The KAPPAN Congratulates

Superintendent Karen Gaborik of the Fairbanks North Star Borough congratulates Clarice Mingo.

Alaska Sister Makes History

Clarice Louden-Mingo, a member of AK Gamma, was named the 2021 Alaska Assistant Principal of the Year by the Alaska Association of Secondary School Principals. She is the first African American female recipient of the award given to administrators who provide high quality learning experiences for students. Clarice is also the Alaska Region Six Assistant Principal of the Year.

Clarice has been an educator for 21 years, the last six as an assistant principal at Lathrop High School, Fairbanks, AK. She went into administration because she felt that was where she could better serve the needs of students and to help their voices be heard.

She is a native of Ninety Six, SC. She holds degrees from South Carolina State University, William Carey University and the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Her original goal was to go into the criminal justice field, but after doing substitute teaching while living at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, MS, she discovered her calling.

Sandy Boyle, a coworker at North Pole Elementary School, North Pole, AK, introduced her to Alpha Delta Kappa. Clarice joined in 2012.

Paying it forward is what she says resonates most with her when she thinks of the award. She “enjoys being an advocate for all her students, building positive relationships and having an impact in their lives while simultaneously supporting teachers.”

Kudos to Linda Stephens, OH, Alpha Rho, winner of the 2020 Agnes Robertson Global Outreach (ARGO) Scholarship.

Members Elected to Serve on A∆K Program Boards

Each biennium, the International Executive Board elects qualified members to serve on the International Teachers Education and Fine Arts Grants boards. This year, IEB established two additional boards to monitor and carry out the work related to the A∆K collegiate clubs and the recently launched Leadership Academy.

The International Executive Board is pleased to announce the election of Robin Leebardt (above, left), AZ Sigma, as a sixyear member of the Fine Arts Grants Board and Barb Eason (above, center), VA Alpha Tau as a six-year member of the International Teacher Education (ITE) Board Su Wade (above, right), MA Epsilon was elected as two-year member and chairman of the Leadership Academy Board. Also elected to the Academy Board were Lynn Blosser, MO Beta Xi, as a four-year member and Jamie Hawkins, NV Eta, as a six-year member.

The rotation of the leadership of the newly established boards is similar to that of the ITE and Fine Arts Grants boards. Board members grow in knowledge and skills, and ultimately chair the work of the board in their final biennium of service.

Glad Loreen, Northwest Region Mentor, congratulates International Teacher Education Scholar Trang Hoang on Trang’s graduation from the University of Washington, Seattle. Trang is from Viet Nam and received an MA in International Education Policy. Glad, WA Beta Alpha, and Diane Thompson, WA Alpha Delta, were Trang’s ITE sponsors.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROSE LADY

“The Rose Lady,” Elizabeth Moody of AZ Fidelia Zeta, turned 103 in May and celebrated with her AZ Fidelis Zeta sisters. Elizabeth received her nickname because for over sixty years, she has been known for her spectacular roses. She is a member of the Yuma and the MGM Garden clubs. One of her favorite roses is the Charlotte Armstrong, a rose with dark pink blooms and dark green foliage that grows well in the Yuma weather.

Elizabeth joined AZ Alpha Kappa in 1974, the year the chapter was chartered. She continues to attend Fidelis Zeta meetings regularly. Her chapter sisters say she is a true role model and inspiration to them.

Mary Covington, current copresident of NC Tau in Alamance County, was recently named the Alamance Arts Council’s Volunteer of the Year and received the Council President’s Award.

MO Beta Lambda

Jennifer Fritsche has been awarded the $500 MO Beta Lambda scholarship for 2021. Jennifer is using the scholarship to pursue a Masters in Reading from Arkansas State University. This degree will allow her to become a Certified Reading Specialist and Dyslexia Practitioner. It is an online program that allows Jennifer, who has taught for 23 years, to continue working at Altenburg Public School, and to raise her six children with her husband, Dan.

Bethany Zoellner was awarded the $500 MO Beta Lambda grant for 2021. Bethany used the funds to incorporate the use of graphic novels in her middle school English classes. She previously attended a Beta Lambda meeting and presented a program involving the literary aspects of graphic novels.

NY Upsilon presented its annual scholarship in a drive-by celebration. Cindi Broughton, Scholarship Chair, presented Kaylee Miller with the scholarship while other members socially distanced in the roadway. Kaylee will attend Niagara University, majoring in Elementary Teaching and Special Education. She will minor in Literacy. Kaylee follows in her mother Krista’s footsteps. Krista is a Middle School teacher in the Niagara Wheatfield School District. Lexi Glaser, a graduating senior at Marquette High School in the Rockwood School District, was recently awarded the $1,000 Jan McVicar Scholarship by MO Beta Xi. The scholarship, given to a senior who plans to pursue a degree in education, is named for a former Rockwood teacher. Lexi will attend Missouri State University. Lexi is the first Rockwood student to participate in the Parkway School District SPARK! Program. The program’s goal “is to exemplify how business, community and public education can partner to produce personalized learning experiences that educate the workforce of the future, especially in high skill, high demand jobs.” Through the program Lexi worked with elementary students at Highcroft Ridge Elementary School.

Member Honored

Patricia (Pat) Valle, WA Alpha Delta, was recognized as a notable community member during Women’s History Month this year by Lift Every Voice Legacy (LEVL).

LEVL, an organization inspired by the life and work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., engages, educates and empowers communities with artistic programs of cultural diversity, inclusion and equity. They do this while following Dr. King’s example of a “beloved community.”

Prior chairman and a founding member of the Edmonds Diversity Commission, Pat Valle celebrates mentors who have positively impacted her life. “Maria Valle, my mom, taught me empathy,” Pat says. “She gave me opportunities to interact with disabled people of all kinds.” Seattle Public Schools teacher Nohra Giraldo is another mentor Pat celebrates. “Nohra helped me understand the meaning of compassion. We worked with Latinx students who were struggling in school, facing a variety of challenges in their personal lives.”

Pat models her philosophy. “I believe the greatest gift we can give each other is compassion. My dad always said, ‘there are two sides to every story.’ We do not know what others are going through and what challenges they are facing. Considering the possibility of another’s story before I act is the epitome of compassion.”

An educator in the Shoreline School District, Pat was the 2020 Washington State Excellence in Education Awardee based on her dedication, knowledge, skills, professional achievement and success, as well as her school/community involvement, her contributions to the educational process and her active participation in Alpha Delta Kappa. –Adapted from “The Edmonds News”

The KAPPAN Congratulates

Welcome New ITE Scholars Spring Mini-Scholarships Announced

Five young women have joined the International Teacher Education (ITE) program, bringing the number of scholars sponsored by A∆K chapters up to seven.

The new additions are Ni Komang Darmini from Indonesia, enrolled in Ohio State University, Hoa Pham from Vietnam enrolled at Harvard Graduate School of Education College, Anahit Varanyan from Armenia enrolled in Boston College, Anukriti Jain from India enrolled in M.I.T. and Janett Perv from Estonia enrolled in the University of Minnesota, Duluth. At the time this issue was published, their sponsors had not been selected.

Alma (Karina) Munoz from Mexico, is a returning ITE scholar studying at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. Her sponsors are Helen Valliere, AZ Theta, Vaunee Ann Lewis, AZ Theta and Nora Castaneda. Also returning as an ITE scholar this year is Ramata Diallo of Mali studying at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Ramata’s sponsor is Denise Dragich, PA Mu. The ITE Board chairman is Sherryl Longhofer.

Sixteen sisters have received spring Regional Scholarships. Each region shares up to $1,500 with members who apply to attend nonAlpha Delta Kappa sponsored conferences, classes or workshops. Gulf: Deona Austin, LA Omicron and Kimberly Haggard, FL

Gamma Kappa North Central: Lacey Woody, NE Epsilon, Michele Plater, IL Beta and Andrea Zagrodny, ON Sigma Northeast: Alison Levy, VT Beta, and Bouchra Benghziel, NJ Kappa Northwest: Paula Furick, WA Beta Iota South Central: Sarah Fash, MO Alpha Eta and Ronda Hughes, AR

Alpha Epsilon Southeast: Christina Terry, SC Alpha Beta, Jessica Jackson, SC Beta,

Jennifer Hill, MD Alpha Gamma and Elizabeth Perthel, TN Mu Southwest: Julia Cencioso, AZ Pi and Georgina Georgelos, AZ

Sigma

Information about the grants and how to apply can be found on the International website.

The Book of Lost Friends

After thoroughly enjoying Lisa Wingate’s book Before We Were Yours, I was eagerly anticipating her latest novel, The Book of Lost Friends, and it did not disappoint. This historical fiction novel contains copies of actual newspaper columns entitled “Lost Friends” which were found in Southern newspapers during Reconstruction. Through these columns, slave families who had been torn apart before the war, searched for spouses, children, siblings and parents, hoping to be reunited. These newspaper clippings inspire the plot line of the novel which is told in parallel stories, one dated 1875 and one dated 1987.

In 1875, Hannie, a freed slave, joins her former master’s daughter Lavinia and Lavinia’s half-sister Juneau Jane for a perilous journey from Louisiana to Texas. Lavinia and Juneau Jane are searching for their father in hopes of obtaining their inheritance. Hannie hopes to be reunited with her mother and siblings who were lost to each other after being sold. Through Hannie’s flashbacks the reader learns about heart-wrenching separations and harsh conditions endured by many slave families. These three women are forced into an unlikely sisterhood as they struggle to survive physical demands of the journey, as well as attitudes and beliefs of people they meet along the way.

In 1987, Benedetta Silva is a first year teacher hoping to eradicate some of her student debt by taking a job in a poor rural area in Augustine, Louisiana. Like all first year teachers, she has high hopes for what she will accomplish, but she finds her students disinterested and mistrusting of someone new. The students are battling their own overwhelming issues of poverty, hunger, and instability at home and have little interest in any lessons she prepares. In an effort to motivate them, she suggests they research and role play a person from their family or town so they can learn and tell their own “stories.” It is through the students’ research and Benedetta’s strong desire to provide her classroom with a library that the parallel stories in this novel converge as the town’s connections to Hannie, Lavinia, and Juneau Jane emerge. As she pursues these projects, Benedetta must fight the town’s leaders, as many would rather the town’s history remain a secret. I loved this book on many levels. First as a retired teacher, I could relate to Benedetta’s classroom experiences and her quest to motivate her students. Second, I admired all the strong women characters for their courage and determination to pursue their journeys against overwhelming odds. Third, from a historical perspective, I learned a great deal about the many struggles and roadblocks slaves faced while trying to start a new life as a freed person post Civil War. Lastly, I was emotionally touched by the many “Lost Friends” columns found in the book. As a daughter, a wife, a mother, and a sister, I cannot imagine the heartbreak of being torn from my family. And yet, against great odds, these columns were a testament of hope.

If you love historical fiction, I highly recommend The Book of Lost Friends. It will leave you with much to ponder at its satisfying conclusion.

Barbara Hargraves, CT Kappa