Thursday, December 19, 2013 • The Weekly Press • Page 3
Southern University’s Marlon Young Graduating After 20 Years at SU BATON ROUGE-“Never give up,” said Marlon Young, a 39 year-old Southern University student who will get his undergraduate degree on December 13 after being enrolled at SU off and on for 20 years. You ask who is Marlon Young? You have seen him. He has a small frame, walks quietly around campus, usually wearing a jacket, wire-frame glasses and a hat with a huge backpack. When not in class he spends a lot of time around the J.S. Clark Administration building or at The Bluff. Some students might have seen him sitting all the way at the top of the student section at football games. You probably know who he is now. But you probably don’t really know him. The Capitol High School alum was 19 years old when he started at Southern University in 1993 and chose to major in mechanical engineering. Bill Clinton was president of the United States then and the Internet had been available to the public for only a year. He had his struggles early on and in 1998 he had to leave Southern after being placed on academic suspension. He was also dealing with serious personal medical issues and taking care of his grandparents who were ill. The Baton Rouge native remained out of school for four years. When his life settled down and he was able to return to school in the fall of 2002. “Robert Bennett, former Dean of Student Life, told me to reapply to the university on an academic appeal,” said Young, who was then reinstated into Southern, this time as an electrical engineering major. Young then hit another speed bump in 2006 when his financial aid ended because he had the maxed out at the 196hours that students can have to receive the assistance. He had taken a lot of classes, but many of them were not classes in his major. Once again, Young had to step away from his education. The then 33-year-old did not give up when just his medical problems alone could have derailed him. Young was born with Sickle Cell Anemia, an inherited blood disorder that primarily affects African Americans. It causes fatigue, anemia, painful crises, swelling and organ damage, sight issues and other health-related problems. Young has battled the debilitation disease while fighting through his classes. It was through his health fight that he has received financial assistance from the Louisiana
Hub
Photography Exhibit At The West Baton Rouge Museum
Marlon Young Rehabilitation Services to help him return and remain in school. Young says he has to visit the Office of Disabilities every semester to get assistance completing his paper work to qualify for the financial help. Young was soon seen back in the classroom and on campus in the fall of 2007. This time he was in the final stretch that would end with him receiving his degree. When asked why did he not just give up after so many bumps in the road, he simply said, “I needed to advance myself…I did not want to give up. I have been here this long.” Young was back on The Bluff taking 12 hours a semester. The LRS requires Young to be a full-time student. Young has finally reached his goal. On December 13, he is set to walk across the stage in the F.G. Clark Activity Center to receive his degree in Electrical Engineering with 248 credits. That is enough for about two degrees. He steadfastly refused to accept a bachelor of interdisciplinary studies degree, which would have allowed him to graduate nearly two years ago. It was plain and simple. He wanted to get his degree in engineering. What’s next for Young? He said that he “isn’t going to be lost” because school has ended but he will go onto the next thing. “I am going to see what happens,” said Young. As a student who has never given up what he truly desired, Young’s advice to students now is simply to “never give up, and don’t complain about what you don’t have…I never did.” He also suggests students take things slow. Do not be in a rush to get things done. Think about what is right for you. Southern University commends Young and congratulations him on reaching the goal he set out on all those years ago.
from page 1
dent nonprofit organization, but with deep ties to both the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and the state, and provides assistance to the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. It was founded in 2011 and has been working out of offices at One American Place. It is envisioned as a central research hub that can bring together scientists from state universities, engineering and construction companies, levee districts and nonprofits, to work on water issues facing Louisiana and beyond. The third element of the campus will be a $9 million coastal research office building to house other organizations, including the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. Construction on the first phase of the campus, the river model, is expected to start in Feb. 2014. Construction on the education and research facility on the dock is expected to begin in the second half of 2014. Officials said the development will drive economic development, between spurring more jobs in the water sector, and helping to revitalize that area
Danny Lyon: Memories Of The Southern Civil Rights Movement
of Nicholson Drive. The water sector could create 25,000 to 45,000 new jobs by 2030, Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret said. “Coming together to create the water campus is not just a critical tool for coastal restoration, but is truly a major catalyst for state of Louisiana,” Moret said. The campus is made up of 13 acres of land BRAF purchased from the East Baton Rouge Housing Authority, another 11 acres the city-parish is leasing to BRAF, and 13 acres donated by the state. Another adjacent parcel, owned by stakeholders including developer Mike Wampold, is expected to be developed privately, but following the “master plan” for the water campus. The Baton Rouge Area Foundation and Commercial Properties Realty Trust, the foundation’s real estate arm, will develop and manage the campus. Jindal said the new campus will help the state with a “comprehensive approach to (coastal restoration) that takes all the tools in our tool chest.”
Sheriff Jim Clark arrests two demonstrators.
PORT ALLEN — The West Baton Rouge Museum presents the exhibition, DANNY LYON: MEMORIES OF THE SOUTHERN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, January 11 through March 9, 2014. Noted for his work in documentary photography and film, Danny Lyon helped define a mode of photojournalism in which the picture-maker is deeply and personally embedded in his subject matter. He was able to use his camera to capture the story of one of the most inspiring periods in America’s twentieth century. A self-taught photographer and a graduate of the University of Chicago, Lyon began his photographic career in the early 1960s as the first staff photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a national group of college students who joined together after the first sit-in by four African American college students at a North Carolina lunch counter. From 1963 to 1964, Lyon traveled the South and Mid-Atlantic regions documenting
Budget
from page 1
promise. The measure overwhelmingly cleared the House last week. On Tuesday, the Senate advanced the bill in a procedural vote, setting the stage for final passage. The deal marks a sharp change from recent years in which partisan hostilities led to governance by crisis. Deals were struck between Democrats and Republicans only as the government neared an emergency. A last-minute deal in October, for example, removed the threat of a default on the national debt that could have triggered another recession. The earlier budget deals helped shrink the deficit. But they’ve also squeezed workers and businesses by hindering growth. Higher tax rates, along with spending cuts, subtracted 1.5 percentage points from annual growth this year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That’s the difference between an economy limping along at 2.4 percent annual growth and one accelerating at close to a 4 percent rate. With the new deal in place, economists estimate that the government will exert less of a drag on the economy. The drag on growth from federal policies should decline from 1.5 percentage points this year to 0.5 percentage point at the most, economists estimate. The bill approves spending in 2014 at slightly more than $1 trillion, compared with the $967 billion mandated by the automatic spending cuts. It boosts spending by $63 billion over two years. It replaces the spending cuts with longer-term savings, many of which don’t accumulate for nearly another decade. Airline passengers
Segregated facility.
the Civil Rights Movement. The photographs were published in The
Movement, a documentary book about the Southern Civil Rights
will pay higher ticket fees, but the additional revenue won’t come from tax increases. Deficits would rise slightly in 2014 and 2015. The compromise could also spur businesses to hire and expand because they’re no longer operating under the threat of another government shutdown. It also suggests that a compromise will be reached when Congress must again raise the debt limit in February to prevent a possible default. Just the appearance
of two nearly implacable political parties agreeing on the first bipartisan budget pact since 1986 has increased hope. “More significant is that there is a deal at all, as that should eliminate the risk of another shutdown,” said Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, who forecasts that the economy will grow 3.3 percent next year largely as a result of less drag from the government.
Movement, and later in Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement, Lyon’s own memoir of his years working for the SNCC. Lyon’s photographs are more than just a record of marches, jailings, and protests. They take us inside the movement—to the meetings, organizing work, and voter registration drives that were the less visible but no less important side of the struggle for Civil Rights. Although the SNCC needed his photos as documentation and propaganda, he took this function and made art. Fifty of his photographs will be on display at the West Baton Rouge Museum beginning January 11 through March 9, 2014. This collection of photos is traveling via Art 2 Art Circulating Exhibits. The West Baton Rouge Museum is located at 845 N. Jefferson Avenue, Port Allen, LA, 70767. For more information please call (225) 336-2422 x15 or visit www.westbatonrougemuseum.com.
The agreement could also make it easier for the Federal Reserve to scale back its purchases of $85 billion in bonds each month. The Fed program has been intended to lower loan rates to boost borrowing, spending and investing. But even as hiring has picked up, Chairman Ben Bernanke has been reluctant to slow the purchases until Congress settled its differences on the budget.
www.kisworkout.com Break Through! Break Through! Break Through! This Is What We Have Been Waiting On. You Don’t Have To Go Anywhere You Don’t Have To Buy Anything This Exercise Program Is Designed For You, Right Where You Are.