2 *'.. ' ... • r?* * ' . » » Krs Frances Schoen-Newspaper Hooa U n iv e r s it y o f Oregon L ib r a r y t ’- re n o , Oresrnn 97433 * ■ ,, .<• I fc M A ’.**. PORTLAND OBSERNER USPS r»iz Volume XVII, Number 32 June 17, 1987 25C «&4BG466 ( o . M< /w 1. Dr. Jacquelyn Belcher, Vice President > • I • 'I • ,1 - I .; J ,/< ; . ?' V • * -* V -* \.v •' Hj L ‘ » J ?!’.■ , w * • • • ■ J '-.V She Did It Her Way by Tiffany Kell She loves work, people and living. If Jacquelyn Belcher, Vice President for Instruction at Lane Community College, had to sum up the reason for her success in a song, she would choose "M y Way by Frank Sinatra. Born in 1934 in St. Joseph, MO., Belcher has since marched through life on a pathway she has paved with drive, determination and enthusiasm. She says that she owes her success to two "wonderful role models, her mother and grandmother. When Belcher was only two weeks old, her mother divorced her father and set out to raise Belcher and her older sister and brother in the best way she knew how. At a time when Black women had very few resources, Bel­ cher's mother opened a restaurant. Years later, says Belcher, I realized that this was a woman who was way ahead of her times. ’ Belcher's grandmother took care of the children and house while her mother ran a business and made decisions most Black women weren t al­ lowed to at that time. Belcher's mother also set the ground work for her activities and accomplishments. An active member of the NAACP, she encouraged all of her children to spend whatever spare time they had con­ tributing to their community. "It has a lot to do with self esteem and realizing that you are a person of worth, that you can make a contribution, and that you are just as impor­ tant as anyone else," says Belcher about how her mother directly influen­ ced her. Education also has played an important role in Belcher's life. "I was never the kind of child that you had to tell to study," says Belcher who gra­ duated valedictorian of her senior class. Belcher later went on to receive degrees in both law and nursing. Belcher loves to get involved in as many activities as possible. Not only was she a good student and active in community services, but she also participated in a variety of sports ranging from softball to basketball and was a ROTC cadet. Belcher describes herself as "positively competitive", that is, she competes with herself. In her younger years, Belcher says that she encountered no real obsta­ cles. "M y growing-up years were very positive in terms of racism. I m not saying that racism wasn't present," says Belcher, but that she wasn't "con­ taminated'.^ with the negative feelings that chilled most Blacks hearts during that time. The community that Belcher grew up in had very few Blacks and a pre­ dominant number of Polish people. Belcher remembers nothing but posi­ tive reinforcement from her teachers and peers. After high school, Belcher thought that she would like to get married, thinking that she could do anything that she wanted without going to col­ lege. However, her stepfather suggested that she at least try one semester. Belcher agreed and found out three months later that she loved it. Belcher graduated from Marymount College in Salina, Kansas, with a bachelor of science in nursing and soon after got married. Her husband was an administrator in the Air Force which meant constant moving. Bel­ cher has since lived in nine different cities. When she was 21-year-old, she and her husband moved to Lincoln, Neb­ raska, where she promptly got a nursing job in a hospital that had never had a Black nurse. Only two weeks after she began work, the head nurse went on vacation. Belcher was then asked to fill in, which she eagerly did. As luck would have it, the head nurse never returned, and Belcher took charge V- •• • •< Belcher admits that it took some of the doctors at least three to four months to accept her, because they had had little experience with an edu­ cated Black person. However, no one ever was discourteous, says Bel­ cher, and eventually everyone treated her as an equal. It was a great "sense of success," she says. • a Belcher's popularity grew at the hospital, especially amongst the nursing students, who had decided that Belcher would make a great instructor. Encouraged by their enthusiasm and her own love for working with stu­ dents, Belcher then went back to school at the University of Nebraska. Several moves later she received her Master of Nursing degree at Mary­ mount in 1966. •V. ‘ Once she had entered teaching, she knew that she would teach forever. "To help people discover and understand the world they live in," says Bel­ cher, "is the most beautiful thing in life." In 1956 Belcher gave birth to twin girls. While moving and working, Bel­ cher also raised her daughters who are now both successful career women. Belcher's daughters grew up with her own words of wisdom. She would instill in them the belief that they "could do whatever it is they wanted." Having followed the military somewhat sheltered her daughters, says Belcher. They weren't exposed to very much beligerent racism nor did they ever attend segregated schools. They were lucky in that they had a chance to live among a very diverse group of people, she says. The only instance of blatant discrimination that Belcher can recall was in the late 1950s. She and her husband took their daughters out to breakfast at a pancake house that was close to the base. Upon seating themselves, they were informed by the waitress that she could not serve them. Bel­ cher's husband immediately reported the incident to his base commander who then ordered the restaurant off limits to all military personnel. Con­ sequently, the pancake house was forced out of business. In 1969 Belcher and her family finally settled in Seattle, WA. There she worked at Bellevue as an instructor of nursing for two years, division chair of health sciences for four years and tO associate dean of instruction for the past nine years. Her list of corr mity activities, while in Seattle, seems endless, ranging from serving on the boards of Seattle-King County Chapter of the American Red Cross to participating in the Women's Net­ work of Professionals, Managerial and Businesswomen. Belcher also attended the University of Puget Sound while in Seattle and received her Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1983. In 1986 Belcher began looking for yet another career challenge. That was when she learned of the opening at Lane Community College in Eugene. Belcher knew people there and was familiar with the area, be­ cause they had lived in Eugene for four years before moving to Seattle. Seizing the opportunity for a change of pace, she applied and got her cur­ rent position. "I do not take my experience lightly," says Belcher as she reflects on her lifetime collection. She realizes most Black women's difficulties in the work force. "I do not sit comfortably in my position and say that I have no obli­ gations to society at large, but certainly to Black women and women in general," says Belcher. As an addition to her list of activities, Belcher recently became President of the American Association of Women in Community and Junior Colleges, Dr. Ja cq u e lyn B elcher, Vice P resident representing all female students, faculty and administrators. Belcher particularly stresses the importance of a good primary and secon­ dary education. It doesn't matter whether a person becomes a secretary, sanitary engineer or professor, says Belcher As long as people do their jobs with dignity and self-respect. We need all types of people every position is im poitant." The key to a person's success, especially a Black person, lies in educa­ tion, says Belcher. "Education makes a tremendous difference" in develo­ ping a person's self esteem. "Self esteem is everything.' Belcher believes that there are a variety of ways of learning and that school should be fun and not a punitive experience. Each Black individual needs credit for what he or she is capable of doing. They need credit for what they have learned and especially should be acknowledged for their self-worth as human beings. of a 45-bed unit. W hat We M UST Teach *, • < '/,-r < d Children About Drugs ..»■ * 8 MM packages and do nothing. We spend large sums of taxpayer's money in an effort to keep peop from eating or sniffing or smoking what's in these little packets. We try to stem the flow of illegal drugs into our country and, in what really is quite a desperate measure, our police arrest anyone who is caught in possession o Of course, all this would be very commendable if it did keep people from ingesting these substances. But the end result of all this effort seems to have been to convince a great many Americans that we have a drug p ro ­ blem - one that just won't go away no matter what we do. So we step up our police enforcement and throw more money at drug education programs. We run anti-drug campaigns on television and put diplomatic pressure on those countries where drug crops are grown, usually quite openly. And after all that, we hear from our children that they can buy drugs on the school ground from fellow students! Something isn't working. Rather than a war on drugs, maybe we need a war on ignorance, apathy and misery, those things that are perhaps most responsible for the conemung wide abuse of drugs. And perhaps this is a yvar that rrwersTart in the home, long before kids start itching to have the keys to the family car. Like any disease, prevention is always by far the best cure. But how do you ensure that your children stay away from drugs? There are no easy foolproof answers. But a proper understanding of drugs and the full extent of their harm would be one place to start. It is, incidentally, a point where most drug education programs fall down. Exact |y how drugs destroy the mind's effectiveness and capabilities was not Drugs are essentially poisons The degree they are taken determines the effect. A small amount gives a stimulant. A great amount acts as a sedative. A larger amount acts as a poison and can kill one dead. This is true of any drug. Some drugs, such as those that form the illegal street fare, directly act on the sub conscious part of the mind, turning on pictures and sensations of past experiences of which the person is not completely aware. The long­ term mental after-effects of such drugs is to render a person "stupid, blank, forgetful, delusive, irresponsible." He gets into a "wooden sort of state, unfeeling, insensitive, unable and definitely not trustworthy. Also, if drugs are used to suppress unwanted sensations and emotions, these turn on harder once the effect of the drug has worn off. One of the answers a person has for this is MORE drugs. In short, drugs worsen the problem one is seeking to overcome or avoid as well as making a person far less able to cope with life generally. Explaining to teenagers about these exact effects could be far more per­ suasive against any peer pressure to try drugs than general scare tactics. For one thing, kids could see these very characteristics in the drug takers pushing the poisons on others. But beyond factual information on the mental harm of drugs, the real answer lies in helping your children become successful and happy indivi­ duals—people who have too much to lose by turning to drugs. Really, their best defense lies in having no reason to be attracted to the temporary escape drugs seem to provide. The issue of drugs is really the issue of people, it is a story of pain and suffering, of depression and despair. But there is also happiness and success. There is love and achievement. Perhaps these alone are the real weapons with which the 'war on drugs' R ■o o o O’ < B n 3- a> can be won known. >' ' t 1- •v » •• . •• .. .• • • •• *