School's out forever

By Andrea L. Buchanan ~ Southeast Missourian

The Show Me Center was crowded with proud family and friends Saturday gathered to watch Southeast Missouri State University graduates get their diplomas.

For some it was a trip across town. For others, it was a trip across the globe.

Young-Ha Sung, 20, of Seoul, Korea, was there to watch his sister, Joo-Kyung Sung, graduate.

He gave her a bouquet of roses and some good-natured teasing.

Though her parents were unable to attend, Joo-Kyung wore the traditional Korean ceremonial robes and satin slippers her mother purchased for the occasion.

She said she visited Seoul last December, the first time she had been home since arriving in Cape Girardeau nearly four years ago.

Joo-Kyung was one of 19 students who graduated with a perfect grade point average, receiving a bachelor's degree in economics.

Emmanuel Oyathelemi, a native of Nigeria, graduated with a bachelor's in industrial technology. Yet Saturday was his first day on the Cape Girardeau campus.

Oyathelemi, who lives in St. Louis, participated in the "2+2" program, a cooperative effort with St. Louis Community College and the University of Missouri at St. Louis. Instructors from Southeast provide lessons for the students at the other schools, which lack the faculty to offer polytechnic degrees.

Some 824 undergraduates and 133 graduate students participated in commencement exercises Saturday.

Speaker Johnny Furr, a vice-president for Anheuser-Busch, Inc., encouraged the new graduates to maintain their optimism despite the events of Sept. 11.

He urged students to remember the lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and realize that civilization is based on interdependence.

"Remember that we're all in this together," Furr said.

Ken Dobbins, university president, recognized the efforts of several individual students:

Mae Jackson, of Blytheville, Ark., the daughter of sharecroppers, was the only one of her parents' 18 children to attend a four-year college.

After losing her job in 1997, Jackson enrolled in Mississippi County Community College. For the past two years, she's been commuting from Blytheville to earn a bachelor's in criminal justice.

Scott Lucchese of Poplar Bluff is another non-traditional student. At 18, he joined the Air Force and was a noncommissioned officer for 14 years before decided to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor. Saturday, he graduated with a bachelor's in chemistry and was recently awarded an $8,000 fellowship for graduate study at the University Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine.

Robert Ressell of Oran is a 44-year-old disabled veteran. He received a bachelor's in visual communications and design.

Robert Ishaak of Marble Hill immigrated to the United States 16 years ago from the Republic of Suriname in South America. Now a U.S. citizen, he is the first in his family to graduate from college. He received a bachelor's in management information systems.

abuchanan@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160