Excerpts from acceptance speech

....This award I humbly accept on behalf of a number of people who are responsible for my being who I am today.

....I wish to dedicate this award to the late Dr. Dawson Deese, nutrition science professor here at UW-Green Bay and my dearest friend. Dr. Deese believed in me and in my dreams and made graduate education possible. He was my friend, my mentor and a gentleman to the last vertebrae.

...I thank Jo Berenson who is not here tonight, but who took me under her wings when I arrived on this campus and provided me with immeasurable support.

...I recognize from the audience Barbara Fondrliak. To me, a total stranger I met on campus, who befriended me, provided me with spiritual support, and brought my family and myself through the turbulent times of being a single parent and student.

...I must recognize Ms. Juliet Cole, my friend — my sister, who I met one tired day after classes on the bus when our children had drained every ounce of our energy. Juliet and her husband, the late professor Clarence Cole, became my surrogate family while I lived in Green Bay.

...Today, as a much more matured person, I see each issue as an opportunity to learn something, to grow, and whenever necessary, a chance to rise above that which presents the challenge.

...Amazing things happen when you keep your objective in sight. To be able to envision possibilities, to have the power to remain focused and the ability to dream, these are vital qualities I have learned that help one to achieve.

...My academic studies have served me well. They have opened doors for me, but there are some facts that are not found between covers of the textbooks, and these are the facts on which you are tested when in the workplace.

...The facts of separate realities... I have dedicated my career to working with low-income and minority groups of various cultures. There are vast differences among cultures and we live in a multicultural society. This is an undeniable fact... one cannot expect people of different cultures, or different backgrounds, to see and understand things and to act as we expect them to... I have learned that cultivating an interest in understanding others and less in having other people understand you results in effective and fulfilling communication.

...There is a saying, 'Giving is its own reward' and whenever you give, you also receive. It may not be financial, it may not be public recognition, but it is a warm sense of satisfaction, of ease and of peace when you see that one person, be they employee or client, choose to turn their life around and by example influence others.

...I think I was destined to attend UWGB and I really do feel fortunate to have been given that privilege.

Thank you.

For more on the professional accomplishments and community activism of Urla Barrow, who graduated in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in Social Change and Development from UW-Green Bay, check the UW-Green Bay news release archive at http://www.uwgb.edu/univcomm/news/page/index.htm