Hall gymnasium on Dillard’s campus.

Mitchell will be available to answer questions from media at the press conference. Elected officials, Dillard University Athletic Director Kiki Baker Barnes, representatives from Mitchell’s hometown, and family of the late Billy Ray Hobley (a Dillard alum and longtime Globetrotter) are also expected to speak.

Ariel “Mighty” Mitchell, as she will be known with the Globetrotters, hails from St James, La. The 5’7” shooting guard led the Dillard Lady Bleu Devils basketball team for four years, scoring over 1,000 points and earning All-Conference honors in her sophomore, junior, and senior years. She averaged 13.6 points and 3.5 rebounds per game and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in public health.

In 2013, the Globetrotters will launch its “You Write the Rules” World Tour, playing over 250 games across the U.S., Canada, France, the Dominican Republic, the United Arab Emirates, and more.

Dillard students, staff, faculty and alumni are invited to attend this special celebration on Friday and show their support for Ariel. For more information about Ariel or the event, please contact Kiki Baker-Barnes at (504) 816-4752.

Dillard University's "Message in the Middle" continues with another powerful speaker scheduled for Wednesday, September 26, 2012. The next presenter, Daniel Corrie Shull, is the Senior Pastor of the Burnett Avenue Missionary Baptist Church located in Louisville, KY. He is a recent graduate from Fisk University with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Religion and Philosophical Studies and is currently pursuing the Masters of Divinity at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Pastor Shull commenced his preaching ministry at the age of 18 and his pastoral ministry at the age of 20. In January 2005, Rev. Shull announced his call into the Gospel Ministry and on April 3, 2005 he delivered his first sermon and was licensed as a minister of the gospel. In ministry he has served as the assistant to the Dean of the Chapel, Rev. Dr. Jason Curry, at Fisk University as well as the Director of Publications for the Fisk Chapel, student minister for the Wesley Foundation and as the student intern minister at Key United Methodist Church. He is an active member of the NAACP and the Ethical Leadership Institute at Fisk University. Rev. Shull was selected as the 2007 UNCF Andrew Mellon scholar in the Academic Study of Religion. In this designation he did research at Emory University in Atlanta, GA on the subject of “Social Crisis Preaching in the African American Context.” Rev. Shull is also the youngest minister featured in the African American Pulpit-a quarterly journal the features the best of African American preaching in the nation. Rev. Shull’s entry, “Why Do You Treat Me This Way?,” was featured in the 2008 winter edition.

On February 17, 2007, Rev. Shull was called to serve the historic First Baptist Church of Campbellsville, KY as pastor. Immediately following Pastor Shull’s call to FBC Campbellsville, he began to form new ministries to meet the needs of the four generations that make up the vibrant congregation at First Baptist. During his tenure at FBC Campbellsville, Pastor Shull served on several community organizations including, the Church Relation Committee of Campbellsville University, Greater Campbellsville United, and Green River Ministries. On May 24, 2010, Rev. Shull was extended the invitation to serve the Burnett Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, KY. After much prayer, Pastor Shull joined the Burnett Ave. Church family to serve them as pastor.

Rev. Shull is married to his high school sweetheart, Abby Norman Shull, a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Austin Peay State University with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education. She is currently an elementary school teacher in the Jefferson County Public School System. They make their home in Louisville, KY and are the parents of one son, Daniel Harrison. As pastor and preacher, Rev. Shull endeavors to serve with passion and purpose as he ministers with great expectation just as Ephesians 3: 20 says, “Now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you may ask or think.”

For more information about the "Message in the Middle" series, contact Joshua Lazard at (504) 816-4555.

On Sept. 20, the CDC, Dillard University and Langston Hughes Academy kicked off the “From Seed to Table” program in the greenhouse on Dillard’s campus. The partnership will bring Langston Hughes Academy (LHA) elementary students to Dillard’s campus once a week to garden and learn about biology, nutrition and agriculture. The students are each paired with a Dillard biology student (their “Botany Buddy”), who will serve not only as a teacher and gardening guide, but also as a role model and friend.

“I love the mentorship aspect of the program,” said Amy Zellweger, garden educator at LHA. “Pairing our kids with Dillard students gives them the idea that, ‘Hey, I can go to college too.’”

Students will grow root crops, such as carrots and beets; lettuces, including spinach and mesclun; and brassicas, like cauliflower, broccoli and kale. After sprouting in the temperature-controlled environment of Dillard’s greenhouse, the crops will be replanted down the street in LHA’s Dreamkeeper Garden.

Much of the food will be donated to families at LHA, which is part of the Firstline Schools charter school network. Some crops will be sold at the Sankofa Farmers’ Market in New Orleans’ Upper Ninth Ward, an element of the program that teaches entrepreneurship. Thus, “From Seed to Table” will help combat the food dessert that exists in parts of the city where fresh produce is difficult to find. The program was made available with the help of a grant written by the CDC.

“We’re going to work with all the students to see if their attitudes and knowledge about vegetables and healthy eating improve over the semester,” said Dr. Amy Lesen, biology professor at Dillard. “They’re going to see their vegetables actually grow, and we’re all going to eat our food together. So it’s a real seed-to-table, healthy eating, urban gardening project.”