Feel Good Friday: Jalen Rose and Maria Taylor
We can all use some feel-goods these days; Front Row will bring you all the feels, every Friday, through the goodness of familiar ESPN faces
Front Row is expanding on “FGF” goodness every Friday as we put our own spin on the segment by highlighting the “good” being done by familiar faces from around ESPN who are helping to make others – and themselves! – feel good. This ongoing series showcases even more ways that ESPN is #OneTeam, signifying how we are all in this together.
One of the regular Friday highlights now ingrained in the noon ET SportsCenter is a segment called “Feel Good Friday.” It’s self-explanatory.
Today, co-anchors Nicole Briscoe and Randy Scott feature a segment focused on Dallas Cowboys safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.
Today on Front Row, NBA Countdown analyst and Jalen & Jacoby co-host Jalen Rose and NBA Countdown host and College GameDay/ABC Saturday Night Football reporter Maria Taylor are featured.
In 2011, Rose established the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy (JRLA), “an open enrollment, tuition free public charter high school in Northwest Detroit with a mission to empower all scholars to develop the strength of character, skills, and knowledge needed to matriculate, be great in, and graduate from college so that they have opportunities to be successful in the competitive world and take care of themselves and the people that they love.”
Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 graduating seniors of the JRLA were not able to celebrate with a traditional commencement ceremony. Rose, who also serves as the President of the Board of Directors, and the JRLA board and staff, were able to pivot with a virtual celebration that included inspiring messages from Rose, Academy Award-Winning actor Jamie Foxx, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kyle Kuzma, and comedian Mike Epps.
#EnterALearnerExitALeader @JRLADetroit pic.twitter.com/JPqb95gRHR
— Jalen Rose (@JalenRose) June 6, 2020
The NBA Countdown team recently reflected on the ceremony. Here is Rose’s commencement address.
New @postsports: I wrote about Maria Taylor and Gracyn Doctor, whose mother was a victim in the Charleston AME church shooting, and the power of a friendship that has helped one woman begin to heal and the other find her voice. https://t.co/1x33K1NFaZ
— Ben Strauss (@benjstrauss) June 17, 2020
NBA Countdown host and College GameDay/ABC Saturday Night Football reporter Maria Taylor is co-founder of the Winning Edge Leadership Academy, a nonprofit devoted to developing a new generation of leaders in sports and entertainment industries. Ben Strauss of The Washington Post recently wrote about Taylor’s special bond with one of her mentees. Taylor recently co-anchored The Undefeated’s Time For Change: We Won’t Be Defeated special.
– Anna Negron
(Allen Kee/ESPN Images)
