THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 12, 1995 TAG: 9505120048
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MICHELLE MIZAL, CAMPUS CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
WHEN JEAN-MARIE EAGLER graduates from Tidewater Community College tomorrow, she wants to be remembered as having a ``servant's heart.''
She will be sharing her message of serving others with 10,000 people at Norfolk Scope. With a grade-point average of 3.849, Eagler is an honor graduate of TCC's Chesapeake Campus.
Eagler, 43, has served her family, community and school. She is, among other things, a single mother of two, full-time student, head cheerleader, leader of her neighborhood civic league and librarian at First Baptist Church of Norfolk.
But for Eagler, family and friends take precedence over all her other dedications. A framed poem on top of her piano sums up her philosophy:
A home is walls touched by children,
Carpets worn by friends
And hearts filled with love.
Eagler lives ``a structured lifestyle'' to have time for her family.
Every morning, she says her devotions to ``keep her sanity'' and has breakfast with her children - Jessalyn, 7, and Hogan, 12. She packs their lunches and sends them to school. ``While they're in school, I'm in school,'' she said. ``So when they get home, I take my school hat off and put my mom hat on.'' She and the children take turns making dinner. On a recent night, Hogan made macaroni and cheese.
By 7 p.m., Jessalyn was in bed. Between 9 and 9:30, Hogan hit the sack. From 9 to midnight, Eagler opened her schoolbooks. Some nights, Eagler said, she has fallen asleep on her books.
``She's real nice,'' Jessalyn said. ``She supports us, gives us food and gives us love.''
Eagler will graduate with a liberal arts degree. She plans to double major in communications and natural sciences at Virginia Wesleyan College in the fall.
Coming out of a rocky marriage three years ago, Eagler decided to go back to college. ``I was a shadow for my ex-husband,'' she said. ``My whole life revolved around him and his work.'' But she realized that she had to take responsibility for herself and her children.
She started out in 1992 with ``the fear of failure,'' but she quickly made one grand slam after another.
As the first student ``public relations ambassador'' for both the Chesapeake and Portsmouth TCC campuses, she was awarded a full scholarship in 1993.
Last year, Eagler won the Distinguished Student award from the Portsmouth Campus, where she took French and astronomy courses. She got so interested in astronomy that she learned how to run the campus observatory.
She hasn't left the community out.
Eagler was appointed by Mayor William E. Ward to the Chesapeake Environmental Improvement Council, is the past president of Millwood Avenue Civic League in Chesapeake and even ran for City Council in 1990. ``I didn't make it, but I was the top woman vote-getter,'' Eagler said with a chuckle.
Eagler occasionally takes time for herself to landscape her yard.
``That's bamboo over there . . . here's my perennial garden that I've been working on,'' Eagler said, pointing at an unfinished garden.
``I dig in the dirt to dig all my frustrations out. . . . Oh, and that's poison sumac. . . . Don't go near there, Jess,'' she said, pointing to some green foliage around a tree. ``Remember, Mommy got that on her face last year?''
Even when relaxing, she's still a mom. MEMO: Michelle Mizal is a rising sophomore at Tidewater Community College. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
RICHARD L. DUNSTON/Staff
Jean-Marie Eagler is a single mother of two, full-time student, head
cheerleader and leader of her neighborhood civic league.
by CNB