“NSU establishes scholarship to honor oldest living graduate” |
| NSU establishes scholarship to honor oldest living graduate Posted: 20 Feb 2011 07:54 AM PST Leesville, La. — A scholarship has been established to honor a woman believed to be Northwestern State University's oldest living graduate. The Mittie Oden Bryan Endowed Scholarship in Elementary Education honors the 1925 alumna, who celebrated her 104th birthday on Feb. 2. The scholarship was established through a $10,000 donation to the NSU Foundation by Bryan's niece, Virginia Metcalf, a 1953 graduate of Northwestern, and was announced during a birthday celebration at Summerfield Retirement Center in Shreveport on Feb. 2. Bryan attended Louisiana Normal, as NSU was known then, on a two-year scholarship after graduating from Greenwood High School in 1923. She was born in Panola County, Texas, in 1907, one of seven children growing up near Bethany, a community on the Louisiana-Texas state line. She was the first person in her family to attend college. Her high praise of the school later influenced Metcalf to attend Northwestern. Bryan's first teaching job was at Webb Elementary, a one-room school on Greenwood Road, where she taught first through fifth grade for $100 per month. Webb Elementary closed in 1929 and students transferred to Jewella Elementary. Bryan was a substitute teacher at four different elementary schools - Jewella, Judson, Hillsdale and Sunset Acres - until 1965. "Teaching has meant so much to her and she's been a teacher all her life in one way or another," Metcalf said. "She wouldn't have been able to go to college if she hadn't received her scholarship." First priority for the scholarship will be given to a student from the Greenwood area with a financial need, Metcalf said. Several special guests attended Bryan's birthday celebration, including Greenwood Mayor David Hanson, who issued a proclamation declaring Feb. 2 Mittie Oden Bryan Day. Two of her former students from Webb Elementary, brothers Harold and Edgar Bland, aged 91 and 89, also attended the party. Metcalf said Bryan enjoys good general health and "looks 90." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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