Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Hall inductees share advice with students
FAYETTEVILLE — Mireya Reith dispensed some advice to high school seniors Thursday, including one suggestion she admitted might be controversial.
“You’re probably going to boo me off the stage when I say this,” Reith said. “But y’all, get offline. Get off social media and start having direct conversations with people again.”
There were no jeers. Instead, the students gathered in Fayetteville High School’s performing arts center applauded.
“Part of the reason we have so much polarization in this country is that we are failing miserably at talking to each other. We need to start talking to each other again,” Reith said.
Reith was one of four people inducted this year into the Fayetteville Public Education Foundation’s Hall of Honor, which commemorates the contributions of educators, alumni and others
to the School District and the community.
The foundation celebrated this year’s inductees with a dinner and ceremony Tuesday. High school seniors got a chance Thursday to hear directly from three of them.
Carmen Lierly, a 1939 high school graduate who went on to help establish what was the Uptown School for at-risk students, was a posthumous inductee. Lierly, along with Martha Agee, is the namesake of the Agee-Lierly Life Preparation Services school. He died in 2010.
John King, a professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas, spoke about Lierly. King was a new professor when he met Lierly and they formed a partnership. King’s students did volunteer work under Lierly’s direction at the Uptown School.
Many of Uptown’s students not only finished high school, but also finished college, King said. Lierly “opened doors to them that they thought were closed. He restored self-confidence and he showed people where they had talent,” he said.
This year’s other inductees were Lolly Greenwood, a retired children’s librarian; and Conrad Odom, a lawyer whose community service includes stints on the City Council, Planning Commission and School Board.
Greenwood, who joined the Fayetteville Public Library staff in 1991 and became known as “Miss Lolly” to countless children, retired last year. She said she saw many familiar faces when the students entered the performing arts center. She recalled Madeline Graves, the student who introduced her, came to her story time sessions when Graves was in preschool.
“So it’s connections like that that I love making, when I realize that either you came to the library and I worked with you, I helped you find materials, I did a program with you, or I came to your school and we recognize each other from that,” she said.
Greenwood told students the library job was perfect for her, but it took her many years to discover that was her calling.
“It’s OK not to know what you want to do when you’re finishing high school. I didn’t,” she said. “I was over 40 years old when I found my perfect job.”
Odom’s message to students was that straight-A students should be proud of their accomplishments, but those who struggle academically should not let their school performance define them or discourage them. He said he didn’t do great in school.
“Your intelligence, your value, is not related to your grade point. There’s so much that you have to give and so much that you have to offer … that’s not tied to your grade point,” Odom said.
He added he did very little volunteer work when he was young.
“It wasn’t until after I got out of school that I found that giving of my time and my energy didn’t necessarily bring value just to the community, but it brought value to me,” he said.
Reith, who graduated at the top of her class from Fayetteville High in 1997, told students there were no other Hispanics in town when she was growing up. She recalled being subject to racial epithets and kids avoiding her house because of a rumor her mother carried diseases because she was Mexican.
But her teachers supported her as she confronted social struggles, she said. Reith is the first Latina appointed to the state Board of Education. She founded Arkansas United, a local immigrants’ rights advocacy organization.
One student introduced each inductee to the audience. For Reith, that student was Alicia Hernandez, who emigrated to the United States from Cuba when she was 5. Hernandez said Reith’s story is an inspiration.
Principal Jay Dostal, addressing the seniors, said they’d just heard four compelling stories of growth, maturation and success.
“I think the call to action now is to go on and create your own story and tell it, because if you don’t tell it, somebody else will tell it for you and it’s not going to be as good,” Dostal said.