March 5,1991
F E A T URES
The Lance Page 5
Shelby French
Best
All
Around
By Sharon Frain
Assistant Editor
Within the past ten years, the St.
Andrews equestrians have won five
regional championships, two IHSA
Reserve National Championships, and
two ANRC reserve National Champi
onships. The riders have surmounted
the obstacles often seen in a newly
started program. What keeps them
going? What type of coach does it
take to have a student, Karen Leabo to
be exact, win Overall Individual
Championship two years in a row?
The answer to these questions is
Shelby French.
Shelby French is rated as a Num
ber One Rider by the National Riding
Commission(NRC), is a national judge
with the NRC, and is an. American
Horse Shows Association Recorded
Steward. Aside from riding, she re
cently found time to play the main
part in the musical Mame and sit on
the Encore! Theater and State 4-H
advisory boards. Many wonder how
she can be involved in all these events
Shelby French with Stella. (Photo by Sharon Frain)
and be as successful as she is.
French feels the need to help the
quality oflife in the community. She
is involved with teaching riding les
sons, helping out with Girl Scouts,
community theatre, 4-H, and many
other out-of class-activities. French
adds to this belief by saying, “It is
important for the faculty to partici
pate in helping to make living in a
small college town a positive expe
rience. The school needs something
special to offer, such as the unique
personal faculty found here at St.
Andrews.”
French’s success can be accred
ited to her philosophy that, “people
are their own worst enemies for the
fear of failure can override your ac
tual capabilities.” The fear of fail
ure, both emotional and physical, is
something she has to deal with eve
ryday while instructing. Her belief
that everyone has more ability than
they credit his or herself adds a great
deal to her special instructional skill.
French continues,”You just need to
find out how people can express them
selves best, be it riding or not.” Riding
helps one improve in other areas of
llife, helps bring out a feeling of con
trol and strength that many people
would never feel otherwise.
“I am a big believer in trying to
help self-esteem. It is very important
to separate self-worth from whether
you pass or fail. Self-worth and per
formance aren’t tied hand-in-hand, if
you fail it does not mean that you are
a bad person. Maybe you just need to
redirect what you do,” confidently
observed French. The preceding be
liefs are what have given Shelby
French the “golden touch” in seemly
everything she does.
Shelby French has helped the
equestrians surmount obstacles related
to riding or not. Her involvement acts
as a guiding force of support which all
of her students benefit from.
Alumnus Puts his
Teachings into Action
By Tabbie Nance
Contributing
Be rich in good works: be gener
ous and ready to share with others. 1
Timothy 6:18
M. Gray Clark ’69 is best described
by that scripture. He preaches the
scriptures from the pulpit, and per
haps more importantly, he lives his
faith - letting his actions set an ex
ample.
Hundreds of people and the envi
ronment have benefited from those
actions. Throughout his life. Gray has
been involved in numerous commu
nity projects - most recently estab
lishing an enormously successful
recycling center and being instrumen
tal in the establishment and growth of
the Greensboro Habitat for Human-
ity.
Gray isn’t the kind to admmister
projects from behind a desk. The soft-
spoken man can be found in the thick
of things - bagging aluminum cans,
building the roof of a home for a
needy family or serving meals to the
homeless.
“If you take the Christian faith and
keep it inside of you, its like making a
relic out of it,” the pastor of Fellow
ship Presbyterian Church in Greens
boro said. “The Christian faith has got
to be applied.” And that “application
has been a life-long commitment for
Gray - and something for which he
gives credit to St. Andrews.
“When I was at St. Andrews I was
involved with soccer and social life
more than anything else, but I believe
St. Andrews gave me a seed that
grew,” Gray said. “I will always
remember Dr. (William) Alexander
and Dick Prust. They challenged me
to think more than anyone else. I
don’t think I made very good grades
but I was challenged. The gift they
really gave me was teaching me
there was notjustoneway of thought,
but there were many ways and I
needed to explore those. And that
boils down to respecting individ
ual's rights and views and respect
ing Earth. In a sense we all have the
same kinship.
“The general slant of St. An
drews was to apply your Christian
faith to the world you live in,” Gray
remembered. “St. Andrews offered
individualized learning - you could
go off in your own direction, use
your own talents - and there was an
opportunity for personal creativity
and growth.”
While at St. Andrews Gray’s in
volvement with a tutorial program
for low income elementary and high
school students proved to be a “real
eye opener” and stemmed what
would be a life of community in
volvement. After receiving a major
in religion and minor in economics.
Gray spent a year at Union Semi
nary. Gray rebelled against Union’s
rigid education style and transferred
to Eden Seminary in St. Louis, Mo.
“I was used to St. Andrews’ open
education style. Eden was more like
St. Andrews - the emphasis was on
the individual intellectually, person
ally, and spiritually.”
Gray’s three years at Eden were
busy ones - both on and off campus. He
founded and edited Ivory Ghettos, a
faculty/staff journal; drove a truck to
finance his education and became ac
tive in the Teamsters Union and the
labormovement; served on the St. Louis
Human Relations Commission to in
vestigate police brutality; worked as a
Community Action Liaison to connect
low-income families with resources in
the Presbyterian Church; and served as
a drug abuse and teen pregnancy coun
selor in suburban St. Louis. He was also
politically active - serving as a delegate
to the state Democratic convention,
being active in the McGovern cam
paign and heading up two precincts in
St. Louis. His involvement in the Peace
Movement led to several trips to Wash
ington, D.C., to lobby for an end to the
Vietnam War and to begin filing as a
conscious objector to the war.
His political and community involve
ment did not end when he began his
ministry. Gray’s first appointment was
to arural church north of Hillsborough.
He served Little River Presbyterian
Church three years during which time
he was a delegate to the state Demo
cratic convention, active in James B.
Hunt’s gubernatorial campaign and
chaired the county public health com
mittee.
Gray completed his doctorate of
ministry while serving as associate
minister at First Presbyterian Church in
Asheboro. His dissertation focused on
the contemporary issues of the Bible -
primarily how to get people of the church
more actively involved in issues that
Continued on Page 8
International
*
Programs Expanded
with Addition
of Equador
By Dr. Lee Dubs
Contributing
Beginning next year St. Andrews
will have the opportunity to spend a
term abroad in Equador. Similar to
current programs in China and at
Brunnenburg, the new program will
send a group of students and a profes
sor to spend a full term in overseas
study. A major difference, however,
is that this will be an annual student-
professor exchange program, bring
ing Ecuadorians to our campus, too.
Last August, Professors Lee Dubs
and Tom Williams spent a week in
Cuenca, Ecuador, site of the Univer
sity of Cuenca. There they met with
university officials and worked out an
exchange agreement between the two
schools. Dr. Williams is chair of the
International Programs Committee,
while Dr. Dubs is director of the new
Ecuador Exchange Program. The
faculty and administration at St.
Andrews and at the University of
Cuenca endorsed the agreement.
According to Dr. Dubs, “We will
begin with small groups the first year,
probably adding more students later.
This fall, six students and a professor
from U. Cuenca will be at St. An
drews. Each student will live in a
residence hall with an American stu
dent, while the professor will live off
campus and teach courses at the col
lege.
During Spring Term (which is
autumn in Ecuador), six St. Andrews
students, led by Dr. Dubs, will live
with the families of the students who
attended St. Andrews during Fall
Term. Classes in Spanish and Andean
culture will be taught at the university
for them. The St. Andrews professor
each year will also offer courses in
Cuenca.
Drs. Dubs and Williams report that
Cuenca is Ecuador’s third largest city,
seated in a beautiful valley in the
Andes Mountains a few degrees south
of the equator, at an altitude of about
8,000 feet above sea level. The con
stancy of climate earns the city the
nickname “Eternal Spring.” Both
professors report that they fell in love
with the area and the people, and both
feel that it is ideally suited to a pro
gram for St. Andrews students.
In addition to the rich historic and
cultural attractions of the Cuenca area,
students will have opportunities for
excursions to other parts of the An
des, to the Pacific coast, and to the
jungle. Returning with many souve
nirs last August, the two St. Andrews
professors reported that the currency
exchange is “very favorable” to the
dollar. Dr. Dubs stated that the most
expensive air fare between two cities
in Ecuador was about $15.00 and “ a
lot cheaper by bus, if you have the
time.” Unlike many parts of the world,
the dollar in Ecuador “goes a very
long way, indeed,” reports Dr. Dubs.
In March, Drs. Dubs and Williams
will present a program about the ex
change program with U. Cuenca.
Applications will be available at that
time. The St. Andrews group will be
selected this Spring Term in order to
be part of the total exchange that begins
in the fall. Watch for posters or see Dr.
Dubs for more information.
The central plaza of the University of Cuenca. (Photo pro
vided by Tom Williams)
Corner of Roper and Atkinson
Specializes:
In new and used radiators
RecorIng and Heater Cores
Clean flushing and Repair
The Shop that Cares for People
Owner: JAMES OXENDINE
Manager: STEVE LOCKEY
Telephone 276-6852
rr
/