Founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone Geoffrey Canada was the keynote speaker for this year’s Odessa College Honors.
An author, activist and educator, Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone works to move people out of intergenerational poverty, especially in central Harlem.
Held at the Odessa Marriott Hotel & Conference Center, the event honored educators, businesses, medical professionals, businesses and nonprofits. It drew about 350 people.
The Wood Family and retired Odessa College Chief Financial Officer Virginia Chisum were inducted into the Hall of Fame.
CBS 7 Anchor Jay Hendricks was the emcee.
Canada spoke to the media before the luncheon. He said he was thrilled to be in Odessa and spoke to educators and community leaders Monday evening.
“Something pretty extraordinary is happening at the college. I had a chance to really sit down and go over the data, what’s happening, the success rates, the way they have changed up how they’re teaching the classes, separating the semesters. It’s really quite extraordinary. I think word needs to get out to the rest of the country. I think this answer is happening right here at Odessa College and … the rest of the country should be aware,” Canada said.
He added that this is a time nationwide that educators are under tremendous stress, not just from what has happened with COVID-19, but the emotional toll.
“So many folks have suffered themselves. And our young people are as troubled as they’d ever been having gone through this experience. And so we need our educators. There was a time during this epidemic that we needed our doctors and our nurses; there was a time we needed our scientists to create vaccines. Now’s the time we need educators to step up, help heal our children and get them prepared for the next portion of their lives. The kids in this country, they’re our future. They’re in trouble. We need educators to really lean in right now. It’s going to take a while to fix this problem. But I think we’ve got to be up to the task,” Canada said.
Canada said we need to “pull out all the stops” to make sure teachers and students are supported.
“We need to make sure they’re getting not only the proper salary and compensation, but that we’re taking care of their own health; their mental health. This is, I think, one of the most difficult times in the country to be in education. And we need the folks who actually support the direct services to our students — the teachers and the counselors. We need those supervisors to be aware, to be supportive and to go the extra mile for educators today. This is a national crisis right now. And we need everybody to redouble their efforts to support education here in Texas and throughout the country,” Canada said.
Asked what the most common problem is facing education today, Canada said it’s that there are a whole group of students who haven’t been in school for a year and a half to two years.
“… While they were out of school, lots of these kids (were) traumatized because of the impact of sickness, especially hit the minority communities really, really hard. Lots of parents have passed away …,” he said.
There are children who don’t have parents and there are some students that have disappeared off the roll books.
“So trying to reengage young people, to get them reacquainted to be in classrooms, to live instruction. That to me is the biggest challenge we’re going to face. And then we’ve got to make up for lost time, which means we’re going to have to spend additional time making sure that children get what they didn’t get last year, that they get it this year, as well as the work that’s supposed to be learning this year. So it’s actually doing both jobs at the same time. It’s going to be tough,” Canada said.
His advice to students is to take a deep breath.
“We’ve all been through something. This is historic. None of us have ever faced anything like this before, but you need to go in and redouble your efforts; to focus; to pay attention; to do your work; to do your homework; and to support your peers because lots of the other boys and girls are struggling with the same issues of having been out of school, out of contact with folks they care about …,” he said.
Canada said what OC has done with its class and teaching structure is something educators nationwide can learn from.
“… This idea of instead of teaching four classes in 16 weeks, you teach two classes in eight weeks. This is pretty remarkable and I think there’s something here for the rest of the country to learn about when you look at the data. It’s very impressive,” Canada said.
Honorees included Lisa Wyman, Outstanding Individual; Julie Marshall, Outstanding Educator; Dr. Rohith Saravanan, Community Impact; Medical Center Health System, Outstanding Nonprofit; La Margarita, Outstanding Business (Trina Moralez); the Wood Family, Hall of Fame Inductee; and Virginia Chisum, Hall of Fame Inductee.
Videos of each of the honorees were shown.
Moralez, who will celebrate the 30th anniversary of La Margarita in January 2022, talked about her hard work and that she is going to be there when people need her.
She said she recommends OC. “I think it’s the best place to stay if you want to do something,” Moralez said.
Marshall, a longtime educator, who has served in many roles in Ector County ISD, is now principal at Dowling Elementary School.
“I’m honored that OC chose to honor me and the work that I’ve done in the community,” Marshall said. “I appreciate all the work that OC does to help all of the kids in our community have an opportunity to have a college education.”
“I was really surprised because there are many more deserving people than me, so yes, I’m very honored,” Marshall added.
Russell Tippin, MCH president and CEO, and Saravanan, chief medical officer for Odessa Regional Medical Center and Scenic Mountain Medical Center in Big Spring, started their jobs about the same time — just before the August 2019 mass shooting and COVID-19 hit.
Tippin said the No. 1 asset for MCH is its employees; its doctors; its nurses; housekeepers; and kitchen workers.
Tippin said everyone has been a hero through all this. He urged people to appreciate every second of every hour of every day because nobody’s guaranteed tomorrow.
“And we’re just making sure that when people are at their worst that we’re at our best and that we’re that light that people are looking for in the dark time that COVID was,” Tippin said.
Saravanan said when the pandemic hit in early 2020, there were no second thoughts about springing into action to make sure they were well prepared to deliver the highest quality care to the community.
He added that he is humbled that OC chose him as one of the honorees.
“Odessa College is one of the key driving factors for the healthcare workforce in our area. We as a hospital depend heavily on places like Odessa College who bring out the best in the workforce for serving the community at the hospital level,” Saravanan said in his video.
“The second part of this is that education is everybody’s job. Odessa College just happens to be a leader in that specific role. When we were in the early parts of this pandemic, one of the things that struck me as being very important is the community collaboration so Odessa College was very instrumental in helping us arrange things like town halls where we could educate the community about COVID-19” through its stages so far, he said.
