Lights of Hope award presented by Wake County Public School System
May 20, 2003 - Joan Burton was recognized as the Wake County Public School System 2003 Lights of Hope award winner in a celebration May 19. The celebration honored the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as part of the school system's yearlong Conversations About Diversity initiative.
 Joan Burton |
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Conversations
About Diversity participants reflections
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Burton was recognized for her work in Fuquay-Varina's Lincoln Heights community. As a child she attended the Fuquay Consolidated School. She earned a law degree from Howard University and worked for the federal government for 20 years, last serving as director for the Investigations Division, Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She returned home to care for her parents and ignited a campaign to help her community.
"Ms. Burton played a key role as a member of the Fuquay-Varina Citizens Against Drugs Task Force whose main purpose was to first rid the community of drug activities and to build it through cooperative efforts of community and business partnerships," said Fuquay-Varina Mayor John Byrne.
Burton was instrumental in acquiring and refurbishing the abandoned consolidated school, which now houses the Fuquay-Varina Early Learning Center, apartment homes for elderly citizens and a gym for youth. Burton worked with community leaders to obtain a five-year $2 million federal grant last year. She has led a group of her neighbors through a six-month training session that helped them establish the BridgeBuilders network to ensure a safe community for all to live, work and play.
Burton was recognized for epitomizing the hopes, dreams and visions of Dr. King, for her positive influence, and for the motivation to make a transforming difference in the lives of others.
Thirteen students were honored as Lights of Hope. The students
were selected based on
insights they shared in diversity seminars, their ability
to model the character traits of kindness and empathy, and
their ability to serve as advocates in their school and community.
The students included Ashley Calloway of Southeast Raleigh High, Rachel Hoch of Fuquay-Varina High, Thomas Keith of Carnage Middle, Natasha Lake of Apex High, Robert Langworthy of Centennial Campus Middle, Joe Liefer of East Millbrook Middle, Justin Monaco of Davis Drive Middle, Chad Mukherjee of East Millbrook Middle, Jo-Zahn Oliver of Fuquay-Varina High, Kathryn Sauer of Wakefield High, Mollie Ward of Phillips High, James York of Fuquay-Varina High, and Margaret Zhou of Davis Drive Middle.
Superintendent Bill McNeal closed the program by reminding the audience of Walt Whitman's poem, "I Hear America Singing." When he hears the poem, the superintendent said he thinks of the song, "This Little Light Of Mine." He challenged all of the Lights of Hope award winners to continue to serve as the "light" in their schools, families and communities. He said the impact of each individual's light will be realized.
The Lights of Hope celebration honored the work of WCPSS administrators, teachers, staff, parents and students involved in Conversations About Diversity.
Conversations About Diversity-The Dialogue Continues is the second year of an ongoing professional development project focusing on creating greater awareness and appreciation for the diversity within the school system, community, and world. The 60 eighth- and eleventh- grade social studies and English teachers attended numerous events where they discussed the impact of diversity on classroom instruction, student-teacher relationships, professional relationships, and character development.
Participating teachers were trained to use the Paideia Seminar framework as a basis for discussing the numerous texts, films, and presentations that took place throughout the school year. Highlights included a presentation by Camille Yorkey, author of A Voice in the Wilderness, a Pastor's Journal of Ground Zero; attendance at the first ever North Carolina Civil Rights Forum held at the History Museum in October where Morris Dees, Chief Counsel of the Southern Poverty Law Center was the featured speaker; a seminar on "The Graying and Browning of North Carolina," by Dr. James Johnson, a diversity film festival at which teachers were introduced to an instructional framework for using film in the classroom; and the Student Forum on Diversity, at which students and teachers from all participating schools heard a presentation by Cedric Jennings, subject of the book, A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind. Paideia seminar discussions and personal reflection followed each reading and event, providing the opportunity for participants to be actively engaged in the learning process.
The Conversations About Diversity-The Dialogue Continues activities were developed by a planning committee which included Ann Bagley, Lynn Flood, David Gammon, Karyn Gloden, Meaghan Hellenga, Hazeline Lisk, Donna Olsen, Julie Pearce, Patricia Rexford and Melinda Stephani.
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