At Risk: Stories of Hope

I have relocated to Hawaii since my RA arthritis was getting much worse in Detroit.  Now that I am here, I realize that I lived next to what appeared like Oz to me when I was a little boy.  I grew up in a poor barrio called Sunnyside.  Now that we have tools like Google Earth, you can find my childhood home at 1630 Dorothy St., Adrian, Michigan.

Now you can see why I framed it that way in my young mind. I loved the Wizard of Oz. It caused me to wonder about the other side of the rainbow.  I used to look up at the stars and wonder what the universe was all about when I was young.

Sunnyside was literally across the railroad tracks which was the border of Adrian and Madison Township. I would walk the railroad tracks because the older fellas in Sunnyside could find these metal straps that were perforated which we bent into whistles.  While walking on the tracks, I would notice this cool building about a half mile from Sunnyside that was in reality Siena Heights College.  It looked bright and shiny in the distance like Oz. It is now Siena Heights University.  I met the educational wizards there when I got older.

My mentor, master artist, Martin Moreno of Cuervo Studios in Phoenix, AZ graduated from Siena.  Look him up.  He’s the real deal!  Yes, he is very human, but his mentoring has spanned the country.  He always chooses to serve the poor.  Growing up in poverty makes us try harder.  When we have few material possessions, we tend to focus on our dignity, and we hone our God given skills.  Martin mentored me by taking me to my first art competition with the Chicago Indian Artist Guild at Truman College.  He introduced me to Julian Harr and Alex Garza, two heavyweight Chicago artists.  I got to meet other real artists.

I got a third place student award which validated me as an artist in a national competition.  My little sister, Marilyn, still has it in Ann Arbor.  She earned her degree in Chicago, but she and my brother in law settled in Ann Arbor because she originally worked in the finance dept. for the U of M.  Marilyn and my brother, Ben, also attended Siena’s Upward Bound Program.

A wonderful educator, Karen Glaser, was the director of Upward Bound at the time.  She assembled a crew of counselors and inspirational teachers.  What a program!  I am evidence that it works.  So are a whole bunch more in Adrian.  I was a bridge student and met Sister Basil Sheridan.  Rhetoric 101.  I still remember her passion when we were introduced to Dr. Martin Luther King’s letters from jail.  That is an impeccable piece of rhetoric.

Martin also introduced me to Ken Thompson, owner of Flatlander’s Sculpture Supply in Blissfield, MI., another Siena graduate.  Just look at how he enhances communities with his monumental sculpture.  Get on his list if you need inspirational public art.

Martin introduced me to his friend Tom Rudd, another sculptor and Siena graduate.  His resume would knock out an elephant.  We would go to his studio and I would observe and absorb the sound of the rock chipping away while they would help the rock reveal its inner form much like a master teacher can chip away the rough edges of our students.  When the work is finished, clean up was in order.  I used to imagine that they were all sculpting my soul to become a teacher someday.  It worked my mentors!

They used to talk about Father Van Horn, the sculpting professor.  This guy was a legend and could make you time travel in his art history lessons.  He made me proud when we were studying about the Olmec indians of Mexico where civilization began in the Americas.

My favorite professor was my life drawing professor, Sister Barbara Cervenka.  She was gentle soul that found a way to inspire her students.  It was in her class where I viewed the Renaissance artists like Michelangelo and good ole Leonardo da Vinci.  The Catholic sisters had really traveled there and came back with views that didn’t appear in art books.

Sister Celeste Bourke was the ceramics teacher in 1976.  Her work appeared in a book about Raku.  I forgot the author, but it impressed me.  I was being taught by someone who was published.  That impressed this young student.

Now that I live in Kauai, I realize that Siena produced another legend, Joan Lee Husted, who just retired from her role as president of Hawaii’s teacher’s union.  Her accomplishments are beyond the scope of my blog.  It would take volumes of testimony from teachers to give the public a realistic portrait of her.  She is known for her countless reforms for teachers and students.  I wonder if she ever ate the fine Mexican food in Adrian?

I met another student there who changed my life.  I met my wife in Studio Archangelus at Siena.  I was an Upward Bound student there, so we both were blessed enough to get a few lessons from some incredible professors.

So I would love if you contacted any of the above mentioned persons and share your stories and memories of the educators at any level that inspired you.  Thank them because none of us entered the field to get financially rich; we have to live with our humanitarian efforts and the smiles we get to see when a new concept is understood and relished by our students.

In the state of our nation’s financial crisis, I now understand that we can lose all our pennies, but no one can ever take away our education.  Sunnyside prepared me well for this.

Siena was my first post high school educational institution.  Thank you Siena.  Thank you mentors.

We say MAHALO here, and may your life and all around you recieve some of Hawaii’s ALOHA spirit.