THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 15, 1996 TAG: 9604150064
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
No one scored a touchdown, but about one-third of Norfolk State University's students got a chance to be stars on the football field Sunday afternoon.
It was the university's annual Spring Scholarship, Honors and Awards Convocation, and this year about 3,000 students were recognized for everything from big money scholarships to a semester's stint on the honor roll.
Some of the students had graduated in December and gone on to jobs too far away to attend. But with family and friends who showed up for the event, about 4,600 people poured into the stadium. State Sen. L. Louise Lucas, a Norfolk State alumna, gave the keynote speech.
Before students marched into the stadium, Anne Horne of Portsmouth, 21-year-old senior class president, stood outside the gym where honorees were lining up.
Horne, a biology and pre-med student, plans to attend graduate school and one day research cancer. But Sunday she was just happy to be among the students cheered for being on the dean's list.
``I think it's very important,'' she said of the event. ``So much emphasis is put on athletics. Now is the day for the people who work hard as far as academics. It's the day to shine.''
Horne wasn't surprised by the hordes of people filling university parking lots and filing into the new stadium.
Parents receive letters about the ceremony and many attend, even traveling from other states. If they have been to one ceremony, and aren't invited to the next, they usually want to know why, she said.
But students take it seriously, too, Horne said.
They arrive dressed to perfection - male students in dark suits, female students in their black or navy blue Sunday best, high heels clicking as they walk.
Horne admits she became distracted by too many activities for awhile - everything from tennis and sorority to the Student Leadership group and the Biology Society.
Now she counsels other students that ``academics comes first, everything else is second.''
Evidently many students are getting that message.
Antionette K. Lampkin, who chairs the annual event, said the number of students who make the awards lists increases every year and that this year's convocation was ``one of the best.'' Norfolk State's student population is about 8,700.
Lampkin, whose hats at the university range from director of new student orientation to dean of retention and academic advising, has seen in the latest crop of students a trend toward seriousness and maturity.
Inside the gym, 28-year-old Kevin Monroe of Chesapeake stood in line with other students awaiting instructions.
His mother, brother, wife and child were in the audience, ready to watch him take a bow with other dean's list students.
It was the business education major's first time participating in the convocation and he wouldn't have missed it.
In prior years, he was working full time and taking classes part time. Students have to be taking a full load of classes to be named to the dean's list.
After quitting work to focus completely on school, Monroe made the dean's list his first semester.
``I was pretty proud of myself,'' said Monroe, who hopes to be a college professor.
So was Kia Morgan Allen, 22-year-old editor-in-chief of the Spartan Echo, a junior journalism major who made about three trips up to the stage area to receive scholarship awards.
But she seemed just as pleased by her status as the flag bearer for the School of Arts and Letters, an honor reserved for outstanding students in each of the university's schools.
``I've always wanted to be a flag bearer,'' she said.
Allen's parents drove down from Philadelphia, along with two sisters and a brother.
They joined the crowd outside, along with Allen's husband and daughter.
Later they would head for a local restaurant to celebrate.
Allen appreciates the university's efforts for the spring convocation.
``I just feel this is really my day,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
The Virginian-Pilot
Kia Morgan Allen, right, 22-year-old editor-in-chief of the Spartan
Echo, made several trips up to the stage to receive awards. Allen
was also a flag bearer for the School of Arts and Letters, an honor
reserved for outstanding students.
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
The Virginian-Pilot
State Sen. L. Louise Lucas, a Norfolk State alumna, gave the keynote
speech for the university's annual Spring Scholarship, Honors and
Awards Convocation. About 4,600 people, including family and
friends, attended Sunday's event at the NSU stadium.
by CNB