Posted on 05/28/2007 11:47:57 PM PDT by iowamark
WATERLOO --- Some Hurricane Katrina victims who escaped the Gulf Coast found the Cedar Valley a good place to sink their roots.
For two of the evacuees who are graduating this weekend --- one from East High School, one from Wartburg College --- it is also an environment in which they have thrived. But Waterloo residents Jeremy Brown and Falone Ruth said reaching the milestone has included struggles as they adjusted to a new community and culture.
Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of Louisiana and Mississippi in August 2005. Brown, who came here from Gulfport, Miss., in October 2005, graduates today from East. Ruth, who came here from New Orleans in December 2005, graduates Sunday from Wartburg.
Brown came to Waterloo with his mom, Daisy, older brother, Jesse, and his brother's girlfriend. The home the family rented in Gulfport was badly damaged in the hurricane. Brown said they stayed there in "savage living conditions" for three weeks before friends suggested they come to Iowa.
Ruth, now 25, was starting her senior year studying mathematics at Southern University when the hurricane hit. She and her husband, Joseph Mack, ended up in a shelter after fleeing their home. They came here on the suggestion of Iowans volunteering in New Orleans after the hurricane. Later, Ruth's father, Lester, and his wife, Georgetta, followed them to Waterloo.
"Adapting took a lot of time," said Brown. "It had been a good year in Iowa before I had my comfort, but I guess coming to Iowa was kind of like a revelation.
"When we first got here, all I wanted to do was go back home and my mom told me this was for the better. And as I've been here, I'm starting to see how she was right."
Over time, he has found acceptance among peers and faculty at the school.
"People helped me feel more comfortable," he said. "After a year, I didn't feel the tension of being the new kid."
Brown's grades had been on the decline through his high school years in Gulfport. But coming to East High allowed him to wipe the slate clean, as far as his behavior and attitude.
"My grades improved drastically since I've been up here," said Brown. At a recent a senior honors reception, he received a presidential silver award in academics and another medal for satisfactory work in social studies.
Brown plans to continue his education in the fall, first at Hawkeye Community College and then at Briar Cliff University. The private Sioux City university has offered him a $5,000 per year scholarship for four years. However, first he will be taking a world literature class at HCC that is a prerequisite to get into Briar Cliff. He will also take some general education courses at Hawkeye.
"I'm going to major in electronic engineering and I plan to minor in music theory," said Brown. "Right now, I'm an amateur composer. I plan on furthering my career in that. Along with that, I plan on being a music engineer."
"It's a joy to have a student like him in class," said East teacher Deb Pfalzgraf. Brown has been in her digital production and mass communication classes.
She called him a polite, well-rounded teenager who is a gifted musician and a natural at presenting information.
"I don't see him giving into peer pressure like other students," added Pfalzgraf. "Jeremy is mature. He has made friends (and) blended into our environment very easily."
Ruth tried enrolling at the University of Northern Iowa, but found not all of her credits would be accepted. Wartburg was able to work with her situation and she enrolled in January 2006.
A whole series of people have helped her family settle into the Cedar Valley, from the couple that brought them here to the others who found them a place to stay. Ruth is grateful to them, because other friends still in Louisiana have fallen far behind in their efforts to finish college.
"I'm really thankful that I did make it," she said, and a little bit surprised. "Losing everything was hard, but as I said, I had many supportive people around me."
Ruth is uncertain if she will pursue the credentials to become a teacher or go into another career where a math degree is needed.
"Whatever comes my way, I'm real flexible," she said. "I will be looking for (jobs in) the Cedar Falls-Waterloo area."
Contact Andrew Wind at (319) 291-1507 or andrew.wind@wcfcourier.com.
Waterloo, Iowa is about 14% black, probably the largest percentage in Iowa.
Now I life in central NC, big difference.
What is the big difference?
Waterloo was the birthplace of the five Sullivan brothers, all killed when the USS Juneau was sunk in the Solomon Islands in WWII. (One of the five was among the 125 who survived the sinking initially, but wasn't among the 25 still alive a week later when the Navy finally sent someone to see if there were any survivors.)
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