THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 7, 1995 TAG: 9501070221
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Running late, I dropped into a seat next to Rachel Stubbs, a freshman who was home from Virginia Commonwealth University.
The luncheon in Norfolk's Harbor Club on Friday honored youths who are going to college with some financial aid, as well as advisers from the Tidewater Scholarship Foundation (ACCESS).
Rachel's grades: A in English, B in trigonometry, A in chemistry and its lab, B in biology with an A in lab.
She aims to be a neurosurgeon or cardiologist. Grave, sweet-faced, her poise is such that I thought at first she taught at VCU.
Third in her class of 294 at Portsmouth's I.C. Norcom High School, she took advance placement courses to test if she could cope with the pressures of college.
In history, Barbara Merritt urged students doing essays to take 15 minutes to note what they knew of a topic, 30 minutes to write about it. "Like extemporaneous speaking!" Rachel said. Thanks to those deals at VCU with substance and still has time to polish for style.
To her surprise, she enjoyed sciences, especially the chemistry of Cynthia Buck: ``My toughest teacher, the driving force in my selection of a major. Her discipline prepared me for what I do now.
``By the time I finished her course, I felt I could survive anything. Even in college my chemistry course doesn't place on me the demands Ms. Buck did.''
In the 10th grade at Norcom, she took part in an Explorer program. Teachers at Eastern Virginia Medical School discussed specialties and parts of the body. Rachel found her vocation. Not even the cadaver at the close repelled her.
The stiffest challenge hit her two weeks before she entered VCU. Her mother died. She had lost her father when she was 2, and she had striven for her mother's sake.
``I wanted to make my mother happy one day. Now it seemed there was no one to work for. My dreams had shattered,'' she said. ``It was hard to readjust. But I had my granddad. And I kept thinking how could I not go on when so many people have invested in my education.
``And I had set a goal I wanted to accomplish. And I thought this is what I was going to college for. That helped me get through the first semester.''
So Rachel still strives, thanks to her mother and her granddad. And to Barbara Merritt, Cynthia Buck and other dedicated Norcom teachers.
And not to forget EVMS professors; VCU faculty; donors to ACCESS; and Cheryl Tucker, her ACCESS adviser at Norcom.
Meanwhile, Gov. George Allen is preparing to help fund many new prisons by cutting education. Maybe the governor should return to school for a refresher course. In trig or chemistry.
Having spent her vacation working at Leggett's, Rachel is returning to VCU to pursue her dream. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Staff
Rachel Stubbs, 18, a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University,
hopes to become a neurosurgeon or cardiologist.
by CNB