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CAC Audited SEPTEMBER 13 – 19, 2012
Brian Hamilton, coordinator of culturally diverse recruitment programs at University of Missouri and 2006 Donald M. Suggs scholar
25th Anniversary Salute to Excellence In Education See Special Section
Vol. 84 No. 24 COMPLIMENTARY
stlamerican.com
Ambassador to Mizzou Former Suggs Scholar Brian Hamilton recruits blacks to his alma mater By Rebecca S. Rivas Of The St. Louis American By Thanksgiving, Brian Hamilton, coordinator of culturally diverse recruitment programs at University of Missouri, will visit 52 high schools in St. Louis and Kansas City to recruit minority Mizzou students. Hamilton, 24, graduated from Mizzou in 2010. When he tells his story about being an African-American male at
In the fall 2011 semester, Mizzou had 538 AfricanAmerican, first-time college students, which was a recruitment record for black students.
Mizzou, it tends to calm parents’ anxiety about their children attending a “predom-
inately white institution” (PWI). “When I tell them that I was absolutely comfortable my four years here and I couldn’t see myself going to any other school,” he said, “they feel more at ease.” But Hamilton remembers having anxieties as a high school senior. Hamilton graduated from Webster Groves High School in 2006 and received the Donald
See HAMILTON, A6
Clemons hearing is Monday Special Master could recommend anything from freedom to death By Chris King Of The St. Louis American
Photo by Wiley Price
‘Gateway’ to math
Missouri death row inmate Reginald Clemons finally will have his new day in court on Monday, September 17 when Judge Michael Manners convenes a hearing in St. Louis. Manners is the Special Master appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court on June 30, 2009 to gather new evidence in the case and submit a report to the court. The instigation of a new evidence phase in the Clemons case by a court that had recently set an execution date for him was startling. For many years, Clemons and his pro bono defense team have claimed that the trial court permitted inadmissible evidence and that relevant evidence has appeared since his conviction that calls the verdict into question. See CLEMONS, A7
Gateway Elementary School third grade teacher Jim Triplett explains the place value of numerals to Miguel Sosa, Elijah Watkins, Devin Williams, Terrance Simpson, Guy Goolsby, Ahmad Muhammad, Dennis Ivy and Kellyphan Dang.
Report from ‘the front line’
2012 SEMO Counselor of the Year
KAREN VERSTRAETE:
Gerald Early convenes national commission on humanities in St. Louis
helping first-generation college students succeed
By Chris King Of The St. Louis American
By Bridjes O’Neill For The St. Louis American
and historically underrepresented students in postsecondary education. Kynedra Ogunnaike, a guidance counselor at IN Vashon High School, is the other counselor “I really believe in the importance of educaEDUCATION receiving the foundation’s 2012 SEMO tion,” said Karen Verstraete, College and Career 2012 Counselor of the Year Award. Counselor at Webster Groves High School. It’s an equally joyous occasion for one of Jon Clark, principal of Webster Groves High Verstraete’s former students. School, nominated Verstraete for the St. Louis The St. Louis American Foundation will award Kevin American Foundation’s 2012 SEMO Counselor of the Redmond, 18, with the 2012 Dr. Donald M. Suggs Year award because of her “service to students, families scholarship. He is a recent graduate of Webster Groves and commitment to the counseling profession.” High School who is studying mechanical engineering at For more than 10 years, Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) has recognized commendable counselors in St. Louis who have nurtured first-generation See SALUTE, A7
Photo by Wiley Price
Karen Verstraete, College and Career Counselor at Webster Groves High School
A diverse sampling of St. Louis institutions providing education and programming in the humanities will help influence national policy for the humanities, thanks to the leadership of Gerald Early, director of the Center for the Humanities at Washington University and the St. Louis American Foundation’s 2012 Lifetime Achiever in Education. Last Friday, Early and Leslie Berlowitz, president of the American Academy of Arts and See EARLY, A6