| SPRING 2010
Extraordinary People, Extraordinary Goals
By Laszlo K. Domjan
Webster University’s far-flung campuses attract students from a wide range of backgrounds, ages and locales. They’re talented, goal-oriented and eager to make a better world. We talked with six students to learn what fires their ambitions.
Music Consumes Her Life
KATIE WALDEN
Age 18, Salem, Mo.
The age-old advice for a musician to “practice, practice, practice” drives Katie Walden but it’s not so she can get to Carnegie Hall. She hopes to be a college music professor. Toward that end, she practices six to eight hours a day on the piano and violin. “It’s a little bit insane,” she said, “but it’s getting me where I want to be.” She and her family have sacrificed much for her to reach this point.
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| “Music is mentally challenging. It involves us emotionally. I’ve made so much of a sacrifice and given up so much. But music means more to me than other hobbies that have gone by the wayside. It’s my life.” |
What she does: Walden is enrolled in the Community Musical School (CMS) of Webster University’s Preparatory Program. It grooms academically and musically high-achieving young people for auditions at some of the nation’s most competitive conservatories and music schools. Walden plays with two CMS orchestras. Her main instrument is the piano but she’s also a serious violinist. She won this year’s Young People’s Symphony Orchestra concerto competition on the violin.
How she got there: Walden was home-schooled in the Missouri Ozarks town of Salem. For nearly five years, her music-loving parents took turns each week making the more than two-hour drive to St. Louis for piano and violin lessons and orchestra rehearsals. Although she had completed the required courses for high school graduation as a junior, she persuaded her parents to let her stay with a family in St. Louis to spend her “senior year” in the CMS Prep program.
Her goals: Over the winter, Walden auditioned to be admitted to five university or college music schools. Where she’ll end up this fall will be based on the audition results she receives this spring. While she loves performing, she does not see that as a realistic career goal “particularly in these economic times.” Beyond that, she sees teaching classical music on the college level as an important way to “share with the culture at large.”
Webster’s role: Without the Webster program, she said, she still could have auditioned for the same schools. But Prep gives her a significant leg up because she’s being exposed to “diverse experiences that already put me on the college level.”
Why music matters: “Music is mentally challenging. It involves us emotionally. I’ve made so much of a sacrifice and given up so much. But music means more to me than other hobbies that have gone by the wayside. It’s my life.”
Refugee Finds a New Life
LENGBIYE BARAFUNDI
Age 47, St. Louis
Lengbiye Barafundi had spent the decade of the 1990s stationed in Lusaka, Zambia, as secretary to the ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Congo (then known as Zaire). In 1999 he was falsely accused of spying for a rebel group from his home province in Congo and forced to go into hiding. Because the Zambian government could not guarantee his safety, he turned to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to resettle him. He applied for and was granted political asylum by the U.S. government and in 2004 he, his wife and four children found themselves in St. Louis. Since then, they have had two more children.
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| “My goals are to be in charge of my family, to be useful to my community and to make a difference wherever I can.” |
In St. Louis, Barafundi found work on an assembly line making bed frames, then taught French at a charter school while working on degrees at Webster. He was laid off as a result of cutbacks at the charter school, so he worked for several months as a custodian as he continued his studies. “I did custodian work as a desperate way to survive,” he said. “I had to assume my responsibilities as my family’s breadwinner.”
What he does: He is a teaching assistant in the St. Louis Language Immersion School and hopes to work as a teacher after getting his teaching certificate this year. “I decided to teach French because of my knowledge of French,” he said. “It is almost my first language.” He speaks four languages.
How he got there: Barafundi was born in 1962 in Mbandaka, Congo, the third child in a family of 12. He holds an associate’s degree in health institutions management and a bachelor’s in administrative and political sciences from the University of Lubumbashi. At the Congolese Embassy in Zambia, he supervised the handling of diplomatic correspondence and kept the ambassador’s agenda.
Webster’s role: Barafundi learned about Webster through the International Institute of St. Louis and an African friend who got an MBA here. In his four years at Webster, Barafundi earned a bachelor’s in French and a master’s in education. “Thanks to support from my teachers and my counselor at Webster, I was connected to a network that helped me find a job at Language Immersion School,” he said.
His goals: Beyond becoming a teacher, Barafundi’s ambitions center on the welfare of his family. “My goals are to be in charge of my family, to be useful to my community and to make a difference wherever I can,” he said. “I set my goals within my reach because I am realistic and I am afraid of failure, although I learn from it.”
Why sticking with his family goals matters: “When we came to the USA as a poor family from Africa, I felt it was a great move for my children. In the USA, the land of opportunity, I hope my children will imitate my efforts by achieving what I could, will or cannot achieve myself.”
Sad History Drives Her Career
CARLA STUMPF PATTON
Age 40, Sarasota, Fla.
On the day she became a widow, Oct. 31, 1994, Carla Stumpf Patton was pregnant, expecting her first child in a matter of days. Her husband, Marine Sgt. Rich Stumpf, took his life in front of fellow drill instructors and the boot camp recruits who were under his care at Parris Island, S.C. Patton went into labor the day of his funeral. “I was rushed to the hospital that morning and never made it to my own husband’s funeral,” she said. “I was not able to experience the usual grieving rituals that most people can take part in.
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| “As educators and clinicians, we must do everything in our power to bridge the gap between military and civilians with hopes of providing the best possible services wherein all providers can better understand the unique nature of the military mindset, lifestyle and mental health needs.”
Carla Stumpf Patton (right) with her niece, Jennifer Raleigh, at Arlington National Cemetery.
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“In spite of being surrounded by loving family and friends, the unique nature of suicide grief left me feeling extremely isolated, misunderstood and, for lack of a better word, lost,” she said. “I only knew that I had no other choice but to survive somehow and find a way to make sense of the devastation so that the tragic circumstances were not in vain.”
And that is why Carla Stumpf Patton became a grief counselor and expert on suicide education and prevention.
What she does: Patton teaches social skills and is a guidance counselor in Sarasota at a private school for students with learning challenges. She also is a part-time academic advisor in the counseling program at Webster’s Sarasota-Manatee campus. She provides suicide prevention education and community outreach to survivors of loss through the Sarasota Suncoast chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a chapter she founded and directs. As a certified thanatologist she oversees monthly grief support groups for survivors of suicide loss. And increasingly, she has developed a clinical specialty in counseling, education and suicide prevention involving members of the military, veterans and their families. She works with military survivors and agencies across the country.
How she got there: Sadly, she had encountered personal loss even earlier than her husband’s suicide. While Patton was in high school, a toddler drowned in the swimming pool of a neighbor for whom she babysat. A few years later, she lost close childhood friends in an auto crash that killed three people. “I was completely devastated and was in a state of shock for several months before I could return to some level of normal functioning,” she said.
Webster’s role: Patton had earned a bachelor’s in psychology in 2002 from Campbell University in Sarasota. After she remarried, she found herself again stationed at Camp Lejeune and felt comfortable with Webster’s small campus at the base education center. She enrolled in a graduate program with an emphasis on mental health counseling. But military deployments for her husband put her training on hold. When he retired in 2004, she resumed her studies at Webster’s campus in Sarasota. She received her master’s in counseling in 2006. The degree, she said, “afforded me advanced career opportunities and gave me the advantage I needed to seek additional certifications.”
Her goals: Encouraged by her Webster instructors, Patton is pursuing a doctorate of education in counseling psychology at Argosy University in Sarasota. She hopes to begin her dissertation this summer. Her topic will emphasize suicide prevention in the military. “As educators and clinicians, we must do everything in our power to bridge the gap between military and civilians with hopes of providing the best possible services wherein all providers can better understand the unique nature of the military mindset, lifestyle and mental health needs,” she said.
Why grief counseling matters: “All counselors need to have basic training in death education for the simple fact that in some point in time we will all be faced with clients who have been affected by loss and grief.”
Filmmaker Mixes Creativity and Technology
WHITNEY GELNETT
Age 22, Wentzville, Mo.
A stop at a produce stand on a family road trip to Indiana inspired Whitney Gelnett to make a short film titled, “Oranges.” It’s the story of a daily customer of a produce stand who mistakes the flirtatious attentions of a clerk for love. Gelnett and fellow senior Emily Hatcher produced “Oranges” for a film production class at Webster. The film won top honors last year at the Webster University Film Festival and was chosen for the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase, St. Louis International Film Festival and Macon Film Festival in Georgia. “I like looking at the ordinary things in life,” Gelnett said. Her next film focuses on a man who operates a leaf blower.
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| “Film is long-lasting. It meets the test of time. It’s about the narrative. It’s about the story.” |
What she does: Until she graduates with a major in film production in May, Gelnett continues as general manager of GTV, the campus television station at Webster. She’s held that high-pressure position since 2007. Late last year she also landed a part-time job as production assistant at Creative Producers Group, a business communications and events planning company. She had played on the women’s basketball team her first two years at Webster, but reluctantly gave that up her junior year because of the demands of her TV and film production work.
How she got there: Gelnett wanted to major in art from an early age. “I’ve always been drawing,” she said. In high school, she became interested in journalism. Then in watching the “bonus features” of movie DVDs, she said, “I became fascinated by the production process and how much art direction and art tied into it.”
Webster’s role: Invariably, Webster was the place to be for high school journalism workshops in the St. Louis area. “While on campus during journalism competitions, I’d look around during the breaks and ask about films,” Gelnett said. “Not a lot of schools in the Midwest have the kind of equipment and the class sizes as Webster.” Two aspects of her Webster experiences “definitely helped me grow,” she said. One was the “learning by trial and error” as TV station manager. The other was an eight-week study-abroad program in the summer of 2008 in which she lived with a family in Argentina. “I didn’t speak English for two months,” she said. “I learned a lot about Spanish films.”
Her goals: Filmmaking’s mix of creativity and technology appeals to Gelnett. She would love to own her own production company. She hopes to move to Los Angeles and get steeped in the film, video and TV industries. “I want to meet the people and learn the LA culture,” she said.
Why film matters: “Film is long-lasting. It meets the test of time. It’s about the narrative. It’s about the story.”
He Dreams of Ending Extreme Poverty
NICK STEVENS
Age 22, St. Louis
Nick Stevens was studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston the summer before his senior year in high school when tendinitis forced him to suspend playing the guitar. With time on his hands, he sampled the works of different musicians, including Bono’s U2. “As I began to look into what the band was doing outside of their music I learned that more than 1 billion people live on less than one dollar each day,” he said. “Bono started an organization called the ONE Campaign to address this issue.” ONE’s 2 million members are dedicated to fighting extreme poverty and preventable diseases.
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| “Ending extreme poverty is not about charity. It’s about national security through international stability. What happens to our neighbors in Somalia, China or Afghanistan has a profound effect on our own well-being.”
Nick Stevens and the Webster University Gorlok promote ONE.
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What he does: A second bout of tendinitis forced Stevens to give up his plans for a musical career and he transferred from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville to Webster. He is in his final semester working on a bachelor’s in public relations, with minors in international human rights and Web site development. He’s currently spending the term at Webster’s campus in Geneva. At the St. Louis campus he started a ONE chapter that has organized a variety of events. A major goal is to get students to “just take the time to open an e-mail and see how simple it is to use your voice to fight poverty,” he said. “It literally takes 30 seconds to send a message to Congress.”
How he got there: He says his father and stepmother were instrumental in forming his ideas about the world. “Our dinner table conversations often resembled those of 18th-century philosophers presenting theories in some café in Paris,” he said. “We’d throw ideas out there and then shoot them down. We were all very good at playing devil’s advocate and forcing someone to back up what they were saying. I think it was here that my belief in individual equality and human rights began
to develop.”
Webster’s role: Stevens picked Webster because of its diverse communications program and its global operations. “Most of my friends at Webster St. Louis were not from this country,” he said. “You can learn as much talking to someone on the quad as you can in the classroom.” His experience in Geneva has “helped me to see the global village become a reality.”
His goals: After graduation, Stevens wants to spend a year in a developing country. “I don’t want The New York Times to tell me what Africans need; I want a rural farmer in Africa to tell me,” he said. In the long term, he sees himself living in a developed country working in online communications for a political advocacy organization. “I want to build the political will to end extreme poverty,” he said.
Why fighting extreme poverty matters: “Ending extreme poverty is not about charity. It’s about national security through international stability. What happens to our neighbors in Somalia, China or Afghanistan has a profound effect on our own well-being. That’s the rational reason for supporting the fight against extreme poverty. In the end, though, this is about justice—and equality. As Bono says, ‘Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die.’”
Advocate Hopes to Even Playing Field
KRYSTLE GOMEZ
Age 25, Phoenix
Krystle Gomez enrolled in Webster’s Global MBA program to find “best practices” in education around the world. She hopes to build model schools catering to the poor, particularly foster children. The idea grew from her experience as a child advocate in family court in Philadelphia while she attended law school at the University of Pennsylvania. “After witnessing first-hand the chaos in the family court and speaking with children in foster care, I recognized the impact that the lack of a solid education was playing in the cycle of welfare dependence,” she said.
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| “This type of program is expanding my ability to be open-minded, think creatively and adapt to situations outside my comfort zone.” |
What she does: Nearing the end of a year of travel and research, Gomez is sorting through the information she’s gathered. She graduates in July with a Global MBA degree. She said she has found no perfect education model to solve problems in the U.S., but some methods have succeeded in Europe. Foster children need additional educational support because of instability in their lives from moving around so often. “However,” Gomez said, “building schools designed to educate this population requires the same thing that all schools require: a focus on its students’ needs and a plan to address those needs.”
How she got there: For more than 20 years, Gomez’s parents ran a 12-step program to help the homeless rejoin society. “I was raised to have an awareness regarding societal issues of this nature,” she said. Before getting her law degree from Penn, Gomez earned a business degree from Arizona State University, where she graduated first in her class. She has worked as a summer associate at the New York-based international law firm of Troutman Sanders. The firm agreed to defer a permanent attorney position for her until the end of this year so that she could get her Webster Global MBA.
Her goals: Gomez aims to combine the legal and corporate experience she’ll gain at the law firm with what she’s learned through Webster about successful education systems. She’ll continue as an education/child advocate on her own time while at the law firm. Over the next two years she hopes to make the contacts and arrangements to form the first of the model schools.
Webster’s role: “Ultimately, I chose Webster’s program because of its unique nature,” Gomez said. It has enabled her to travel to places where she could interview people about their successful educational practices. “This type of program is expanding my ability to be open-minded, think creatively and adapt to situations outside my comfort zone,” she said.
Why education for the poor matters: “For many students in the United States, a stable education is something that can be taken for granted. For children in the foster care system, a stable education is the difference between making an easier transition as a productive member of society and facing a lifetime of struggles in a society where it is increasingly difficult to succeed without advanced skills.”
Laszlo K. Domjan is a former editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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