NEWS
PAGE 2 // WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2009
Elon Academy
aspirations to
THE PENDULUM
brings college
high school students
Drew Smith
Summer News Editor
For some Alamance County high
school students, it’s not just another
lazy summer. They’ve dedicated their
time to Elon Academy—living and
learning on Elon University’s campus
during the summer, hoping for a chance
to go to college.
At the closing dinner and showcase
July 9 in McKinnon Hall, the program
showed off its first graduating class.
Deborah Long is Elon Academy s
director. She recruits gifted students
from troubled high schools in the area.
“The way the Elon Academy started
was with President Lambert,” Long said.
“Lambert said we need to do somethmg
for the community: we’re losing too
many children."
The drop out rate is up to o.;o
percent in Alamance County, compared
to a state wide average of 4.97 percent.
In 2006, Cummings High School in
Burlington almost shut down because
of the high amount of drop outs. But
at the academy, students are kept busy
with classes all day and live in the
dorms with student mentors.
“Many of these students, they say
that without Elon Academy checking up
on them all the time, they don’t know
what they’re future would look like,
of the
The man who rose from the
‘Ashes’ of an Irish childhood
said mentor Patrick Holloway.
Holloway has been a part
program for three years.
“You find people coming up to you
and thanking you for helping them
out over the last four weeks and it just
makes it completely worth it,” Holloway
^^^The kids are appreciative of the
program and the mentors.
“They were really supportive and
helped us with everything we needed,”
said student Elizabeth Tish.
Most of these students come from
poor families and tough backgrounds,
but they’re smart. Each summer, they
work to get themselves out of a cycle of
j From CRONKITE I PAGE 1
dropouts.
“What’s amazing about these
students is how determined they are to
go to college and how grateful they are
for this program,” Long said.
Patrick Reid is one of those students,
ready for a future. He said Elon Academy
is getting him there.
“It makes everyone here more
determined and it makes them want
to try harder,” Reid said. “1 think that’s
really going to help us all later in life.”
The program continues throughout
the school year with programs on
Saturdays. The students attend the
summer session three times before
graduating from the progam.
Frank McCourt dies
of cancer at 78
Ashley Barnas
Reporter
Frank McCourt, famed author of the
memoir “Angela's Ashes,” died July 19 of
meningitis and ultimately, melanoma.
He was 78 years old and living in New
\'ork.
It was in 1996 that McCourt plucked
from the gutter his golden ticket to
fame; Scribner published “Angela’s
Ashes,” which led to his Pulitzer Prize
for Biography or Autobiography. He
wrenched himself from the poverty
stricken slums of Limerick, Ireland,
and shared his childhood and tales of
adolescence with readers who swiftly
fell in love with his Irish charm.
McCourt visited Elon University
on February 13, 2007, to deliver the
Baird Pulitzer Prize Lecture, titled
“Was 1 Teaching or Was 1 Learning? I’d
Say Both.” Earlier that day, he shared
memories of his life in Ireland and his
three decades as a New York City public
schools teacher during a question-and-
answer session.
“He was a delightful guest," said
George Troxler, former dean of cultural
and special programs. “He was very
generous with his time.”
McCourt was on Elon’s campus from
the morning until the evening of his
lecture in McCrary Theatre.
“My job was to escort him all day
from the pick-up at the airport to the
book signing after the reading—about
12 hours worth,” said Cassie Kircher,
associate professor of English. “My
memory is that he made my job so much
fun. He had a good sense of humor and
he talked issues—education, especially.
I really liked him a lot."
In preparation for McC^urt’s visit,
Kircher had her intermediire writing
students read a chapter from "Angela’s
Ashes,” “and we talked about the
difference between memoir and the
personal essay. Students liked that
chapter, and many of the students were
already familiar with his work,” Kircher
said. '■
Troxler said the education professors
were especially excited for McCourt’s
visit, and set their students to the task
of reading his newest book at the time,
“Teacher Man,” in preparation. The
memoir, published in 2005, reflects
on McCourt's time as a teacher in high
schools and colleges in New York.
"During lunch, four of us talked
about his book ‘Teacher Man,’ and
he spoke pretty passionately about
teaching inner-city students," Kircher
said.
McCourt also wrote “’Tis," a memoir
that picks up where “Angela’s Ashes” left
off, and “Angela and the Baby Jesus," an
illustrated children’s Christmas story
about McCourt’s mother, Angela, as a
child.
“McCourt is a realist,” Kircher said.
“His writing is concrete and direct and
unsentimental."
PHOTO COURTESY OF ELON UNIVERSffY REl>TIONS
Pulitzer Prize winner Frank McCourt visited Elon in
2007 as part of the Baird Pulitzer Prize Lecture series.
The raw truth of his stories remained
with readers, delighting and haunting
alike. During his visit, McCourt
pointed out that if he did not have the
challenging childhood he did, then he
would not have had something to write
about. The words he shared with his
Elon audience are echoed in the first
words of "Angela’s Ashes":
“When 1 look back on my childhood
1 wonder how 1 survived at all. It was,
of course, a miserable childhood:
the happy childhood is hardly worth
your while. Worse than the ordinary
miserable childhood is the miserable
Irish childhood, and worse yet is the
miserable Irish Catholic childhood."
The adversity he faced as a young
boy in Limerick and the simplicity
with which he grew up, was evident
and admired during his short visit to
campus.
“The day of his visit was really rainy,
but he just went with it and didn’t seem
worried about getting his shoes wet or
not having an umbrella,” Kircher said.
McCourt kept his audiences
laughing and engaged, signing books
and taking photos with anyone who
approached him. It was apparent that
students, faculty and staff took a keen
interest in his courage and admired his
development into the white-haired and
twinkle-eyed man with a gentle Irish-
American soul.
“He gave the impression of a
delightful Irishman. That’s what he
was,” Troxler said. “He engaged with
people. He talked with people. He was
an outgoing person—not all authors
are.”
McCourt was 66 years old when
“Angela’s Ashes" was published.
“My feeling was that McCourt might
have been sort of amused at how famous
he became so late in life," Kircher said.
“I think that made him really likable.
He wasn't a prima donna in any way.”
/
PHOTO COURTESY Of ELON UNtVERSfTY RELATIONS
When Walter Cronkite visited Elon in 2003. he was joined by David Gergen. adviser to four U.S. presidents and
chair of the Elon University School of Law Advisory Board. Cronkite spoke to 2,900 people in Alumni Gym.
Elon remembers
Cronkite’s influence
covering Vietnam after the Tet
Offensive, he had a well-known speech
calling for troops to be removed from
Vietnam. He said the troops needed
to be pulled out and America was not
winning the war.
“It was definitely not objective,
that last part (of the broadcast). It was
definitely an editorial,” Makemson
said. “It’s interesting because as much
as he talked about objectivity and in
many case did practice it, that was a
pretty good example when he didn’t.”
Cronkite's influence on public
opinion was certainly seen after his
commentary on Vietnam.
"It was a key defining moment,"
Barnett said. “When he came back from
Vietnam, the tide turned when the
most public-trusted person turned."
President Lyndon B. Johnson
understood the influence Cronkite had
over the American public.
“If I've lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle
America,” Johnson said after Cronkite
returned from Vietnam.
A consistent voice through the good
times and the bad
Throughout his career, Cronkite
was tasked with giving Americans the
news on historic events. Many of these
events would go on to shape America
for years to comc.
One of the most well known
moments occurred when he gave the
public the news of President John F.
Kennedy's assassination.
As he delivered the news, Cronkite
became noticeably choked up, took off
his glasses and bowed his head for a
moment.
— “1 think he was just a really, really
good journalist. He was a human
being,” Barnett said. “When he was
choked with Kennedy’s death, that was
a human being moment.”
Cronkite was tasked with not only
bringing Americans tragic news like
the Kennedy and Martin Luther King
Jr. assassinations, but also triumphant
moments in our nation’s history.
When the first man walked on the
moon, Cronkite was there to deliver
the good news to the country.
Makemson, who recently published
a book titled “Media, NASA, and
America’s Quest for the Moon,” said
Cronkite started covering the space
program in the late 1950s.
"When America landed on the
moon in 1969, he knew the astronauts;
he was friends with many of them,”
Makemson said. "He shared in the
excitement of what had happened
because he had been in the middle of
so much of it.”
Place in Journalism History
Cronkite has been called
greatest news anchor
the
of all time.
Without missing a beat, he brought the
public the news during critical points
In America’s history.
Makemson recalls when he was old
enough to start remembering Cronkite
as the primary voice in television.
"I just remember him as an
Individual who folks would turn to,
Makemson said.
With many different news outlets
now, a primary voice for news is a false
Idea In today’s cable news world.
But in his time, Cronkite was that
voice. He was the voice that brought
both good news and bad, happiness
and tragedy, to the people of America.
And-that’s the way It was.