THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996 TAG: 9605100054
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 130 lines
FOR SOME FOLKS, a childhood in subsidized housing conjures up visions of a circumscribed life, joyless and hopeless, offering nothing but dead ends.
For Lanelle Walcott, Norfolk's Young Terrace offered a decent life - maybe not full of riches, but not full of danger, either - dominated by a grandmother who helped propel her to a bright future.
On Sunday, Walcott will graduate from Norfolk State University with a 3.1 average and an interdisciplinary studies degree, with a heavy concentration in biology. Next step: A few years in the Army, and then onto medical school.
As a child, she was crammed into a three-bedroom house with her grandmother, Cora Moore; her sister, Tamla, now a rising senior studying computer science at NSU; two cousins, and two aunts.
``It was a very good street,'' Walcott, 21, said. ``A lot of older people looked out for one another. I felt more comfortable out there than I do a whole lot of other places.''
Walcott describes Moore as a strict, no-nonsense grandmother who kept the house together. ``You had to get good grades; it wasn't a choice,'' Walcott said. So she did. She graduated 11th in her class at Booker T. Washington High.
She got into the U.S. Naval Academy and West Point, but she wanted a taste of real college life so she attended NSU, with the help of an ROTC scholarship.
In the Army ROTC unit, she learned how to shoot M16s. She got into top-notch shape, so she can do 58 pushups or 92 situps at a time. (The two-mile run isn't quite so easy, she admitted.) And she learned of the value of discipline.
``You need the discipline in society, at home and in school. When people hear the military, they always assume you're taking orders from somebody, but it's for a reason.''
As battalion commander, she ended up giving the orders to more than 200 students. Lt. Col. James E. Wood, professor of military science, sees Walcott as a ``very dynamic-type leader, but with a degree of low-keyness. She's a participatory leader. I don't think I've ever seen her give anybody some instructions of something to do if she was not participating in it herself.''
Walcott also worked nearly full-time at a fast-food restaurant, but she managed to do what most students at Norfolk State, or any other university, don't accomplish: She will graduate in four years. That's where her discipline and gritty determination helped.
``It wasn't always pretty and my grades weren't always A's, but I said I wanted to be out in four years,'' she said. The pressure actually helped her. ``If I don't have enough things to do, that's when things fall apart for me.''
George W. Brown, the head of NSU's biology department, described Walcott as one of the leaders in his small, upper-level histology class this year.
``She was there, she was on time, she worked hard when she got there, and as a result she's one of my top scholars,'' he said. ``There were no excuses; she just came and did her work, and at the end of the laboratory sessions, she was gone.''
From an early age, Walcott wanted to be a doctor.
``I like helping people; I don't want to be behind a desk.'' She hopes to specialize in surgery. ``I have steady hands, and I'd like to deal with the insides of people.''
She's already had fun checking out the inside of cats and pigs in her labs. But before she starts medical school, she'll join the Army, as a second lieutenant, for a couple of years to gather some money for tuition. Don't worry, she says. She won't get detoured from her goal: ``I know I'll get there. That's not even a question. That's what all this is for.''
FOR SOME FOLKS, a childhood in subsidized housing conjures up visions of a circumscribed life, joyless and hopeless, offering nothing but dead ends.
For Lanelle Walcott, Norfolk's Young Terrace offered a decent life - maybe not full of riches, but not full of danger, either - dominated by a grandmother who helped propel her to a bright future.
On Sunday, Lanelle will graduate from Norfolk State University with a 3.1 average and an interdisciplinary studies degree, with a heavy concentration in biology. Next step: A few years in the Army, and then onto medical school.
As a child, she was crammed into a three-bedroom house with her grandmother, Cora Moore; her sister, Tamla, now a rising senior studying computer science at NSU; two cousins, and two aunts.
``It was a very good street,'' Lanelle, 21, said. ``A lot of older people looked out for one another. I felt more comfortable out there
than I do a whole lot of other places.''
Lanelle describes Moore as a strict, no-nonsense grandmother who kept the house together. ``You had to get good grades; it wasn't a choice,'' Lanelle said. So she did. She graduated 11th in her class at Booker T. Washington High.
She got into the U.S. Naval Academy and West Point, but she wanted a taste of real college life so she attended NSU, with the help of an ROTC scholarship.
In the Army ROTC unit, she learned how to shoot M16s. She got into top-notch shape, so she can do 58 pushups or 92 situps at a time. (The two-mile run isn't quite so easy, she admitted.) And she learned of the value of discipline.
``You need the discipline in society, at home and in school. When people hear the military, they always assume you're taking orders from somebody, but it's for a reason.''
As battalion commander, she ended up giving the orders to more than 200 students. Lt. Col. James E. Wood, professor of military science, sees Lanelle as a ``very dynamic-type leader, but with a degree of low-keyness. She's a participatory leader. I don't think I've ever seen her give anybody some instructions of something to do if she was not participating in it herself.''
Lanelle also worked nearly full-time at a fast-food restaurant, but she managed to do what most students at Norfolk State, or any other university, don't accomplish: She will graduate in four years. That's where her discipline and gritty determination helped.
``It wasn't always pretty and my grades weren't always A's, but I said I wanted to be out in four years,'' she said. The pressure actually helped her. ``If I don't have enough things to do, that's when things fall apart for me.''
George W. Brown, the head of NSU's biology department, described Lanelle as one of the leaders in his small, upper-level histology class this year.
``She was there, she was on time, she worked hard when she got there, and as a result she's one of my top scholars,'' he said. ``There were no excuses; she just came and did her work, and at the end of the laboratory sessions, she was gone.''
From an early age, Lanelle wanted to be a doctor.
``I like helping people; I don't want to be behind a desk.'' She hopes to specialize in surgery. ``I have steady hands, and I'd like to deal with the insides of people.''
She's already had fun checking out the inside of cats and pigs in her labs. But before she starts medical school, she'll join the Army, as a second lieutenant, for a couple of years to gather some money for tuition. Don't worry, she says. She won't get detoured from her goal: ``I know I'll get there. That's not even a question. That's what all this is for.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Christopher Reddick
by CNB