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SOUTHEAST RECEIVES FEDERAL GRANT FOR UPWARD BOUND PROGRAM
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Southeast Missouri State University $247,000 for the 1999-2000 academic year to continue the Upward Bound program on the University campus.
Upward Bound provides services enabling high school students with low income and who are potential first-generation college students with a need for academic support to achieve educational goals. The Upward Bound program is designed to generate skills and motivation necessary to complete a program of secondary education and to enter and succeed in a post-secondary education, said Debra Mitchell-Braxton, director of Upward Bound.
Mitchell-Braxton said that she is ecstatic about the award, which is up $7,000 from previous years. This amount also will serve as the base amount for the next four years. She said she expects an increase of two to four percent for each year following 2000.
Only 700 of about 900 grant submissions by colleges to the U.S. Department of Education received grant awards this funding cycle. Currently only seven percent of eligible high school students across the United States are able to participate in programs like Upward Bound because of lack of a funding, Mitchell-Braxton said.
The Upward Bound Program serves eight high schools from seven counties across a 75-mile radius.
“We have a higher need in the Bootheel region because the poverty level is high and there is a low percentage of people with college degrees. We need to diminish cyclical poverty in the Bootheel,” said Mitchell-Braxton.
Mitchell-Braxton, who is completing her second year as director of Upward Bound, said that Rep. Jo Ann Emerson is very supportive of the TRIO program. Mitchell-Braxton said she kept her informed about the benefits of programs like Upward Bound. Some students participating in Upward Bound also wrote letters to their representatives, she said.
The federal grant covers students’ expenses for room and board, academic supplies, meals, transportation to and from Southeast, and field trips to colleges and cultural exhibits during the summer session.
Upward Bound holds a six-week summer session each year at Southeast to simulate a college experience. Students have the opportunity to take accelerated classes so the transition to college will be easier. The classes held this summer for 50 eligible high school students were career exploration, mathematics, English, science, foreign language, computer keyboarding, and performing arts. Students also may receive career and academic counseling, and tutorial assistance throughout high school.
This year the group traveled to Chicago in July to visit several colleges, a museum and other cultural attractions.
“Upward Bound is not a race-based program; it is a class-based program. Students must be a potential first-generation college student or come from a family with low income,” said Mitchell-Braxton.
KEYS NAMED PRESIDENT OF BOARD OF PREVENT CHILD ABUSE MISSOURI
Dr. Paul Keys, dean of the College of Health and Human Services at Southeast Missouri State University, was elected board president for Prevent Child Abuse Missouri by the Board of Directors for the 1999-2000 year.
In addition to his duties as dean at Southeast, Keys is the associate provost of the Regional Public Service Institute
He has had a long and successful career in the field of social work and human service management. His expertise and skill in the area of child and family advocacy are recognized throughout the country. Keys has been on Prevent Child Abuse Missouri’s Board in a volunteer capacity since 1995. Other volunteer leadership roles include serving as a Missouri Team Quality Award Judge with the Excellence in Missouri Foundation, Board Member for the Cape Girardeau Community Counseling Center as well as Southeast Missouri Weed and Seed, Inc. and St. Louis University Center for Social Justice and Research.
The Jefferson City based Prevent Child Abuse Missouri, a chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America, is a statewide non-profit organization dedicated to preventing the maltreatment of children through public awareness, advocacy, education and training programs. A 17-member board of professionals from around the state governs the organization’s mission.
SOUTHEAST ANNOUNCES FALL COURSE OFFERINGS AT KENNETT AREA HIGHER EDUCATION CENTER
Southeast Missouri State University is launching its first official slate of classes to be offered at the Kennett Area Higher Education Center with six courses scheduled to begin Aug. 23.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for Southeast to continue and expand outreach in the Bootheel,” said Dr. Pat Lipetzky, dean of Extended Learning at Southeast Missouri State.
This initiative marks the start of an expanded program in Kennett that will bring two undergraduate and four graduate courses to the Center this fall.
Undergraduate courses offered this fall at the Center are: PS103-76 “U.S. Political Systems” and SC105-76 “Fundamentals of Oral Communication.” Doug Friend will teach “U.S. Political Systems” from 6 to 9:15 p.m. on Wednesdays. This three-credit hour University Studies Course addresses institutions and processes of national and state government, including an analysis of the Missouri Constitution. Ellen Dillon will teach “Fundamentals of Oral Communication” from 6 to 9:15 p.m. on Tuesdays. This three-credit hour University Studies course assists students in the development of proficiency in oral communication through the study of rhetorical theories, principles and strategies.
Four graduate courses are being offered this fall at the Center. EA630/635-76 “Elementary & Secondary School Administration,” a three-credit hour course, will be taught by Dr. Wayne Gould and Dr. Robert Buchanan on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. EA660-76 “Administration and Supervision of Special Education,” a three-credit hour course, will be offered on Wednesdays from 6 to 8:50 p.m. EA703-76, a two-credit hour course, will be offered on Mondays from 6 to 7:50 p.m. EA707-76 “Personnel Management In Education,” a three-credit hour course, will be offered on Wednesdays from 6 to 8:50 p.m.
Interested students may register for these courses by telephone by calling the SAVRS system at (573) 651-6611.
Lipetzky says the graduate courses are a continuation of programs already in place in Kennett.
The Kennett Area Higher Education Center temporarily is located in the Kennett Vocational School. The City of Kennett has donated the former Kroger grocery store, located at 1230 First Street in Kennett, along with funds, to the Southeast Missouri University Foundation, to renovate that site into a permanent Center facility.
“The City has been our educational partner in this venture and they have been tremendous to work with,” Lipetzky said.
A plan calls for the new Center, which will house four classrooms, including a computer lab and an interactive television (ITV) classroom, to be renovated and open in February.
For more information on courses being offered at the Kennett Area Higher Education Center, call the School of Extended Learning at Southeast Missouri State University at (573) 651-2189.
LAMBDA CHI ALPHA MARKS 10TH ANNIVERSARY AT SOUTHEAST
Alumni launch "Campaign for Excellence"
It was 10 years ago that Southeast Missouri State University was first introduced to the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity.
A small group of men accepted the challenge of starting this new fraternity on the campus and two years later, in 1991, "colony 265" was chartered as "Delta-Phi Zeta." This initiative 10 years ago resulted in an organization with more than 200 initiated men that is one of Lambda Chi Alpha's strongest chapter's in North America.
As the organization celebrates its anniversary, the alumni of Southeast's chapter are doing more than just reminiscing. The group is launching a fund-raising campaign that will create two permanent endowed scholarships with the Southeast Missouri University Foundation and provide annual programming support for the local chapter for the next four years.
Two members of the chapter went on to serve on the administrative staff of the fraternity's headquarters and are now directly involved in the fund-raising efforts of the
"Campaign for Excellence." Scott Crowell and Jason LeGrand both served two years as Educational Leadership Consultants and collectively made more than 250 visits to other Lambda Chi chapters in North America. LeGrand and Crowell, who was also the organization's first initiate, are serving as co-chairs of the campaign.
"Our chapter here has consistently ranked in the top 20 percent of Lambda Chi chapters across North America," said LeGrand. "We had a great beginning, and it resulted in a tradition of excellence. With this campaign we hope to encourage, recognize, and reward individual members who display the characteristics that contribute to that level of excellence while we also encourage and support excellence in chapter programming and operations."
The alumni association's "Excellence in Brotherhood (EIB)" scholarship will provide for a semester's membership dues. Five men were given EIB awards this spring. The goal is to create that opportunity for each and every member of the chapter.
"This endowment will grow annually," said founding father Jay Goff. Goff is now Southeast's director of admissions and helped to create the EIB scholarship. "One day every member of the chapter who achieves and maintains a minimum grade point average, who is involved with the chapter, and who is a leader on campus will not have to pay money to belong to Lambda Chi Alpha."
The alumni association also will endow their scholarship created for incoming freshmen men and women. While designing the "Campaign for Excellence" the decision was made to name the award the "Excellence in Leadership" scholarship, said Scott Giles, who serves on the fraternity's alumni association and helped to establish the scholarship. Giles, no stranger to leadership, served as Southeast's student representative to the Board of Regents and Interfraternity Council president as an undergraduate member of Lambda Chi Alpha. He now is employed by the Federal Reserve in St. Louis and is a member of Southeast's President Council. That scholarship, said Giles, is set to be endowed by 2002.
Southeast's Lambda Chi Alpha chapter has been generating "excellence in leadership" since its founding 10 years ago. The chapter has produced two student representatives to the Board of Regents, student assistants in the President's Office under presidents Stroup, Atchley, and Nitzschke, a "man of the year" finalist on Homecoming Court for nine of the last 10 years, two student government vice presidents, numerous student senators, nine legislative interns who served in the Missouri House of Representatives, and presidents of numerous campus organizations.
The chapter is perhaps best known for its annual events such as "Watermelon Bust" in the fall and "Day Glo" and the "Hot Tub-a-thon" in the spring. Lambda Chi Alpha also remains the only men's fraternity at Southeast to have ever won the President's Award for Fraternal Excellence.
The chapter also has received recognition for their success with the organization's international philanthropy, the Lambda Chi Alpha North American Food Drive.
"In the last six years this chapter has raised 47,258 pounds of food for local charities with their efforts toward the food drive," LeGrand said.
The "Campaign for Excellence" will officially begin on the organization’s 10th anniversary of its colonization in September.
Lambda Chi Alpha is one of the largest men's general fraternities with more than 200 chapters and colonies on college and university campuses throughout the United States and Canada and more than 230,000 initiated members since its founding at Boston University in 1909.
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