Higher Ground

Break out of the box others put you in, Stedman Graham told the audience.

Everyone knows Stedman’s box, and if the 300 or so who attended the first Higher Ground celebration of higher education in the Permian Basin didn’t know then they found out Thursday evening.

He’s Oprah’s boyfriend.

But is that him and are the boxes that confine Odessa and Midland’s youngsters truly who they are, he asked.

Nope.

The boxes around Lacy McKinney aren’t her either. That’s for sure.

The Odessa High senior is the petite, blond cross country and track star who makes it into the Odessa American’s sports section regularly in the fall and spring.

But she’s more.

She’s also a volunteer at Medical Center Hospital, a four-year student in Latin and an aspiring doctor with her vision set on Baylor University.

However finding the funding for her high goals had eluded her until she attended the college information that preceded Williams’ keynote speech.

“I got stuff from everywhere,” McKinney said.

Stuff filled a bag. It was information sheets on grants, scholarships and medical-related programs.

A sign on the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center table read: “Want to be a doctor? Wondering how to pay for it?”

A pamphlet told her she could save her hundreds of thousands of dollars in education costs through the University of Texas system Joint Admission Medical Program.

“If I hadn’t of come I wouldn’t have found out about that,” she said.

If Chelsey Franco, 21, hadn’t of come she wouldn’t have found out about the variety of scholarships UTPB offers — scholarships she hopes to apply for and receive to pay for her senior year there.

And Amanda Muñoz, 14 years old and just finished with an afternoon volleyball practice, wouldn’t have received her desired head start on college planning.

“I know what I want to be more now,” Muñoz said.

An optometrist, she said, someone who literally helps people have good vision.