Emerging scholars recognized at Meramec
By: Kelly Glueck
-Opinions Editor-
White tablecloths, flower arrangements, mood lighting and an in-house pianist transformed the school cafeteria into a banquet hall recognizing four emerging scholars for their achievements at Meramec at the First Annual Emerging Scholars banquet on Nov. 27. The Emerging Scholars is a new program for Meramec, but has been successful at sister campus STLCC-Florissant Valley for the last 17 years.
“The Emerging Scholars Program has had a record of success at Florissant Valley and is something we looked into in the past but never improvised,” Wasson said. “It provides an opportunity for students in developmental education to see that they are challenged but also a great opportunity and it’s great to have models who have been in the same place you have been and succeeded.”
The program recognizes students who have completed coursework in two or more developmental areas including English, math and/or reading; successfully completed 24 or more credit hours in college-level coursework; achieved a 3.5 or higher grade-point average; and, participated in campus and community activities.
The then Acting Dean Angela Grupas, Ph.D., was credited by Wasson and the committee responsible for the banquet as being instrumental in the initiation of the Emerging Scholars Program at Meramec.
“This is an honor for students, not only to get out of the developmental education limbo and excel in credit courses to a point of a 3.5 grade point average which makes them equivalent to PTK or other academic honors,” Grupas said. “It’s quite an achievement for the students and we thought they should be recognized.”
Grupas said to qualify, a student needs 24 credit hours and for an associate degree, a student needs 60 credit hours, so this is an award where, technically, a student can be an emerging scholar for more than one year if they meet the criteria again.
“Getting your degree or transferring is nice, but I think we need to honor students along the way. For some, it’s a very long journey,” said Grupas. “So if there are celebrations along the way, I think that’s fantastic. At Flo Valley they’ve had students for three years who have received those honors because they continued to excel and keep their GPA up and that’s been a motivator for students looking to keep up with scholarships.”
At the Banquet, students Ana Sholla, Amanda Potts, Matt Naumann and Marsha Wendels were honored by faculty and peers, dined and awarded a bookstore gift card and membership in Phi Theta Kappa (PTK), the international honor society for community colleges. One student, Potts was awarded a scholarship for her achievements on and off campus. Potts was acknowledged for her academic success as a member of PTK, her leadership by serving as secretary in TRIO, and her volunteer work for Nurses for Newborns and the Clifton Heights Neighborhood Association where she is busy working on landscape projects for neighborhood parks.
After a gap in higher education, Potts’ credits her recent academic success to campus resources such as academic labs, supplemental instruction and her mentor, adjunct reading instructor Kathy Daugherty, who taught reading courses at all levels and tutors students in the Academic Center as well as the TRIO lab.
“Students struggling should utilize the labs early in the semester. I make a habit to go into the labs the first or second week of the semester so that I can keep up with my studies,” Potts said.
Daugherty said Meramec offers a variety of resources for students and those resources, such as the Writing Lab, the Math Lab, the TRIO lab for TRIO students and supplemental instruction, can make the difference for students. Potts is just one example.
“Here at Meramec we want our students to achieve their dreams and that’s why we’re here to expand minds and change lives,” Daughtery said.
