Reaching Out

I interviewed Clyde Pickett, a Director for Multicultural Development from Ohio Northern University . He is really someone I look up to & cherish. He puts my mind at ease with the loving and fatherly care he gives to the students. My daughter & so many other students go to him for advise, strength, encouragement, motivation, and he is an inspiration to parents as well as students. My mind is at ease while my daughter is @ONU. I have not seen a University where this type of loving care & nurturing is given the way he & the Multicultural Development has expressed it! Here is my interview with him.

If you had a choice:
1) Who would be your perfect students?
2) What would you want them to know?
3) What would you want to share with them?
4) Were there any moments where you may have felt discouraged, encouraged, or unsupported and how did you overcome the challenges you faced?
5). Is it more rewarding do you think to motivate and groom students’ vs. teaching them in the classroom?
6).Finally, do you have any advice about what my next steps should be to accomplish my goals in wanting to become a teacher.
Mrs. Dade,

Thank you for the e-mail. I’m sorry I missed your visit to Ada this weekend. I was actually out of town. I’ll make sure to look into Professor Rockquemore. You will find my answers to the questions below. Please let me know if you need any other information.


If you had a choice: 1)who would be your perfect students? I don’t believe in the concept of perfect students. I think that is the beauty of the work that I do. I have the opportunity to work with students from all different backgrounds and with different skills sets.
2) what would you want them to know? I would want all of my students to know that they are capable of anything. So many of our students limit their expectations. I work proactively to increase the expectations of my students. If they aspire for greatness and understand that it is obtainable, they can do anything.
3) What would you want to share with them? I share with them the awareness of resources to make their journey easier. For my students it means, scholarships, tutoring and other support services, as well as community partnership and engagement opportunities.
4) Were there any moments where you may have felt discouraged, encouraged, or unsupported and how did you overcome the challenges you faced? I have certainly felt all three. I have been discouraged and unsupported at times by the lack of success with some of my student programs and the lack of institutional support for some of my programs. I decided to move forward by focusing on helping all of the students I could to be successful. I am always encouraged by the feedback from my students and parents who openly show appreciation for the support that we are able to provide. I too am encouraged by the academic success of my students.
5. Is it more rewarding do you think to motivate and groom students vs. teaching them in the classroom? I think they are equally rewarding.
I know you deal with a lot of students & their personal issues, but how do you keep them motivated to stay @ONU? ?I keep them motivated by stressing the long term benefits in obtaining a degree from ONU. I also stress the importance of student engagement. If we can keep students involved and engaged in activities at ONU, we will be able to keep them at ONU.
Finally, do you have any advice about what my next steps should be to accomplish my goals in wanting to become a teacher. I would first ask what level you want to teach. Once you have that in mind I would suggest moving towards volunteer opportunities in a class setting to make sure that it was the appropriate career choice.




Clyde

Clyde Wilson Pickett
Director of Multicultural Development

I asked Dr. Urmani Director, of the Early Outreach Program for an interview. She has been a role model of mine for many years. My children used to attend the Saturday College here @ UIC. The program is phenomenon & I recommend it to anyone who has children & want a quality program to help them actually be ahead of their home school. We would getup every Saturday & they would learn math, science, language arts. They would even work in labs for an enriching experience. My daughter was lucky enough to get in the program in 6th grade. She also, was able to one of fifty that was selected across the United States in a program geared towards being a doctor. The Physician Scientist Program housed students all over the country & they were lab assistance in trying to find cures for many diseases. It was great she lived in the dorms @Temple University in Philadelphia for six weeks and then the next year for 8 weeks. She went to Washington, & UIC working very closely with Doctors who were doing research and trying to find a cure. She could say words that I could only dream of. I would always tell her to tell this person & that person what she was working on. I really loved that program it was great! Dr. Urmani was instrumental in getting Denisha (my daughter) in that program. She took her under her wing and groomed her. Not just her, but all my children. Her staff is the greatest they also, are very nurture ring but they don’t accept any non sense.
I asked her basically the same questions listen to her response.
Dear Angela,

Certainly, I will do the e-mail interview:

Answers:

If you had a choice:
1)who would be in your perfect class?
A perfect class for me would have 85% students who are eager to learn.
They would be students who love a challenge and are determined to be
successful in school and in life. Their eagerness keeps the class
interesting. Their self-motivation is the catalyst to improving the
performance of all the students in the class. They would feed off of each
other and strive for excellence and have lots of fun doing it. The other
15% would be a mixture of students who are academically challenged, have
had failures in school, are turned off to learning (because they have had
bad teachers), are handicapped physically and/or mentally, or autistic.
These students would be embraced by the 85%. Because they are in an
exciting learning environment, they would be transformed into excited
learners. The capacity of the 85% to help change the learning environment
would be crucial to making the class perfect.


2) What would you want them to know?
I would want the students to know how to read and perform basic
mathematical computations. I would want the 85% to know that they are
capable of conquering the world and they are born for success, and that
there is no challenge to hard for them to accomplish. They can even
change an individual with a bad attitude toward school into a positive
attitude and help them achieve success.

3) What would you want to share with them?
I would want to share with the students that they are born with the
capacity to be successful. There is nothing too hard for them to
accomplish, if they set their minds to it. They are made for success and
they can achieve it, if they are in the right environment. This would be
an environment that they create first in their minds and then in their
world.

4) Were there any moments where you may have felt discouraged, encouraged,
or unsupported and how did you overcome the challenges you faced?
There have been times when I have felt discouraged and unsupported, but
the moments when I have been encouraged have far outweighed those other
times. Every time I see the light go in a child's eyes, or see a child
loving learning, or help a child achieve a particular learning goal that
we have set, I feel so very excited. I feel invincible. This is what
encourages me and helps me overcome the challenges that come with being an
educator.

Finally, do you have any advice about what my next steps should be to
> accomplish my goals in wanting to become a teacher for children from
> 7-12th grade?
My advice to you would be to begin hanging around good teachers, who have
mastered working with adolescents. You need to be around teachers who
still believe that children can learn and want to see them achieve. You
need a mentor who is not afraid of teens. You need a gifted educator to
shadow who can show you how they do what they do so very well. First, get
yourself a mentor. Second, begin looking at the kind of school in which
you would like to serve as a teacher. Begin helping out at the school.
They may have extracurricular activities in which a teacher could use some
support. Third, begin tutoring a child who needs help. Fourth, shadow an
exceptional educator.

You are on your way to achieving your dream at the highest level of
perfection.

Be blessed.

Deborah Umrani, Ph.D.
I have to say Dr. Urmani has given my a chance of a life time. She has agreed to let me observe classes
Nov. 12th & she has also agreed to let me teach for one hour in Dec. I am excited & afraid @the same time.
I want to say Thank You Dr. Urmani, & I love you for believing in my children & ME!