Newman Young Writers Award
$300 and a certificate will be awarded to the Oklahoma high school student whose short essay responds the most thoughtfully to some aspect of the writings of the winner of the Newman Prize for Chinese Literature, Mo Yan. A translation of a Mo Yan short story, “Soaring,” is available for free download @ http://www.ou.edu/uschina/newman/youngwriters.html. Hardcopies can also be requested at 405/325-3580 or uschina@ou.edu. Deadlines:Students, submit your essays to your teachers by Monday, Feb. 23, 2009.Teachers, please select your high school’s best essay and e-mail it to uschina@ou.edu by Wednesday, February 25, 2009.The winner will be announced on Friday, February 27, 2009 and honored at the Newman Prize Awards Dinner on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at the OU Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in Norman,
Oklahoma Daily wins 21 SPJ awards
The Oklahoma Daily, the student-operated newspaper at the University of Oklahoma, received 21 awards — including nine first-place awards — from the Oklahoma Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
The Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication reported the contest results Monday.
The Oklahoma Daily staff competed at the professional level with state newspapers with circulations between 7,000 and 24,999. The Oklahoma Daily won the Best Newspaper Staff award in its division and swept the In-depth Enterprise Reporting/Individual category by taking first, second and third places.
Meredith Simons won two awards, for diversity reporting and best business feature. Other first-place awards went to Cadie Thompson for in-depth enterprise reporting, Nijim Dabbour for science/technology, Whitney Coleman for business reporting, Baxter Holmes for sports reporting, Josh McBee for Page 1 design, and Lisa Holt for graphic illustration.
– James S. Tyree
Snow days aren’t so great for working parents
The weather outside is no longer frightful, but I’m feeling a little bit spiteful. Because school is still out, and my kids are about and getting to work is a challenge.
Most metro school district canceled school again today. While the main roads are clear and the sun is shining, some neighborhood streets remain too slick for school buses. So for the third day, my husband and I must determine who has MORE IMPORTANT things happening at work, and who is staying home with the kids.
It’s a real dilemma for working parents, who already don’t have enough days off to cover normal school holidays.
I have a possible solution. My daughters’ schools both have afterschool programs run by teachers. Some of those teachers might want to make some extra money (and I would surely pay) to open part of the schools during snow days for childcare.
Parents could drive their children to school (no buses, no liability) and the kids would be in a safe place with people they know. Sack lunches would take care of the issue of the cafeteria being closed.
What do you think? Is anyone doing this? Would districts be open to it?
Comment here with your thoughts.
Susan Simpson
College on the Cheap
You can buy a car with no frills.
Why not the Yugo version of a college?
The Philadelphia Inquirer raises this question in a story today.
Check it out:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/education/20090122_A_four-year_college__strictly_educational.html
History in the Making
Our education reporters today went to the University of Oklahoma, University of Central Oklahoma and Northwest Classen High School to talk to students during the televised presidential inauguration.
Many of the students said they were proud to watch history in the making, as Barack Obama became the country’s first black president.
Read more on our inauguration blog at http://blog.newsok.com/breakingnews/category/inauguration-09/
Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum Essay Contest
The deadline for the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum’s annual essay contest is Jan. 30.
The contest is for students in grades five through 12 in all states. Organizers will give cash prizes for first, second and third place in each category. This year’s contest will focus on inspirational words from some of the nation’s leaders throughout history.
All entries must be received no later than 5 p.m. Jan. 30. For more information, contact Lynne Roller, deputy director, at 235-3313 or lr@oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org or download application forms at www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org.
-Staff Writer Dawn Marks
Tickets on sale to see comedian Chelsea Handler
Tickets are on sale beginning Jan. 7 for comedian Chelsea Handler’s performance at
Oklahoma City University offical created emergency scholarship fund
Oklahoma City University officials created a new emergency scholarship fund titled You’re a Name, Not a Number.
The scholarship will be used to assist students who be unable to enroll for the spring semester due to financial problems.
Any student facing hardship due to the economic recession is eligible to apply for assistance and will be evaluated on an individual basis.
“We are partners with our students and their parents and we share their commitment to education. OCU has for many years insisted that here, students are names and not numbers, and this is a tremendous way for us to demonstrate what we mean when we say that,” OCU President Tom McDaniel said in a news release.
University officials created this fund and launched other initiatives to help students such as the development of more job opportunities for students on campus, increasing fundraising efforts for scholarships and endowment, and mandating cost cutting procedures across campus.
Donations for the scholarship fund can be sent to Sandy Cotton, senior director of development, at 2501 N. Blackwelder, Oklahoma City, OK 73106 or scotton@okcu.edu.
For more information, call 208-5848.
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.
