Newspaper Page Text
May/June 1985 The Wolverine Observer Page 12
FEATURE “
Focus On Special Services
by Angela Hightower
Succeeding in college can be a
hectic task for some students.
Morris Brown College is for
tunate to have access to it's own
special services program which
has been in existence since 1971.
This program is designed to
enhance students academically
and culturally. The special ser
vices program assists students in
making college life more
progressive and enjoyable.
Special Services is a federally
funded program that assists
students on the basis of family
income, grade point average,
and being the first generation of
their family to enter college. As
stated in the program's outline,
this program is established on
the fact that the special services
administration and professional
faculty and staff are committed
to the optimum development of
the students entrusted to them in
the following areas: basic educa
tion skills, career, per
sonal/social, and college survival
skills, needs of the students in
the program according to their
current development level."
The program offers services to
the student through its academic
and counseling departments.
The academic department is
composed of English, Reading,
and Math courses which have
teachers and tutors in each area.
The teachers are: Ms. Eva Bur
ton, English; Ms. Eva Lee,
Reading; and Mr. E.W. LaWal,
Math. The tutors within the
department are Darrell Darrisaw,
David Davis, Louise Farmer,
Priscilla Orr, John Pinckney,
Michelle Patmon, Paige Wray,
and Ronald Wingate.
qualified counselling staff. Staff
members consists of Mrs. Brenda
McBride, counselling coor
dinator, Ms. Vidalia Addy,
freshman counselor, Mrs.
Yvonne Snowden, up
perclassmen counselor, and Mr.
Gregory Thighpen, support
counselor. Under the direction
of Mr. Marvin King, a man
enriched with deligence and
determination, highly enforces
the purpose of the program and
plans to continue to make the
program a success.
Ms. Eva Burton, Special Services
English Instructor, gives students
a hand.
"The academic department is
in the first year of a progress
model. Through this model all
special services students are
tested and their problems are
diagnosed by the test and are
handled on a one on one basis in
small group sessions with
teachers. These sessions are
called clinics. At the end of ths
year, each student is post tested
to determine his or her
progress,” stated Vera Benton,
academic coordinator.
Students in the program may
also receive assistance from a
assist students in becoming
prominent and intellectual in
dividuals.
Mr. Marvin King is the leader of
the Special Services and Upward
Bound Programs at MBC.
Upward Bound Helps Students
Vera Benton, Special Services
Academic Coordinator, works
with students.
Along with the many academic
advantages, special services
students may qualify to receive a
full financial aid package which
includes loans, grants, and
parental contributions.
Special services students are
also granted the opportunity to
attend and participate in many
cultural activities! Numerous
trips are made to professional
sport events. Trips have also
been made to Florida's Epcot
Center, Six Flags over Georgia,
Cherokee Indian Reservation,
North Carolina and The 1984
World’s Fair in New Orleans,
Louisiana. Other previous ac
tivities include, The Harlem
Theater of New York and plays
such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,
and Bubbling Brown Sugar. The
Thanksgiving and Christmas pro
jects and the awards and
recognition program are annual
events held by the program
With students being the main
priority of the program, student
participation is a major factor in
the existence of the services
provided.
Corliss E. Wilcox, a junior
nursing major, commended the
counselling staff and the benefits
of the program "It’s a very good
program. I recommend this
program to all students especial
ly freshman. All students should
take advantage of the services,"
said Miss Wilcox.
Mario Avery, a sophomore,
Business Management major,
complimented tutorial services
of the program. I recommend
the program for all students
regardless of their study skills or
G.P.A. Many students are not
taking advantage of the
program,” said Mr. Avery.
The Special Services Program
will continue in it's efforts to
by Paige Wray
"M.B.C., U-B" was the cheer
chanted for this past summer’s
Morris Brown Project Upward
Bound Program. Project Upward
Bound is a federally funded
program directed by Mr. Marvin
King who is also the director for
Special Services. The program
began in 1966 and presently
serves students from nine high
schools located in the
metropolitan Atlanta area.
Its target group is those high
school students who are low
achievers and under-motivated
but with the potential to do
college work. The main objec
tive is to provide students with
academic and counseling sup
port to improve their basic skills
in English, Reading, and
Mathematics to further their
education in post-secondary
institutions and to help en
courage them to seek
meaningful jobs if they do not
wish to further continue their
education.
The program is divided into
two phases: summer and
academic year, follow-up phase.
The academic component
headed by coordinator Vera L.
Benton, operates through a
process model which consists of
3 core courses. They are English,
Mathematics, Reading, as well as
Critical and Analytical thinking
and Computer Science. Each
area has three teachers one of
whom is chosen as leader.
The Upward Bound Program
also promotes leadership
development. It has a Student
Government Association of
which Renard Robinson of
Douglas High School is president
for 1985. Class officers are also
elected to represent their com-
rads at each grade level. The
program also elects its own
queen and her attendants. This
year’s queen is Sabrina Nolten of
Bass High School. During an
interview with Miss Nolten she
told the Observer, "I am a role
model for my fellow students to
represent our upward bound
wherever it may go.”
Students also participate in
extra-curricular activities such as
basketball, volleyball, table
games, swimming, and softball.
They publish their own
newsletter under the guidance
of an advisor.
For their cultural enrichment
activities, students conduct fund
raisers during the academic year
to help pay the cost of the
educational trips which are
taken during the summer phase
of the program.
In the summer of 1984, upward
bound took a three day trip to
Florida visiting such places as
Bethune Cookman College,
Edward Waters College, St.
Augustine historical site,
Daytona Beach, Disney World,
and the Epcot Center which is a
part of Disney World. For the
summer of 1985 the program
plans to tour Williamsburg,
Virginia, Washington, D.C.,
Philadelphia, and New York City.
A major feature of the summer
sessions is the Olympics which is
referred to as academic day. On
this occassion upward bound
programs throughout the state
come together at one college
(which was Mercer of Macon) to
compete in the areas of short
story writing, one act plays,
chess, a spelling bee, scrabble,
and mathematics. Our Upward
Bound program placed 2nd
overall winning awards of 1st
place in short story writing and
1st, 2nd, and 3rd in chess, 2nd in
one act plays and two 3rd’s in
scrabble and the spelling bee.
The typical student day begins
at 6:30 a.m. with breakfast.
During the course of the day the
students are enrolled in the five
core courses plus an enrichment
class of their choice. Each course
is taught by a high school or
college teacher assisted by tutor
facilitators.
The companion component
for the academic area are the
counselors. It assists students in
developing goals and adjectives
and devising a feasible way to
obtain them. The component
model is based on the assump
tion that every student is
different therefore cannot be
counseled the same as his/her
fellow students says Mrs. Brenda
McBride.
The most essential part of the
Upward Bound program are the
tutor/facilitators also know as
tutor counselors or T.C.’s. In fact,
they are the backbone of the
program. Their job involves such
duties as being assigned a group
of students and knowing their
Sabrina Nolten is Miss Upward
Bound 1984-85
whereabouts for the entire six
weeks, tutoring students,
assisting teachers with classroom
activities and monitoring.
They, just like students, must
go through a process of inter
views. Among the college
students applying for the posi
tion, only those students who are
very knowledgable in one or
more of the five core coursee
and meet all the other criteria are
selected. Once selected they
must participate in orientation
workshops to prepare
themselves for the various
responsibilities which tutor
facilitators must assume.
The Morris Brown Upward
Bound program has one of the
best records of performance in
the United States and represents
a standard of excellence that
Morris Brown College can be
proud of.