ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 24, 1996 TAG: 9609240029
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NANCY GLEINER STAFF WRITER
PENNY AND JERRY ROBERTSON want their daughters to get out - out from the poverty they've grown up in in the shadow of Roanoke's Walker Foundry. The wear and tear on their small white house shows like wrinkles on a face.
To the Robertsons, it's education that forms the bricks paving the road for their children to travel to a better place, financially.
Very early in their childhoods, Theresa and her younger sister, Callie, showed remarkable intelligence. College for both of them would be easily achievable - scholastically.
Money was another matter.
Miraculously, Theresa, a 1995 graduate of Roanoke's CITY and Governor's schools for the academically talented, is beginning to fulfill her parents' dream. She is now a sophomore at Harvard University and her road has been partially paved with gold.
When Theresa was accepted to the freshman class, grants, loans and a generous scholarship from Harvard made it possible for her to take her first steps toward the kind of education she desired.
Her parents took out a small loan, unable to guarantee any help beyond Theresa's freshman year. Theresa worked at a library on campus, baby-sat and budgeted her money tightly.
And people from her hometown opened their hearts and pocketbooks when they read about her in this newspaper.
It started with a deluge of letters and checks, mostly from people she didn't know:
A grandmother of four college students.
Money sent twice from a local caterer.
A woman who remembered being at college and not having enough money to chip in to buy pizza.
A Radford teacher who wrote, ``Call if you need anything.''
A woman from Pennsylvania who happened to be passing through town the day an article about Theresa ran in the paper.
A gentleman from Roanoke College's class of 1925.
Then there were the big-ticket items: a plane ticket home for Thanksgiving break, a state-of-the-art computer system from a local business, a check from the local American Businesswomen's Association, a ``great job'' for Roanoke City Schools this past summer.
And the grandest prize:
``I'm not independently wealthy, but my uncle left me a trust fund,'' the woman on the telephone began. ``I use it to help students further their education. I read about Theresa and I'd like to help her.''
This patron has totally repaid Penny and Jerry's loan. And she will continue to pay whatever amount is left after Theresa receives her scholarships, grants and loans during the next three years.
The same woman has offered to do likewise for Callie, a junior and all ``A'' student at William Fleming High School.
Penny and Jerry are relieved, grateful - and amazed.
``It's been like `Cinderella,''' Penny commented.
``It's all gone very smoothly,'' Theresa marveled. ``In fact, some things have worked out better than I ever could have imagined they would.''
Theresa spent the summer as a technology assistant for Roanoke City Schools, working with computers. A few days before she left, she sat in her kitchen wearing her Roanoke Valley Governor's School T-shirt, as comfortable here as she has always been even after a year at Harvard.
Her father played a game on Theresa's computer in the living room. He had become addicted. He was about to become unplugged.
Theresa had not traveled much, only a few trips to the beach. Now, because of trips with college friends, she can add New York City, Pittsburgh, Richmond, Maine, Boston to the places she has visited - hardly exotic, but certainly broader horizons.
She had received several postcards from her classmates - from their travels to France, Denmark, Italy. ... But there was no longing in her voice.
``I'm glad I grew up here,'' she said, sincerely. ``I love my neighborhood and my little house.''
Of her college friends, Theresa is the practical one, the one who bakes cookies, who mediates squabbles, who sees no point in getting involved in esoteric discussions, the stuff of late-night hall talks.
``While I was growing up, it was hard to sit around and ponder grand philosophical questions when you're wondering whether or not we're going to pay the bills for the month or if there's enough cereal to put in the bowl.''
Penny calls her daughter Sister Theresa. Her college friends call her mother hen and the little Southern girl.
``Not everyone is from the outskirts of town or went to the little church on the corner,'' Theresa said. ``You find out there's more than a handful of ways to grow up.
``It's still the same principles of getting along, though. You learn from the diversity in subtle ways.''
Her friends are all of the same purpose - getting a great education. Harvard provides it in a nurturing atmosphere: Each house (the Harvard term for dorm) has its own library, Steinway pianos in the practice rooms and a billiard room. ``Yeah,'' Theresa said, ``there's a pool table in the basement.''
``You know they like you to call it a billiard room,'' Penny admonished, half in jest.
Yes, there is the Harvard mystique, perpetuated by the school itself. Where else would an entire student body - a very large one at that - be treated to an on-campus lobster dinner?
``The school bought so many, it threw off the lobster market for a few days,'' Theresa laughed.
But it's been people outside the school who have made Penny finally realize her daughter is not just going to college, she's going to ``Hah-vid.''
``Sometimes you talk to people about their kids and college and when they find out mine goes to Harvard, there's a feeling of how can I compete with that,'' Penny said. ``Sometimes I don't say anything anymore.''
``For a lot of kids, this was their dream school,'' Theresa said. ``I just feel lucky I'm going to any college.''
Next summer, Theresa can have her job back. She'll return home, spending part of the time visiting medical schools. Most of the those on her list are within easy driving distance - Duke, the University of Kentucky, the University of South Carolina, Bowman-Gray ...
Penny's shoulders relax a little.
Despite her almost B+/A- average, ``I probably won't get into Harvard med if I get any more B's,'' Theresa speculated.
She's seen original Renoirs, Van Goghs and Monets at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, the green monster at Fenway Park, the Fogg Art Museum, Filene's Basement, eaten Thai food and is living this year in the same hall John Kennedy once did.
But, ``She's still my `Bubbie,''' her dad said.
``Yeah, we still have our Friday night Beavis and Butthead fests,'' Theresa chuckled.
For her 18th birthday, Penny gave Theresa the Dr. Seuss book, ``Oh, the Places You'll Go.'' Maybe she didn't realize what she was doing.
LENGTH: Long : 132 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Theresa Robertson (in plaid shirt) and some of herby CNBhousemates gathered for a snapshot during her freshman year. 2.
Theresa Robertson taught computer skills to pupils at Roanoke's
Virginia Heights Elementary School this summer before starting her
sophomre year at Harvard. color.