High School Dropout Now in Elite Scholarship Company
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Scholarship Winner
Lori Langdon |
Benjamin Marcovitz got his undergraduate degree at Yale and
will be going to graduate school at Harvard. Qing Jiang of
China was at Arizona State and will soon be at Julliard. Enrique
Schaerer goes from Notre Dame to Yale, and Farhan Merali of
Canada just finished a degree at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology.
All are 2005 winners of prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Graduate
Scholarships, valued at up to $300,000.
Then there is 43-year-old high school dropout Lori Langdon
of Spring, Texas. This May she completed her undergraduate
degree at Sam Houston State University. This fall she begins
study toward her doctorate in clinical psychology at Sam Houston
State University.
Langdon, too, is a Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Scholarship winner,
one of only 76 recipients selected from among the 1,290 applicants
from 773 colleges and universities in the United States, and
one of only two from Texas.
"I'm very honored to be amongst people from these backgrounds,"
she said. Officials at Sam Houston State were even more thrilled
that one of their own, who plans to continue her studies here,
would be so honored.
Lori Langdon had family problems as a teenager in Wyandotte,
Mich. She and Stanley Langdon both dropped out of high school.
They were married when she was 19, and they moved to Houston.
Dropping out and not finishing school "was always something
that bothered me," Lori now says.
She finished high school with the general equivalency degree
(GED), but that didn't quell her thirst for education. They
had two children, Travis, now 21, and Molly, now 16. She was
a stay-at-home mother. Stanley is a truck driver, transporting
new cars from the factories and boats to the dealerships.
At the age of 37 she decided to go to college. She qualified
for the North Harris Montgomery Community College Honors Program,
graduating there in 2002. In August, 2002, she began her studies
at Sam Houston State, in the Elliott T. Bowers Honors Program.
Going back to school changed her life, she said.
"I loved it," she said. "I kind of blossomed."
Those who know her at Sam Houston State attest that she is
a rare person indeed, and one who can offer an example to
traditional and non-traditional students alike.
"I have witnessed that in adverse situations, Ms. Langdon
is strong and determined," said Norma Buxkemper, coordinator
of academic scholarships in the Division of Academic Affairs.
"She is truly a role model to her family, friends, professors,
and fellow students."
Glenn Sanford, honors program director, works with many bright
and dedicated students, but few like Lori Langdon.
"Ms. Langdon is a student who understands the value of
an education and its power to transform not only an individual,"
said Sanford, "but also those around that person."
In something like five years, when she has finished her doctorate,
Langdon said he would like to eventually teach or do therapy.
She is not sure which, and expects to have a better idea as
her doctoral studies unfold.
"I will find my calling," she said.
—END—
SHSU Media Contact: Frank
Krystyniak
August 24, 2005
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu.
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