by Kelly Rogge
After taking a brief hiatus, the Kansas City Kansas Community College Endowment Association’s Mid-America Education Hall of Fame event was back this year celebrating some of the best contributors to education in the Kansas City area.
“This is the first time we have done it in the spring,” said Patrick McCartney, executive director of the Endowment Association of the April 23 event at KCKCC-TEC. “This was also the first time we did not have a sit down dinner, which is a big change. I thought it went very well, and we have had excellent feedback.”
The Mid-America Education Hall of Fame was started in 1996 by the KCKCC Endowment Association as a way to recognize individuals, organizations and corporate supporters in the community who have made notable contributions to education. Hall of Fame inductees are selected based on a demonstrated commitment to education, their effort to improve the quality of life in the community through a commitment to education, increasing educational opportunities for others and supporting significant changes that have improved the quality of education, a spokesman said.
This year’s list of honorees include:
• Mila L. Banks. Banks started her teaching career in 1944. After 34 years of service, she ended her teaching career in 1978. However, she continued to maintain an active role in Lincoln High School, her church and civic activities. In a Kansas City Star article regarding Banks on her 100th birthday, Glen Rice said “many of those who populated her classroom are now a who’s who of prominent African-Americans and other minorities.”
• Cynthia Lane. Lane, who holds a doctorate in education, is described as an innovative leader for the Kansas City, Kan. Public Schools. Under her leadership, the district has implemented more rigorous college and career benchmarks and assessments, a laptop initiative at the high school level and a focus on post-high school success. She is a mentor for 3,300 staff and has consistently been the voice for 20,000 students.
• Carol Levers. Levers is the director of libraries in Kansas City, Kan. When she and her husband arrived in the United States from apartheid South Africa they had few resources, no work permit, and two small children. In her native South Africa, apartheid laws prevented her of a good education. Those early experiences helped Carol recognize obstacles to learning, and made her determined to remove those obstacles wherever she found them.
• Shirley Wendel. Wendel has been involved in nursing education for more than 40 years including as faculty, director of nursing and as dean of nursing and allied health at KCKCC. As the dean of nursing and allied health, Wendel, who holds a doctorate degree, expanded and grew two new programs – physical therapy assistant and respiratory therapy. During the same time period she also served on the committee to develop the KCKCC fitness center.
• Hannah Lofthus. Through her work at the Ewing Marion Kauffman School, Hannah Lofthus prepares students to be intellectually curious, economically independent and confidently self-directed. They learn not to be afraid to take calculated risks in pursuit of their aspirations and understand a life devoid of failure is a life half lived.
• Learning Club of KCK. The Learning Club of KCK provides tutoring and enrichment experiences for children of KCK. They provide exposure to opportunities for children who may come from homes with stressful situations and whose needs are not being met through other programs.
• Saturday Academy. The Saturday Academy works to increase the number of underserved and minority students pursuing careers in allied health related areas and to increase students understanding and use of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).
“I think people liked having the opportunity to mingle with the inductees for a longer period of time than they had in the past,” McCartney said. “It was also a terrific opportunity to showcase KCKCC-TEC.”
McCartney said because of the change in location and the fact that the event was held in the middle of the week, he expected a drop off in attendance. However, he said the drop off was not significant.
“We really didn’t see that big of change. We expect it to grow in the future, and the location is great because we can fit even more in that room,” he said. “The inductees were awesome, and they had great stories to tell. Their stories had an impact, and you could tell that these were people who are dedicated to what they do. That is the purpose of this award, to showcase individuals who make a contribution to education. We were very pleased with how the event went.”
For more information on the Mid-America Education Hall of Fame, call Patrick McCartney at 913-288-7166 or Dawanna Fangohr at 913-288-7675.
Kelly Rogge is the public information supervisor at KCKCC.