Goodrich Proram marks 1,000th graduate, history of success
When Marisa Ozuna (pictured with UNO Chancellor Nancy
Belck) walked across the stage at the UNO Commencement ceremony in August, she
stepped straight into the history of the Goodrich Scholarship Program as its
1,000th graduate.
It truly was a significant milestone for the 33-year-old
program, founded in 1972 with funds from the Nebraska Legislature as the result
of a bill authored by the late State Sen. Glenn Goodrich of Omaha, the man for
whom the program is named.
More important than the numbers are the faces of those
1,000 graduates, where they came from and what they have gone on to accomplish,
says Goodrich Chairman Dr. Jerry Cederblom, one of the program's original
faculty members.
"Our success isn't as much in achieving the 1,000th
graduate as what our thousand graduates have gone on to achieve," Cederblom
says.
Goodrich grads include doctors, attorneys, corporate
executives, social workers, politicians, nurses, business owners, journalists
and teachers, he says.
"The graduates cover a rich, broad spectrum, one that
highlights the program's benefits and diversity. Because many of our graduates
remain in the Omaha area, the Goodrich Program has had a tremendously positive
impact on the community."
The son of a packinghouse worker, Goodrich understood the
benefits of a college education, having attended college on the G.I. Bill.
Later in life, he continued to be a great believer in providing people a way to
overcome their economic means.
Funded by the state, the Goodrich Program offers
scholarships and an intensive multicultural curriculum coupled with support
services designed to yield the confidence to succeed.
In addition to Cederblom, the Goodrich faculty includes
six instructors—Dr. Michael C. Carroll, Dr. Judy Harrington, Dr. Barbara
Hewins-Maroney, Dr. Imafedia Okhamafe, Troy Romero and Dr. Pamela J. Smith—and
three graduate assistants. Penny Nordahl, who coordinates support services, has
served in the program for more than 30 years; staff assistant Cathy Young has
served for 28 years.
The teaching staff has won numerous awards, and in 2001
the program earned the national Theodore M. Hesburgh Award Certificate of
Excellence for Faculty Development to Enhance Undergraduate Teaching and
Learning.
Ethnic diversity is a hallmark of the program. The student
body includes African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics and Native Americans. Many
are first-generation college students. The program welcomes older, returning
students as well as traditional college students.
"We don't recruit by quotas, but we are after a mix,"
Cederblom says.
Founded on the heels of the racial unrest of the late
1960s, the Goodrich Program was "a daring and risky proposal for its time," he
says. "The program has really flourished since that time. All in all, it's
worked out extremely well."
Goodrich scholarships cover tuition and fees for a maximum
of 10 semesters or 145 credit hours, or until graduation, whichever comes
first. That averages to about $3,600 per student per year. Admission is based
on the applicant's financial need, academic record, a personal interview that
aims at assessing motivation toward realistic goals, a writing test and
personal recommendations.
Success is evident in a growing graduation rate, up from
34 percent between 1978 and 1982, to 55 percent today. The retention rate of 80
percent between freshman and sophomore years is better than UNO's overall
retention rate of 70 percent. Both exceed the national average.
Once Sen. Goodrich achieved success in the Unicameral,
Hubert Locke, the founding dean of the College of Public Affairs and Community
Service, became the force behind developing the program. Goodrich met with
Locke to plan how best to put the scholarship funds to use.
"Dean Locke authored the program and then brought in the
faculty to fine-tune it," says Cederblom. "He (Locke) was very willing to
experiment, and that's precisely what we did. He set the course, but it was up
to us to blaze a trail."
The program's core curriculum
constitutes six credit hours of its students' course work during each semester
of their first year and three hours during each semester of their second year.
Selected Goodrich students participate in the Stephenson Internship Program
during the third or fourth year. This program, named after former program chair
Wilda Stephenson (pictured; front row, center, with some of the interns who
have participated in the Stephenson Internship Program) and coordinated by Judy
Harrington, recently received a private endowment of $250,000.
Today, the program's innovations—its multi-cultural focus,
its broad, general core curriculum, and its inclusion of critical reasoning and
intensive writing across the curriculum—make an impact across the campus. "It
has had a great influence extending multicultural education to the rest of the
university," Cederblom says.
Goodrich graduates have impacted their communities, and
they are among the program's strongest supporters.
To celebrate the 1,000th graduate, about 180 people
attended an invitation-only reception Aug. 14 at the UNO Milo Bail Student
Center Ballroom. Attendees included members of Sen. Goodrich's family, Locke,
most of the program's original faculty and former Goodrich Program Chairs
Stephenson and Don Dendinger.
They watched a video that was photographed, produced and
directed by Carlos Barrientos, a 1977 Goodrich graduate, which included
interviews with other program grads.
"I learned a lot," commented attorney Eric Whitner, a 1982
grad. "I really owe the Goodrich Program, but the community owes the Goodrich
Program a lot, because that's where I work."
Kathleen Jamrozy, a 1991 Goodrich graduate and today
co-owner of the Flatiron Café, told how the news that she had earned a
scholarship "was winning the lottery, for me."
"The Goodrich Program I think more than anything gave me
the self confidence," she says. "I think the hardest thing I ever did was get a
degree. More than anything, it was just a matter of believing I could
accomplish this.
"I truly don't know what I would be doing if not for the
Goodrich Program."
Douglas Russell, M.D., is a 1987 Goodrich grad. "The
Goodrich Program was incredible in helping me do the things I needed to do, to
get my credentials in place, to get my grades up, to help me develop into a
candidate who would be accepted once I applied and went through the process of
going to medical school," Russell recalled. "By all means, the support I got
through the Goodrich Program is the reason I became a physician."
Russell gives back to the program, serving the Stephenson
Internship Program as a mentor to a Goodrich student who hopes to become a
physician.
Troy Romero, a 1999 graduate and a current member of the
Goodrich faculty, was the first in his family to graduate from college. He
since has earned his master's degree and is working on his doctorate in
psychology, writing his dissertation on the Goodrich Program and its
effectiveness.
"Being a part of the program, I know it from the inside,"
he says. "I know what Goodrich does for students."
One of the program's newest supporters is its most recent
graduate. Ozuna, 28, received her bachelor's degree in business administration
in management from the UNO College of Business Administration.
She transferred to UNO as a freshman and received a
Goodrich scholarship her sophomore year. It made all the difference, she says.
"As a first-generation college graduate," Ozuna says, "the
Goodrich scholarship played a huge part for me in completing my degree."
As it did for 999 other graduates. And as it will for many
more to come.
