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Mentorship Programs Fuel College Dream for Oakland Teen and Others Like Her

Cheeks, 17, who was born and raised in Oakland, wants to eliminate corruption from within. Her first step will be majoring in sociology and participating in the Black Scholars Program, which will give her a community to interact with daily.

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Imahni Cheeks

Oakland Technical High School graduate Imahni Cheeks moved into a residence hall at the University of San Francisco last month as an underrepresented college student who wants to one day be a lawyer.

Cheeks, 17, who was born and raised in Oakland, wants to eliminate corruption from within. Her first step will be majoring in sociology and participating in the Black Scholars Program, which will give her a community to interact with daily.

Her mother is from Mexico and her father is Black. Afro-Latino people are not well-represented in higher education, according to Berenice Vega, who worked with Cheeks through Oakland Promise, an organization that helps Oakland students get from the cradle to a career.

That changed just a little when Cheeks received notice that she was accepted into USF, full expenses paid, including any needs such as BART fare, books, and a computer.

Cheeks described herself as a social justice advocate.

“I’ve seen the issues,” Cheeks said of police brutality against Black men and crowded housing in the Hispanic community. “This needs to change,” she said. “I want to be part of the change.”

Cheeks was accepted into University of California at Berkeley, too, but chose USF because she sensed she will find community there.

She said the decision was hard and she looked for a sign that never came. On the day she chose to accept USF’s offer, she said she probably would have changed her mind 20 times.

She is now settled on USF, with the understanding that it isn’t a final decision; she could apply again or transfer.

“I don’t know tomorrow,” Cheeks said, a motto she uses frequently.

What swayed her decision was also the feeling she got from talking with a sociology professor at USF who was excited about working with Cheeks and said she would be there for her along the way.

Cheeks has 10 siblings and described herself as family-oriented. Five siblings live in one U.S. household, one lives in another U.S. household and four live in Mexico, she said.

Her parents are divorced. Besides Oakland, she has lived in Antioch and Vallejo.

Daniel Guzman, former program manager for Latino Student Achievement in the Oakland Unified School District, helped Cheeks with scholarship applications.

She was a pleasure to work with, said Guzman, who described her as a self-starter who takes initiative.

As far as other personality traits, she’s not afraid to share her own ideas even if they’re not aligned with yours, Guzman said.

He described Cheeks’ personality as “infectious.”

To Vega, college access coordinator with Oakland Promise, Cheeks is mature and very outspoken.

“She’s really like a model student,” Vega said.

The two met at a youth leadership meeting that Guzman held.

Cheeks knew, according to Vega, that college was going to be a way out of a low-income upbringing.

“I definitely wanted to make sure she didn’t fall through the cracks,” Vega said of Cheeks.

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Oakland Post: Week of January 15 – 21, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of January 15 – 21, 2025

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Oakland Post: Week of January 8 – 14, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of January 8 – 14, 2025

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Supreme Court Decision Confirms Convicted Felon Will Assume Presidency

NNPA NEWSWIRE — In a 5-4 ruling, the court stated that Trump’s concerns could “be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal” and emphasized that the burden of sentencing was “relatively insubstantial” given that Trump will not face prison time. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court’s three liberal justices in the majority, with four conservative justices dissenting.

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By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s emergency request to block criminal proceedings in his New York hush money case, ensuring that a sentencing hearing will proceed as scheduled on Friday. The decision makes it official that, on January 20, for the first time in its history, the United States will inaugurate a convicted felon as its president.

In a 5-4 ruling, the court stated that Trump’s concerns could “be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal” and emphasized that the burden of sentencing was “relatively insubstantial” given that Trump will not face prison time. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court’s three liberal justices in the majority, with four conservative justices dissenting.

Trump was convicted in May for falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg argued that the Supreme Court lacked jurisdiction to intervene in a state criminal case, particularly before all appeals in state courts were exhausted.

Trump’s legal team claimed the sentencing process would interfere with his transition to power and argued that evidence introduced during the trial included official actions protected under the Supreme Court’s prior ruling granting former presidents immunity for official conduct. Merchan, the New York judge who presided over the trial, ruled in December that the evidence presented was unrelated to Trump’s duties as president.

Prosecutors dismissed Trump’s objections, stating that the sentencing would take less than an hour and could be attended virtually. They said the public interest in proceeding to sentencing outweighed the President-elect’s claims of undue burden.

Justice Samuel Alito, one of the four dissenting justices, confirmed speaking to Trump by phone on Wednesday. Alito insisted the conversation did not involve the case, though the call drew criticism given his previous refusals to recuse himself from politically sensitive matters.

The sentencing hearing is set for Friday at 9:30 a.m. in Manhattan. As the nation moves closer to an unprecedented inauguration, questions about the implications of a convicted felon assuming the presidency remain.

“No one is above the law,” Bragg said.

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