Con-grad-ulations!
Something happened on my husband’s way to his college graduation. It took him almost 30 years to get there. Right out of Blanchard High School, my husband enrolled at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant. He wasn’t ready for college and college wasn’t ready for him, so he changed course and signed up with the U.S. Air Force.
He did basic training in San Antonio, Texas, a stint in Guam and served at various bases stateside and found himself in harm’s way during several deployments, in particular to Somalia in 1993 and Iraq in 2004. Somewhere along the way, he met and married a wonderful woman. He also managed to take some college classes, but would often have to drop them because of a deployment.
When he retired, 26 years later, he was within a year or two of earning his bachelor’s degree. After paying $140 he still owed for 1979 cafeteria and dorm fees, he was able to enroll at SOSU. It’s hard to believe that balance was still on the books almost 30 years later. I wonder if it would have been still been there if the school owed him money.
This past Saturday, after many nights of classes, research papers, power point presentations and only one trip to the emergency room for stress and anxiety, my husband marched down with the 2008 fall graduating class and received his diploma. He was a little grayer than he was in 1979, but a lot wiser.
It was a nice day and a proud moment for his whole family, including his teenage son, when the first speaker began his opening remarks about a graduate who got sidetracked on the way to graduation.
Judy Hooper
GEAR UP for Grants
Oklahoma GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) has awarded 12 subgrants totaling $152,000 to Oklahoma community- and faith-based organizations to help students and families prepare for college through programs that provide access to financial aid, localized mentoring and tutoring services, college campus tours, individualized counseling and academic planning.
The subgrantees are the Community Action Project of Tulsa County; the Community Service Council of Greater Tulsa; the Greater Oklahoma City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; St. John Christian Care Center, Oklahoma City; Fellowship of Women in Christ, Ada; Building a Nation Through Village Concepts, Oklahoma City; the Norman Economic Development Coalition; Prospect Missionary Baptist Church, Oklahoma City; Vertical Life Initiatives, Tulsa; the Believers in Boswell Community Coalition; and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Theta Upsilon Omega Chapter, Lawton. The subgrantees will work with community partners to expand programs and services that help raise college aspirations and encourage student participation in Oklahoma’s Promise.
Oklahoma GEAR UP, a federally funded program administered by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, awarded the grants through the Raising College Aspirations Community- and Faith-Based Organization (CBO) Incentive Grant Program. The main objective for all subgrantees is to facilitate enrollment in Oklahoma’s Promise, a scholarship program that allows high school students from families whose annual income is $50,000 or less and who meet certain academic and conduct requirements to earn free college tuition.
For more information on GEAR UP or Oklahoma’s Promise, visit www.okhighered.org or call 800.858.1840.
Forever Plaid
The official Oklahoma State University Tartan is now a part of the university’s tradition.
Oklahoma City design, housing and merchandising junior, Stephanie Michalko’s weave of orange, black, gray and white threads received the most votes for her original tartan plaid design in on-line balloting.
In September OSU students who had completed a course in textiles were eligible for the competition to design an original plaid that reflects the OSU spirit. Four finalists were selected and voting began in October.
Michalko said she was excited to have her design chosen. “I am an interior design major, but I am very interested in textiles and their use in interior design,” Michalko said. “This was a great experience to be able to apply what I have learned.”
College of Human Environmental Sciences professors Paulette Hebert and Lynne Richards directed the competition.
“We felt this would be a meaningful way design, housing and merchandising students could learn how a product is developed from the idea to the creation,” Hebert said.
Pendleton stadium blankets and scarves will be the first items produced using the OSU Tartan. Judy Barnard, OSU director of trademarks and licensing, who assisted with the project, expects a number of products from stationery to kilts to be available soon in the plaid.
The OSU plaid will be registered with the Scottish Tartans World Register in Scotland and Ireland where tartans are used to identify families the OSU Tartan will be another sign of membership in the OSU family.
Cameron NAACP Chapter
The NAACP has established a college chapter at Cameron University in
Anthony Douglas, president of the state NAACP conference, said the election of President -elect Barack Obama has inspired more young adults to become civically active.
To learn more about NAACP, visit www.NAACP.org.
ORU Scholarships
Oral Roberts University will offer 25 full scholarships and other partial scholarships for the fall 2009 semester. “We are looking for well-rounded students who have already started to excel as a whole person. Then we can provide them with the education they need to realize their full potential,” Mart Green, chairman of the ORU Board of Trustees, “Like a basketball coach wants to find the best basketball players for the team, we want to find the best whole-person students to attend ORU.”
To be considered for the Whole Person Scholarship, a freshman or transfer student must be nominated by a school, church, or community leader or a member of the ORU faculty staff, or alumni. Nominees who are selected will be invited to campus for a Scholarship Day Competition Jan. 23 or Feb. 27, 2009.
For more information or to nominate a student, see wholeperson.oru.edu.
Edu-Talk
Educators can use a lot of jargon that outsiders might not understand.
That’s why the Education Writers Association is planning a glossary of terms for journalists.
Some of the terms EWA may define for reporters like me are: scaffolding, data-driven decision making, intervention, mainstreaming, critical thinking, rubric and formative assessment.
I used to have a rubric’s cube …. but not sure what those other words mean. (Yes, I know it’s a Rubik’s Cube!)
Of course, journalists have their own brand of jargon that educators may not understand. A “lede” is the beginning of a news story. A “mug” is generally a head-shot and not a police line-up.
What edu-speak do you use or not understand? Let me know and we’ll figure it out.
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
Nader to speak in Tulsa
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader will speak about Oklahoma’s ballot access law and the current presidential campaign at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa on Thursday at 1 p.m. in the Auditorium.
“Open the Debates” is the theme of Nader’s remarks, which reflect the Nader and vice presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez campaign’s call for inclusive, democratic presidential debates.
Nader will also address
OSU-Tulsa is located at 700 North Greenwood Avenue, near I-244 and Detroit Avenue. For more information, contact the Nader campaign at 202-471-5833.
Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College honors first graduates
Congratulations to the first graduating class of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College!
Last week, 13 students graduated from the college that shares the Weatherford campus of Southwestern Oklahoma State University.
Above are a couple photos from the event. The first photo shows College President Henrietta Mann and 2008 Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College Princess Cristina “Cricket” Yellowman. In the next one, John Haumpo receives a stole, Pendleton blanket,
Good luck to them all!
How do your kids get to school?
My daughter really, really, really (really!) wants to ride a school bus to school.
We don’t live on the bus route, or within walking distance of school, so I drive her to kindergarten each day. I tell her she’ll ride the bus on field trips.
When I was a child, I walked with other kids to elementary school and rode the bus to middle school. Both options scare me for my child. I worry — maybe unreasonably — about accidents, strangers, mad dogs and dew-soaked shoes. So for now, I’m happy to drive.
The Associated Press gives some tips for parents wondering when their children are “ready” to walk to school without their parents. Here they are:
—Know your child. Some 10-year-olds are mature enough to handle the responsibility that goes with independence. Others are not.
—Consider the route. Are there major streets to cross? Will the child be walking or biking alone or with schoolmates?
—Set clear rules, such as whether your child must come straight home from school.
—Talk with other parents in your neighborhood about having kids walk or bike to school together. There is safety in numbers.
Do you have any suggestions? Comment here or e-mail me at ssimpson@oklahoman.com
Susan Simpson
How do you handle tantrums?
Listen up Moms!
An Oklahoma State University researcher wants to know how you deal with the terrible twos.
Bob Larzelere is seeking volunteer mothers of tots between ages 18 months and 30 months. You could get paid $60 to tell how you handle your toddler’s misbehaviors.
Contact Dr. Larzelere at (405) 744-2053 and (405) 338-8094.
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
