UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
A publication for USC faculty, staff, and friends
APRIL 25, 2002
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Professor, wife trade dream home to make students' dreams come true
BY CHRIS HORN
For six years, Bert and Tracey Ely enjoyed the breathtaking view—and the life—in their 3,500-square-foot dream home on a lake shore in east Columbia. Three years ago, the Elys chose to live in a far more modest neighborhood in a home where they're trying to make different dreams—of children's literacy, academic success, and hope—come true. Bert, a veteran USC biology professor, recounted the story of the radical address change he and his wife made and what has come of the move. "We were living in a house that took us six months to design—this was going to be the house we would live in for the rest of our lives," Ely said. A few years after moving in, the Elys had dinner with Stuart Hamilton, a family physician who runs several non-profit medical centers in Columbia's Eau Claire and other communities. "He told us what a great need there was for tutoring kids in the Eau Claire schools; this is a community that really hit rock bottom in the 1980s with drugs and crime, but was in the process of making a strong comeback," Ely said. That conversation planted a seed; soon Tracey was making the half-hour trek from an affluent neighborhood to an impoverished one, spending time with children whose academic skills were woefully lagging. Along the way the couple felt a stirring, like a divine tap on the shoulder.
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Commencement
Dr. and Mrs. Palms to receive honorary degrees next month
President John M. and Norma C. Palms will receive doctor of humane letters honorary degrees during spring commencement ceremonies May 10–11. The University will award more than 3,000 degrees on the Columbia campus, including nine associate degrees; 1,911 baccalaureate degrees; 1,004 master's degrees; 18 graduate certificates; Palms and 27 graduate specialist's degrees. Candidates from the Moore School of Business, College of Criminal Justice, College of Engineering and Information Technology, College of Journalism and Mass Communications, College of Palms Library and Information Science, College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, The Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health, and the College of Social Work will receive degrees at 3 p.m. May 10 in the Carolina Coliseum. Candidates from the College of Hospitality, Retail, and Sport Management; College of Education; School of the Environment; College of Liberal Arts; School of Music; College of Science and Mathematics; Fort Jackson Military Base Programs; and the Honors College will receive degrees at 10:30 a.m. May 11 in the Carolina Coliseum. The School of Law will award 219 degrees at its commencement ceremonies at 10 a.m. May 10 on the Horseshoe. Elizabeth Van Doren Gray, president of the South Carolina Bar, will be the speaker. She is a 1976 graduate of the School of Law and received a BA from USC in 1970. In case of rain, the ceremony will be held in the Koger Center. The School of Medicine will award 71 degrees at commencement ceremonies at 12:30 p.m. May 10 in the Koger Center. Gregory Jerome "Jerry" Jurkovich, professor of surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine and chief of trauma at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, will be the speaker. The Graduate School will award 166 doctoral degrees at its doctoral hooding and commencement ceremony at 8:30 a.m. May

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