Woodbridge school’s students, family get lesson in planning the future
A few days ago, Oretha Bumbeh posed a question to her mother that very few parents would mind answering.
Bumbeh, a straight-A fifth-grade student at Vaughan Elementary School in Woodbridge, asked whether it was all right if she became a lawyer instead of a doctor.
“I think that would be OK,” said Elizabeth Bumbeh, who brought her family over from Liberia when Oretha was just 2-years-old and always bugged her about becoming a doctor.
Oretha informed her classmates, parents and staff of her career goals during the school’s first-ever “Kindergarten to College Day” on Friday.
The goal was to educate the children about the importance of good grades, taking tough classes and passing their Standards of Learning tests, so they might be eligible to attend college. To illustrate the point, the kindergarten class was dressed in caps and stoles emblazoned with “Graduating Class of 2021.”
The event also served as a tool for parents to learn how to go about paying for college. After the afternoon assembly, parents were invited to peruse literature from various organizations, including the United Negro College Fund, Scholarships America, Northern Virginia Community College, The College Place and Today’s Students, Tomorrow’s Teachers.
Renee Campbell was one such parent looking for a head start. After struggling and ultimately failing to find a way to get her daughter into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point 12 years ago, the single mother is now seeking ways to pay for 10-year-old daughter Sonje to attend college.
“I got to start early for her to go to college,” Campbell said. “The world doesn’t stop for anybody.”
And with such a large age gap between her daughters, Campbell said she feels like she’s “basically starting this thing all over again.”
Army Chief Warrant Officer Jose Rodriguez, who was a guest speaker during the morning session, was impressed with the event and said it’s something you typically see in high schools, not elementary schools.
“Regardless of the economy, it’s important to think about where you’re going from the beginning,” Rodriguez, whose daughters Leonora, 6, and Giovanna, 7, want to be a nurse and zoologist, respectively.
The importance of parents involving themselves in their children’s academics was also emphasized during Friday’s event, especially by Prince William resident and United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation president Aaron Andrews.
“Remember, your kids will do as you do, not what you said,” Andrews told the crowd. “...You want to instill in them the desire and will to go to college. If you don’t show the way, they won’t go.”
Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-878-8062.
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Reader Reactions
My dad was a blue collar worker, (a mechanic)Daddy only went to the seventh grade and all through our lives he reiterated we would graduate and if we wanted to we would go to college. Daddy could walk with pride, he had nine children, he and my mom always knew where we were and one of my first whippings came when I didn’t tell my mom where I was going and went all over the neighborhood, although Daddy had worked all day, he and Mom walked the streets of the neighborhood until they found me visiting another one of my friends with the heady feeling of freedom. Daddy administered justice, and was quite right in doing so but I knew my Daddy loved me. Daddy always planted a great big garden and we always had a home and love, Daddy used to read to me and say “Margie you can write a book, you can grow up to be something” my Mom and Dad loved us, my happiest memories are of the four story farmhouse where I had a pet goose that laid a rotten egg. During the course of his life Daddy worked three jobs when it was needed, and I knew the security and innoncence of youth in my father’s house. After leaving home however I found out that life is not always so secure and found the wisdom of my father’s words. My daddy taught me of Jesus, he taught me the beauty of reading books and the precious jewel of learning something, I am so blessed with a loving and kind husband and so many other blessings so I cannot complain, but I never forget some of the hard years in my life and say thank you Dear God for the flowers strewn my way. I have met many who were not as blessed as I and had to fear in their own homes. My daddy died early when he was in his fifties, how much easier it might have been for him if he had an education.
I respect your opinion and have no intention of offending you, however I do not feel that someone is trying to vulagrize the blue collar worker.
One day while driving in Manassas, I encountered a women walking down the highway, because of my instincts, I knew she would be of no harm to me and I offered her a ride.
Gloria was on her way to Manassas Church of Christ and I told her I belonged to that congregation. Gloria told me she wanted to learn the Bible and to learn more about God and because she had no ride she walked. I told her she need never walk again unless she chose to, and I would give her a ride when ever I was able.
Many years ago when Gloria lived in Liberia, (while the country was at war)soldiers came to their house with guns. Gloria told her family it was only material things and not worth dying for and she and her husband and eight children walked through the bushes with their hands over their heads until they reached safety, they took nothing with them. Gloria also did not know how to read or write when I met her, she made sure her children had gotten an education and while some of her children stayed in Africa, some came here, Gloria’s daughter worked hard, got an education, married a good man and built a house for her family, with a special room for her mother and to Gloria’s pain of heart her daughter died a few years ago. Gloria told me she wanted to learn to read and write, she wanted to be independent, to be able to read God’s word for herself and to know what it said and she struggled to learn without a teacher and different ones helped her, she is still learning, but she will realize her dream and I have nothing but respect for her and her desire to do, she is a blue collar worker and can hold her head high, I haven’t seen her in a little while because of a position she took, but I admire her so much and consider her a friend.
It’s called “vulgarizing the blue collar” profession. Emphasis is always on going to college. The fact is that the way the present economy is going the jobs will be non-college, blue collar, and technical. Somehow the educational system gets its “ratings” from how many graduates go to college.
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