Human Rights Hall of Fame inducts its founder (Click to view Gazette Article)
Induction a ‘culmination’ for retired human rights director Odessa Shannon
The woman who started the county’s Human Rights Hall of Fame was inducted into it last weekend.
Odessa M. Shannon, recently retired director of the Montgomery County Office of Human Rights, was among five honorees inducted Sunday into the Human Rights Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Potomac.
The awards program, which honors leaders in civil and human rights in the county, was started by Shannon in 2001. Shannon, the first African-American woman to hold county elected office with the Board of Education, was human rights director for 13 years before retiring in January. Shannon, of Silver Spring, said she founded the Human Rights Hall of Fame after she brought up the names of several Montgomery County civil rights era activists in conversation and realized no one knew whom she was talking about.
‘‘That was very disturbing to me because I knew how much these people had vested in trying to make the county what it is to day,” Shannon said. ‘‘I was trying to think of a way to honor them, and what came to mind was a Hall of Fame.” Shannon said she felt honored to be inducted this year. ‘‘This was the culmination of an extraordinary career in Montgomery County,” Shannon said. ‘‘It was like it all came together. I was really touched.”
Shannon’s name, along with the names of the four other inductees — Frederick resident David R. Baker, Bethesda resident Austin Heyman, Potomac resident Vernon H. Ricks, Jr., and Boyds resident Jane B. Stearns — will appear on a sculpture located in the Executive Office Building in Rockville, along with the names of past inductees.
The honorees were independently nominated and named by a panel of judges. County Executive Isiah Leggett, along with County Councilman George Leventhal (D-At large) of Takoma Park and County Councilwoman Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring, spoke at the event. Leggett was inducted into the Human Rights Hall of Fame in 2001.
Heyman was honored for his longtime volunteer service to the county. In 1986, he founded Interages, an organization that works to connect younger and older generations in the county. He serves on the Montgomery County Commission on Aging and works to promote the Vital Learning Initiative — an organization that aims to engage retirees in community service. ‘‘It was a really good week,” Heyman said of the experience.
Ricks, the first African-American manager with the Xerox Corporation, has worked in promoting equality in the workplace. He was a founding member of the company’s Black Caucus and helped develop the corporation’s Affirmative Action Program. Later in his career, Ricks served as the Mayor Pro-Tem of the City of Takoma Park. Baker, the Montgomery County Police Department’s Hate Crimes Coordinator, helps victims and communities deal with hate-based crimes. He also trains recruits and residents about crime prevention and cultural diversity.
Stearns helped create WUMCO Help, an organization geared toward residents in Western Upper Montgomery County, encompassing Dickerson, Poolesville, Barnesville, Beallsville and Boyds. The group provides emergency assistance — such as help with rent, utilities, medicine, vehicles and day care — to those in need. Stearns coordinates the efforts of about 50 volunteers in the organization. For 30 years, she has also acted as the membership secretary for the Montgomery County branch of the NAACP.
Shannon said she hopes the Hall of Fame will continue honoring those who work in human rights in the county. ‘‘In Montgomery County, people continue to devote time and energy and commitment to social justice, and I hope it will carry on into the future.”
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| Potomac resident Limor Zoher, a junior at Thomas Edison High School of Technology in Silver Spring, puts the finishing touches on a haircut for Silvia Pasaron. |
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The beauty of this high school class? On-the-job training
Thomas Edison High School of Technology’s Edison Salon gives students a chance to learn a trade, while their customers get a cut-rate makeover
Jackie Littleford said she usually only trusts her daughter to work on her hair. But Littleford let her guard down last week to high-school student Najee Flint when it was clear he knew his craft.
Flint, 18, is one of about 20 students who on Dec. 12 worked with clients at the Edison Salon, operated by cosmetology students at Thomas Edison High School of Technology in Wheaton. Interages, a nonprofit that aims to create relationships between generations and cultures, arranged the salon visit for some members of the county’s adult day care centers and residents of a nursing home. As he cut and straightened 50-year-old Littleford’s short hair, Flint said working on actual customers was important in order for students to practice and get feedback. ‘‘When you see their expression after you’re done and they are happy, it makes me feel good,” he said.
Each year, the program teaches about 120 students about hair, nails and skin, and administrators hope the salon will give students the experience needed for their license and confidence to work in the real world. ‘‘It’s definitely very important to learn how to handle different people,” said Brenda Barbari, an Edison cosmetology teacher. The salon serves clients of all ages. Students from all county public high schools can take classes at Edison, which also offers vocational programs in media, health, hospitality, construction and automobile technology and body repair.
The Edison cosmetology students, who work in a three-year program, have to complete 1,500 hours of classroom work to be licensed, as required by the Maryland State Board of Cosmetologists, and must pass a board exam. Many students are able to gain up to 300 of those hours as interns or apprentices in commercial salons. Most clients pay a low fee, but all the money goes back to the program to buy supplies or help students pay for their board exams.
Seniors also have to create business plans focusing on customer service. ‘‘I always tell students, if you have a bad attitude ... it doesn’t matter what kind of skills you have,” Barbari said. Jessica Torres, 16, in her second year in the program, said she would like to make a name for herself in the fashion and hair industry. Torres said her experience with the Edison Salon would help. ‘Before I get to the real world, I’ll have more experience with all ages,” she said. ‘‘I won’t be as nervous.”
The program has been attracting more applicants each year, Barbari said, in part because students are able to receive training for the cost of a course fee and supplies (about $370 for the cosmetology program) compared to the thousands they would have to pay to learn the skills at a private cosmetology school, Barbari said. During last week’s salon visit, Maria Morales, 85, said she liked what Torres was doing with her hair. Torres was trimming Morales’ gray, curly locks so they sat comfortably above her shoulders. Morales said she comes to the Edison Salon for her haircuts because students are attentive and do a good job. ‘‘They really take care of me,” she said through a translator.
Barbari said she really has not experienced a time when a student has really ruined someone’s haircut or color, but if they have trouble with a hairstyle, she and other experienced students are always there to help. Barbari, who said she paid for much of her college tuition by doing hair, emphasizes that fact to students. Barbari said former students are making anywhere from $40,000 a year to $150,000 a year. She said salaries increase as professionals become more specialized.
Open for business
Edison Salon haircuts start at $5 and shape-ups start at $2. Appointments may be made for the 8 a.m. class or the 11 a.m. class. Students also can do color treatments, nails, hair removal and permanent waves, curls or relaxers. Call 301-929-2196.
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| Fourth-grader Asad Raheem (from left), and second-graders Annie Hoy and Zachary Funes learn longitude and latitude on the continent of Australia with volunteer Stan Seiken during the Global Wizards program at Flower Hill Elementary School in Gaithersburg on Thursday. |
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At Flower Hill Elementary, geography is magic
Flower Hill Elementary School was transported to the wilds of the Australian Outback on Thursday
The Gaithersburg school is one of the latest in the county to give in to the magic of Global Wizards, an after-school geography program for students in grades two, three and four run by Interages Inc. of Wheaton. The nonprofit helps adults and youth develop positive relationships. Silver Spring’s Glenallan and Montgomery Knolls, and Laytonsville elementary schools are also offering sessions of the eight-week program. Global Wizards has grown in popularity since it was founded in 2003, and 12 schools expressed interest in hosting the volunteer-taught program this fall, more than Interages can afford.
Interages introduced Global Wizards after program coordinator Louisa Magzanian learned that 87 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds in the U.S. could not find Iraq on a map, according to National Geographic. ‘‘When I found out how poorly Americans did, I asked about how geography was being taught [in elementary schools], and it wasn’t,” said Magzanian, who taught English in Afghanistan as part of the Peace Corps.
Adult volunteers give weekly geography lessons on a different continent each session. ‘It’s fun for teachers and for the kids,” volunteer Stan Seiken said Thursday. ‘‘Mostly the kids.” Global Wizards came to Flower Hill in the fall with a focus on Africa, and the 12 students enrolled in the current session — including six repeat geographers — are spending the winter learning all about Oceania and Antarctica. Besides basic map-reading skills, the students learn all about the environment, natural resources, wildlife and people of the places they study.
On Thursday, the students took their worksheets and huddled in two groups to find the latitude of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and measure the distance between Brisbane and Melbourne using pieces of yarn on a map taped to the table.‘‘I think...,” second-grader Nia Moore of Gaithersburg mused as she stretched her string over the map. ‘‘When you have a map, you never think,” Magzanian told her. ‘‘You’re sure.” Between the hand-raising and the addition problems subtly slipped in, Global Wizards is more like class than an after-school club, but the young cartographers didn’t seem to care. ‘‘Hopefully when someone asks them ‘Where’s Iraq?’ they’ll say, ‘What are the coordinates?’” |
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