Graduation Post Script 2
This blog is about the other graduate in our family: Joel. He was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree with a business administration major. He graduated summa cum laude, with a 4.0 Grade Point Average. I don't think he's ever gotten any grade in college besides an A--on any assignment.
The shameless plaudits continue in the following paragraphs. Indulge me, just this once.
After the graduation, one of the professors who had told Joel ahead of time that she wanted to meet his parents told us that we had raised a wonderful son. "And I mean that with all my heart," she continued. Even under her academic garb, complete with the beret-style cap of her alma mater, and, while wearing sunglasses against the glare of a brassy-bright sun, she couldn't hide her motherly demeanor. I felt sure that Joel had been in good hands with Dr. Kathy (Glynn) as his faculty adviser, mentor and teacher. She continued the conversation by asking Joel if he would consider serving as a mentor if she needed to place students for internships in the future. Joel would be happy to accommodate Dr. Kathy and an intern.
The next professor we met was Dr. Lederle, the religion professor who had led the benediction in a wonderfully fervent, articulate, British-accented prayer. He repeated the “wonderful son” refrain in some form. “I keep trying to get him to pursue a religion major,” he informed us.
“I think he would really enjoy that if he had felt like he could take the time,” I told him.
“Well, he’s just so good at so many things,” he said understandingly. To Joel he said then “Come back and take some more majors.”
Dr. Lederle was born in South Africa and spent most of his life there. He came to America during the upheaval in the country when the black majority began to insist on a role in the white-controlled government. He feared for his family in the chaotic situation, and sought safety for them in a small town in Kansas. I’d like to invite Dr. Lederle to our church and our home sometime. I think he would enjoy the exposure to a different religious tradition. Besides, I’m a sucker for a British accent.
The last professor we met was Dr. Froese, who was head of the psychology department during my days at Sterling. “Did you tell your parents that you blew the top off the business test?” He is in charge of giving the major-specific national-norms exit tests that Sterling gives seniors. After the scores came in he emailed Joel and told him that, in all his years of testing he has never seen a perfect score of 200 as Joel had gotten. “Congratulations!”
I’m sure Sterling considers Joel’s score as a vindication of the strength of their business department offerings. They don’t know that Joel sometimes felt that he wasn’t learning much in class. That’s because he had done an enormous amount of reading in this subject area for years before he started taking business classes. The books were his real education I believe, but Sterling gave him opportunities to complete related projects that he would not have been likely to do on his own. And the personal experiences the professors brought to the class were helpful also.
Going back several years, when Joel took his ACT (college entrance exams), he got invitations from three prestigious institutions who wanted him to apply for admission: Harvard, West Point, and the University of Pennsylvania. He was only 16 years old at the time and we weren’t about to let him leave home yet. Besides, a military school wasn’t what we idealized for our son. He courteously declined all the invitations and the interview process that would have put him on a West Point path, and began attending our local junior college for individual classes. From the age of 16 on he also worked 40 hours every week as a computer programmer.
Even earlier, Joel showed an amazing eagerness to learn. Before he turned four, he had learned to read small books. At four, he brought the paper in very slowly because he was reading from it on his way in from the mailbox. At five he read the Bible through in the New International Version. Soon after that he read Frank Peretti’s book This Present Darkness. I hardly knew whether this was wise but I determined to let him read it, and we discussed it thoroughly as he did so. Later, when I came across another article that seemed to me to be dabbling in darkness I gave it to him to read and asked him what he thought. “Mom, I think this is the same thing as that Present Darkness book,” he said. Exactly.
In seventh grade Joel won the county spelling bee championship. When he competed at the state level in Topeka, he placed 13th among representatives from Kansas’ 105 counties. While studying for the spelling bee he learned word spellings, pronunciations, and definitions that I had never learned.
Joel has shown compassion in the way he uses his considerable earning power to relieve suffering and need in the world. I don’t know where all he donates money, but I know that he pays the school expenses for two children in Kenya, and he provides monthly support for at least three other children in various countries. I’ve gathered that he also donates regularly to Offender-Victim ministries, to a rescue mission, to a “Bibles” ministry, an orphanage, and to several non-religious organizations whose cause he believes in. Oxfam is such an organization, as are the Nature Conservancy, and the Japanese-American Museum in California. He also donates regularly to our church offerings, of course.
Joel volunteers one Saturday morning a month at the Et Cetera shop, the local Mennonite Central Committee’s thrift shop and Ten Thousand Villages’ fair trade shop featuring handcrafts from around the world. He also meets early every Sunday morning with young people at the detention center in Hutchinson for a worship service.
Joel envies others, however, who have some of the abilities he feels he lacks. He notices the easy way some people engage strangers in conversation and wishes he could do the same. Others, like his brother Shane, sing well with very little effort, and he’d like to be able to do that. His youngest brother, Grant, has a “disgusting” habit of being able to charm reluctant equipment into spontaneous cooperation when he directs his skills appropriately. While Joel writes very well, he edits his speech on-the-fly so carefully that it often doesn’t flow smoothly. His earliest efforts at speech involved practicing words painstakingly till he could say them to his satisfaction. While Joel often exercises, he has never had an enviably-muscled body.
Joel has studied and enjoyed German, Spanish, and Japanese. He spoke Pennsylvania Dutch and said some Japanese words before he spoke English. His teachers for German and Spanish report that he has good pronunciation. Native Japanese say he has a perfect Japanese accent.
When Joel was a baby I often prayed that he would grow up to love and serve God and other people. Indications are that Joel, at 24, may be praying that prayer on his own now. Either way, the prayer is being answered, and today I thank God and Joel.
The shameless plaudits continue in the following paragraphs. Indulge me, just this once.
After the graduation, one of the professors who had told Joel ahead of time that she wanted to meet his parents told us that we had raised a wonderful son. "And I mean that with all my heart," she continued. Even under her academic garb, complete with the beret-style cap of her alma mater, and, while wearing sunglasses against the glare of a brassy-bright sun, she couldn't hide her motherly demeanor. I felt sure that Joel had been in good hands with Dr. Kathy (Glynn) as his faculty adviser, mentor and teacher. She continued the conversation by asking Joel if he would consider serving as a mentor if she needed to place students for internships in the future. Joel would be happy to accommodate Dr. Kathy and an intern.
The next professor we met was Dr. Lederle, the religion professor who had led the benediction in a wonderfully fervent, articulate, British-accented prayer. He repeated the “wonderful son” refrain in some form. “I keep trying to get him to pursue a religion major,” he informed us.
“I think he would really enjoy that if he had felt like he could take the time,” I told him.
“Well, he’s just so good at so many things,” he said understandingly. To Joel he said then “Come back and take some more majors.”
Dr. Lederle was born in South Africa and spent most of his life there. He came to America during the upheaval in the country when the black majority began to insist on a role in the white-controlled government. He feared for his family in the chaotic situation, and sought safety for them in a small town in Kansas. I’d like to invite Dr. Lederle to our church and our home sometime. I think he would enjoy the exposure to a different religious tradition. Besides, I’m a sucker for a British accent.
The last professor we met was Dr. Froese, who was head of the psychology department during my days at Sterling. “Did you tell your parents that you blew the top off the business test?” He is in charge of giving the major-specific national-norms exit tests that Sterling gives seniors. After the scores came in he emailed Joel and told him that, in all his years of testing he has never seen a perfect score of 200 as Joel had gotten. “Congratulations!”
I’m sure Sterling considers Joel’s score as a vindication of the strength of their business department offerings. They don’t know that Joel sometimes felt that he wasn’t learning much in class. That’s because he had done an enormous amount of reading in this subject area for years before he started taking business classes. The books were his real education I believe, but Sterling gave him opportunities to complete related projects that he would not have been likely to do on his own. And the personal experiences the professors brought to the class were helpful also.
Going back several years, when Joel took his ACT (college entrance exams), he got invitations from three prestigious institutions who wanted him to apply for admission: Harvard, West Point, and the University of Pennsylvania. He was only 16 years old at the time and we weren’t about to let him leave home yet. Besides, a military school wasn’t what we idealized for our son. He courteously declined all the invitations and the interview process that would have put him on a West Point path, and began attending our local junior college for individual classes. From the age of 16 on he also worked 40 hours every week as a computer programmer.
Even earlier, Joel showed an amazing eagerness to learn. Before he turned four, he had learned to read small books. At four, he brought the paper in very slowly because he was reading from it on his way in from the mailbox. At five he read the Bible through in the New International Version. Soon after that he read Frank Peretti’s book This Present Darkness. I hardly knew whether this was wise but I determined to let him read it, and we discussed it thoroughly as he did so. Later, when I came across another article that seemed to me to be dabbling in darkness I gave it to him to read and asked him what he thought. “Mom, I think this is the same thing as that Present Darkness book,” he said. Exactly.
In seventh grade Joel won the county spelling bee championship. When he competed at the state level in Topeka, he placed 13th among representatives from Kansas’ 105 counties. While studying for the spelling bee he learned word spellings, pronunciations, and definitions that I had never learned.
Joel has shown compassion in the way he uses his considerable earning power to relieve suffering and need in the world. I don’t know where all he donates money, but I know that he pays the school expenses for two children in Kenya, and he provides monthly support for at least three other children in various countries. I’ve gathered that he also donates regularly to Offender-Victim ministries, to a rescue mission, to a “Bibles” ministry, an orphanage, and to several non-religious organizations whose cause he believes in. Oxfam is such an organization, as are the Nature Conservancy, and the Japanese-American Museum in California. He also donates regularly to our church offerings, of course.
Joel volunteers one Saturday morning a month at the Et Cetera shop, the local Mennonite Central Committee’s thrift shop and Ten Thousand Villages’ fair trade shop featuring handcrafts from around the world. He also meets early every Sunday morning with young people at the detention center in Hutchinson for a worship service.
Joel envies others, however, who have some of the abilities he feels he lacks. He notices the easy way some people engage strangers in conversation and wishes he could do the same. Others, like his brother Shane, sing well with very little effort, and he’d like to be able to do that. His youngest brother, Grant, has a “disgusting” habit of being able to charm reluctant equipment into spontaneous cooperation when he directs his skills appropriately. While Joel writes very well, he edits his speech on-the-fly so carefully that it often doesn’t flow smoothly. His earliest efforts at speech involved practicing words painstakingly till he could say them to his satisfaction. While Joel often exercises, he has never had an enviably-muscled body.
Joel has studied and enjoyed German, Spanish, and Japanese. He spoke Pennsylvania Dutch and said some Japanese words before he spoke English. His teachers for German and Spanish report that he has good pronunciation. Native Japanese say he has a perfect Japanese accent.
When Joel was a baby I often prayed that he would grow up to love and serve God and other people. Indications are that Joel, at 24, may be praying that prayer on his own now. Either way, the prayer is being answered, and today I thank God and Joel.
posted by Mrs. I at
8:42 PM
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