Xavierites Helping, Educating from Afar

Photo credit: Jeremy Drey/ The Daily Collegian, Penn State Dawn La Fargue and Larry Napoleon, doctoral students at Penn State, have taken advocacy roles for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

By Bridgette Outten
Special to Black College Wire and THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine

For one group of Xavierites far from home, the rebuilding of New Orleans and the reconstruction of its scattered families and institutions is a personal mission.

The students -- Stephanie D. Preston, Michelle E. Torregano, Shanna L. Graves, Maurice McMorris, Dawn L. La Fargue, Tania M. Porter and Larry Napoleon -- all have earned degrees from Xavier. All have been teachers at schools in New Orleans.

Today, they are studying for their doctoral degrees at Pennsylvania State University, in a graduate school of education program that is a partnership between Penn State and Xavier University of Louisiana.

The program, begun in 2002, allows for an exchange of faculty members, joint research opportunities, and for Xavier graduates to become doctoral candidates at Penn State. It might be Xavier�s only academic program still operating in the weeks after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and the broken levees of Lake Pontchartrain.

These Xavierites are still educating. They address crowds at news conferences and church services, where they petition for help to rebuild housing and seek money for the basic needs of displaced New Orleans families.

�The seven of us are very close. . . . We were so concerned about the people that weren�t able to get out" of New Orleans "and the people that were displaced from their families,� said Dawn La Fargue, 30. �These are not just people; these are my neighbors, these are some of my distant relatives. It�s not just any old person. They are the backbone of the city.�

Watching the horror unfold from afar was gut-wrenching.

It�s not like an outsider looking in,� said La Fargue. �I lost my house like everyone else.�

La Fargue is from the Ninth Ward, a place she calls �the epitome of New Orleans poverty.� Her home there was flooded twice, once by Katrina and again by Rita. During the disaster, her husband, a New Orleans firefighter, stayed behind to help with rescues, while their 3-year-old daughter and other family members evacuated to Houston. The girl eventually was reunited with La Fargue in College Station, Pa.

Fellow doctoral student Napoleon said he heard nothing from his family for four days after the levees broke.

�It was torture,� Napoleon recalled. �That�s the only way I can describe it. Absolute torture.�

He had spoken by telephone to his brother-in-law in New Orleans on the morning of Aug. 29.

�One of the levees just broke in New Orleans East,� Napoleon, 29, had told his brother-in-law from the safety of Penn State. Napoleon had earned a bachelor�s degree in education from Dillard University and a master�s from Xavier before joining Penn State's program in curriculum and instruction.

He had been following the path of Hurricane Katrina for a week before it plowed into the Gulf Coast city.

"Well, there�s no water here,� his brother-in law had replied. We�re fine.�

�OK, then,� Napoleon had said. Then he hung up.

By early evening, Napoleon learned that several levees in New Orleans had broken. Water was rising rapidly in the city. He tried calling his brother-in-law back repeatedly. He couldn�t get through.

He called a cousin, the last person to speak with his brother-in-law.

�We have to get upstairs because water is rising in the house.�

Those were the last words anyone in the family had heard from his brother-in-law until he and other relatives were airlifted out of New Orleans days later.

While grateful that his family was safe, Napoleon remained concerned about others back home.

After the hurricane, the doctoral students met with Penn State�s student affairs department to discuss their options, and to make sure help was available for other students from the region who had been affected, especially undergraduates,

From that meeting came ideas about how students could receive financial aid, psychological counseling and �pretty much the whole" gamut of services, according to Napoleon.

Penn State was instrumental in helping with the immediate needs of the students� families, La Fargue said, especially for those whose relatives suddenly needed to join them. The Black Graduate Student Association was able to find La Fargue a bigger apartment within 24 hours to accommodate her husband, daughter, father, mother and brother.

The university and groups on campus sponsored donation drives and the education department gave the students time off from their doctoral program responsibilities to reunite their families and resettle, according to officials there.

The university also set up news conferences and meetings with organizations that could help the students. The doctoral students� days have been filled with phone calls to insurance companies -- and with speaking engagements.

The students have spoken before campus audiences, answering questions about New Orleans. They say they are trying to help fellow students and others make sense of the scenes of desperation and the devastation they've seen on television, and �localize� the disaster, according to Napoleon.

Napoleon says the group is in for the duration.

�It�s not just about the seven of us," he said. "We�re going to do everything that we can to make sure that this is in the forefront of everyone�s minds, until our city � our region, actually � is rebuilt.�

Another important part of their mission, the students said, is to correct misconceptions about the city �- primarily the idea that most of the city did not evacuate and had to go to the Louisiana Superdome. The majority got out before Katrina hit.

Based on what they saw on television, "They just assumed that in the whole city, no one really evacuated on their own,� La Fargue said. But "the hurricane did inform people here" at Penn State "that there is so much poverty in New Orleans. And I think that was shocking to people.�

Both La Fargue and Napoleon say they plan to return to New Orleans to teach again.

Of their decision to speak out on behalf of New Orleans residents, Napolean said, "We�re really not doing anything exceptional. . . . Somehow, you just kick into gear and you do what has to be done. It�s not even a conscious decision . . . I really think that it is in all of us as human beings.�

Napoleon said he knows the city will need young, energetic people to come back and rebuild. He's counting on it: He plans to return with his own new addition; he and his wife are expecting a baby.

La Fargue is another who is sure the city will rise again.

�New Orleans is one of the most important cities in this country,� she said. �It�s where people�s hearts, souls, families and communities were. Why give up? We didn�t give up on other parts of world. Why give up on New Orleans?�

Bridgette Outten is a senior print journalism major at Texas Southern University. This is part of a special series appearing in THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine October 2005 Super Issue through a collaboration by Black College Wire (BlackCollegeWire.org) and THE BLACK COLLEGIAN (Blackcollegian.com), now celebrating its 35th publishing year. It may be reprinted intact with this credit included.

Posted Oct. 10, 2005