THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 12, 1995 TAG: 9505120054
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
THIS MONTH thousands of area college students are donning tasseled mortarboards and flowing gowns and collecting their diplomas. They've studied everything from Georgia O'Keefe to offshore oil spills to cybernetics and they are as different as the disciplines they've chosen.
These five students - a young man who became his family's breadwinner in ninth grade when his father died, a single mother of two taking charge of her life after a difficult divorce, a former day care operator who plans to be a judge, a retired pilot who will practice law and a Sri Lanka native who 12 years ago could not speak English - illustrate the diversity of the class of '95.
IN NINTH GRADE, Daniel Lee got a rough push into adulthood.
His father, a trucker, suffered an accident that left him permanently disabled. His mother had only a seasonal job, picking the meat out of crabs every summer at a cannery in Lancaster, Va.
Daniel had to learn how to support his family.
``It disciplined me a lot,'' Lee, now 22, said. ``The normal high school student could sit back and relax, but I had to work three jobs (cashier, janitor, dishwasher) and be the breadwinner.''
Then, another tragedy in high school: His girlfriend gave birth to a girl, but the baby died a week later because of intestinal problems.
Through it all, he maintained a strong academic record and a schedule chock full of extracurriculars: drum captain in the band, member of the National Honor Society and debate team, co-captain of the baseball team. Still, he had no plans for college.
But his guidance counselor made him think about it. ``She didn't want me to go to waste; where I'm from, if you don't go to college, you end up either in jail, on drugs, you wind up dead or you work for Food Lion. She saw more than that in me.''
So did his dad: ``My father told me the reason my daughter passed was that God had plans for me.''
Lee went to Old Dominion University, his counselor's alma mater. As in high school, he barreled his way through a schedule crammed with jobs, activities and academics. Once again, he succeeded. Last week, he graduated with a 3.3 grade-point average, first runner-up for the university's Kaufman Prize for service but tops in the estimation of several students and administrators.
Patricia Cavender, assistant vice president for enrollment services, took him regularly on recruiting trips and marveled at his enthusiasm as a campus tour guide. ``He is one of the very best. He reaches out to people and talks to them as if they were the only one out there.''
Lee majored in therapeutic clinical recreation, influenced in part by the experiences of his grandmother, who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and his father. ``People in hospitals and nursing homes get depressed when they don't have anything to do and they don't have anybody to talk to,'' Lee said.
To pay for college, he worked in the admissions office 25 hours a week, moonlighted as a bouncer in a bar on the weekends and served in the National Guard. On campus, he was a battalion sergeant major with the Army ROTC and vice president of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.
``You can get caught up in the fraternity scene and party all the time and that's what you'll do,'' Lee said. ``It all depends on how you take it.''
He took the service side seriously, tutoring kids regularly at a Norfolk Boys' Club. ``He helped a lot of them set up personal goals and followed up with them on those goals,'' said Melinda MacNeil, ODU's coordinator of Greek affairs. ``He knew the kids and families, because they trusted him.''
And he got to know lots of people at ODU. He's serious and soft-spoken, but he'd made plenty of friends. Sitting outside the Old Administration Building last week, he got a stream of greetings: ``Hi, Danny,'' ``Hi, good looking.''
Lee still remembers his ties back home. Two weeks ago, he went back for the anniversary of her daughter's death. ``Her birthday was April 30, and I went home to put flowers on her grave. She would have been 6 today.''
His military experience won't end with graduation. In August, he's headed for Army training as a second lieutenant at Fort Bliss in Texas. His goal: to be a general.
``When you're a general, you've got to learn to let people do the work for you,'' Lee said. That will be a change for him. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI/Staff
Daniel Lee, who worked three jobs in high school, graduated from ODU
last week with a 3.3 GPA.
by CNB