FEATURE

Upward bound gives high school students a leg up
Sametta Brown
Reporter

Wichita High School freshman Randy Flores (left) spends his Saturday mornings attending classes and tutoring sessions on the MSU campus. Here, he studies algebra with his tutor, senior computer science major Joel Robertson (right). Students at Upward Bound often get personal attention from tutors who also double as mentors. Photo by Ya-Rei Chan

In Wichita Falls there is a special place nestled in a corner on the campus of Midwestern State University. Here is a place where the intellect is broadened, social skills are developed and post-secondary education is promoted through adventure. The people at this location play a major role in the lives of today’s youth through mentoring, tutoring and just being there. Their compassion and dedication greatly impacts America’s future. It’s called Upward Bound. “DeAdera Gardner. She was very quiet and shy,” Academic Coordinator, Dana Wood said. “She never communicated with adults or her peers but the program gave her more confidence and she is a different person now and more outgoing,” Wood said. Gardner is attending the University of Texas at Arlington and plans to go on to law school. She is just one of the many youth that the Upward Bound program has helped further their education in the school of their choice. Wichita Falls sophomore Elizabeth Shepard feels she has matured as a student. “I like it because it shows us how college will be. The mentors are very helpful with school,” she said. “They help with other work like math and computers. Parents like Mona Washington see it as chance for her son to excel in school. “It’s an opportunity for him to have mentors to guide him throughout the process of getting through school and attend college and have ambition and the strength to go through it,” she said This support organization, funded by the Department of Education, emerged out of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 under President Johnson’s War on Poverty. Grants for Upward Bound are given every four years based on a point system that reviews the budget plans, and the area needs. There are 55 slots in the program available to high school aged students. The youth eligible for Upward Bound come from families whose incomes are 150 percent of the poverty level based on taxable income. The target areas are the east and north side of town, particularly those students attending Hirschi High School and Wichita Falls High School but other students in need can also apply. Applicants of the program must be first generation college students. “We get kids who wouldn’t be able to go to college. We aren’t looking for the A student, but the B, C student,” Wood said. MSU Senior James Rodriguez is thankful for the opportunities made available through the program. “I was in it and it helped get me in MSU,” he said. “It gave me the lift I needed to get out of high school and into college.” Rodriguez is now a tutor and is also a counselor at the summer program. “Its giving back to the program that helped me out and helping the kids in the program,” the senior history major said. The Upward Bound program falls under MSU’s Enrollment Management Center. The services provided include tutoring, peer counseling, mentoring, assistance in completing financial aid applications and summer field trips. “It offers a great deal of support and enrichment for high school students that don’t have an opportunity concerning intercollegiate opportunities,” Robert Clark, interim vice president of enrollment management said. “It is a feeder mechanism for students to come to MSU. The center has a staff of seven; the director, an academic coordinator, a technical coordinator, a secretary and volunteers who come in every day at 6.30 p.m. The volunteers tutor the students in English, science and math. Senior environmental science major Byron Winston finds mentoring at Upward Bound a rewarding experience. “I wanted to help younger kids in the community,” he said. “They are serious about doing well in school.” “It’s great to see them understand something outside of the traditional classroom,” Rodriguez said. “In the classroom they learn the concept and material the high school wants them to learn and we help them implement that in the real world.” During the summer, students participate in field trips all around the community and to other states visiting college campuses to get a feel for the real world. This summer, they will go to South Padre Island in Corpus Christi. While there they will visit the campus of Texas A & M. They will also visit the beach to do educational research on boats and learn about SandCastles.

Continuing ed features art
The Wichitan

Fine arts is the focus of the Center for Continuing Education this month. The February community enrichment calendar features events highlighting artwork from around the world. The first, an overview on Edgefield Southern Pottery, was hosted by MSU President Jesse Rogers on Friday. On Feb. 14 MSU Art Historian Nancy Steele-Hamme will present her collection of contemporary art from Ghana and West Africa. She will also show slides of traditional art from West and Central Africa. The presentation,which will be held in the Clark Student Center, will start at 7 p.m. The center has also planned a tour of three Dallas art museums on Feb. 27. A 46-seater bus will take participants to The Dallas Museum of Fine Art, Dallas Visual Arts Center and the Hall Office Park Artful Space. The cost is $20 per seat and does not include lunch and admission fees. The Center for continuing education hosts non-credit short courses and special events each semester. They are open to students and the general public.

The Rogers’ collection President shares with public

MSU President Jesse Rogers presented an overview of the Edgefied Southern Pottery Tradition. Rogers, an avid collector of the artwork presented the lecture Friday in the Fain Fine Arts Center. A viewing reception showcasing Rogers’ personal collection followed the lecture. Photo by Ya-Rei Chan

'Black Hawk Down’ packs powerful punch for moviegoers
Stephen Smith
Reporter

Ridley Scott, fresh off the success of last summer’s blockbuster Gladiator, joins forces with acclaimed action film producer Jerry Bruckheimer for Black Hawk Down, a retelling of an ill-fated October 1993 U.S. Army Rangers/Delta Force raid in Mogadishu, Somalia. Scott’s choice to use a quote from the Greek philosopher Plato, “only the dead have seen the end of war,” is used in the opening credits to set the mood and prepare you for a realistic, unflinching look at modern warfare and what it really takes to be a hero. In what was advertised as a thirty-minute raid into a hostile part ofthe city, troops from Task Force Ranger were deployed for their headquarters at the Mogadishu Airport to take two top lieutenants in the hierarchy of elusive Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid’s organization into custody. Aidid, who was never seen in the film, is causing chaos by seizing United Nations food shipments, causing them to never reach the city’s starving citizens. Scott and Bruckheimer pull no punches in the graphic live-action sequences set on the streets of the Aidid-controlled sector of the city as they avoid focusing on one particular cast member in favor of telling of the tale from the widest possible vantage point. Bruckheimer’s signature “so close to the action that camera shakes” shots help the audience almost feel the explosions and flinch from the bullets whizzing by the characters’ heads. The film features outstanding performances from Josh Hartnett (Pearl Harbor), Ewan McGregor (The Phantom Menace), Jason Issacs (The Patriot) and Tom Sizemore (Wyatt Earp) among many others. While avoiding the politics of the day, Scott makes it clear that the battle and the overall situation are the fruit of political maneuvering from a seemingly impatient Pentagon that wants Aidid in custody as soon as possible. Major General William F. Sanderson (Sam Shepard), the task force commander, steps to one of the departing helicopter and says “leave no man behind” to the troops, which sends a collective chill down their spines as they realize this mission will anything but routine. The opposition for the film is provided a throng of well-armed Aidid supporters referred to as “skinnies” who have the American forces both outnumbered and outgunned on the Somali streets. Scott also doesn’t make you wait very long until the explosions, guns and gore hit the screen. Within mere minutes of arriving at the supposed location to take their targets into custody, the troops come under fire and the first of two UH-60 U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters is shot down. Since the U.S. forces did not communicate their intentions to the U.N. peacekeepers in the area, there is no backup plan and since Aidid’s supporters knew they were coming from the time they took off (thanks to small children with cellular phones near the airport), there is also no clear means of escape. Scott’s panoramic shots of the onrush of Aidid supporters toward the downed helicopter and the mayhem that ensued following the attempted rescue of a second downed Black Hawk (in which both rescuers were killed and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions) were breathtaking. There were also a few moments of levity among the men who eventually escaped the area thanks to Pakistani Army personnel, but overall, Scott and Bruckheimer’s grim look into the world of military Special Forces was a serious, haunting affair filled with heroes and devoid of the superfluous or the corny. Eighteen hours after the thirty-minute mission began, the men are out of the battle zone and left to ponder their place in the civil war that had claimed 300,000 Somali lives to that point as well as their role as peacekeepers in a place that seemed created for war. Black Hawk Down delivers its message like a punch in the face and is well worth the price of admission. Rating ****

Steve’s Rating System
* Not worth your time or money
** Wait for the DVD, then borrow it
*** Worth the time and money
**** Blockbuster

Correction
The Wichitan incorrectly reported Jan. 30 that the accepted score on the SAT would be 1050 beginning next semester. The correct score that will be accepted is 1030. We regret any inconvenience this might have caused.