Volume 11 – Fall 2010
PIG MANIA: Members of the Class of 2014 – (from
left) Khylin Patton, Kaila Harris, Yves Young, Briston
Hines, Nadia Turner and Montrelle Joseph – show
off their Gold Rush piggy banks, the icon for the
new voluntary student-giving initiative. Students are
encouraged to fill the banks with their spare change,
with monies collected to be used to support programs
and activities selected by the freshman class.
A publication for parents, students and prospective students of Xavier University of Louisiana
New Freshman Scholars
Ahead of Their Class
Contrary to conventional wisdom it’s NOT necessarily always best to start at the beginning – especially
when there are numerous opportunities to get
ahead of the class. And that’s been the successful
philosophy of a growing number of Xavier freshman
scholars who have seized the day and gotten their
college careers off to a fast start.
Case in point: biology/pre-med majors Antonio Roberts of Alexandria
LA (Peabody Magnet High School),
Sharon Ogidan of Arlington TX
(Texas Leadership Academy) and
Desmond Stewart of Louisville KY
(DuPont Manuel High School); and
chemistry/pre-med major Wyndy
Bailey of Fayetteville GA (Fayette
County High School).
These students are representative of a new breed of high school
graduates who started earning
degree-credit hours long before
they stepped foot on campus.
In the case of these scholars, all
four entered XU with at least 29
college degree credits already banked toward their
respective curriculum requirements, making them
sophomores and juniors in academic standing.
Roberts had already garnered 30 hours of college
credit before he arrived in New Orleans in July
of this year. And he’s up to 33 hours now, thanks
to an additional three hours he earned through
XU’s chemistry-based Howard
Roberts Hughes Biomedical Summer
program. Course-wise that officially makes him a sophomore.
Roberts, who is attending
XU on full academic scholarship, amassed his hours in the
traditional way – concurrently
enrolling at LSU-Alexandria
while still in high school, mostly
in English, math and history
courses. He picked up an additional three hours at the biologybased Howard Hughes summer
program at the University of
Louisiana-Monroe.
Although his high school actively encouraged him. Roberts said he embraced the
ON THEIR WAY: First-year College of Pharmacy
students Justin Brown of Hampton VA (Hampton
High) and Porscha Showers of Pontchatoula LA
(Pontchatoula High) sign their professional oaths
at the 9th annual White Coat Ceremony, during
which the neophyte students received their first
professional uniform - the white jacket - symbolizing
ethical practice and signifying the beginning of their
professional pharmacy educations. 150 students
participated in the traditional event.
extra academic load because he knew it would help
him down the line, while admitting it took some
balancing of family obligations and extracurricular
interests.
continued on page 2
continued
It paid off big time for the first
generation college student who
received scholarship offers from
Tulane, LSU, Morehouse and
Baylor, but ultimately he decided
on Xavier the month of graduation due in part to his overriding
interest in the health sciences and
the University’s unrivaled success
in that area.
“I have seen members of my family suffer with diseases like cancer
and diabetes, and I have always
wanted to learn what causes
these illnesses and how they can
be cured,” he said. “Health care
has been an area of great interest for me and Xavier
seemed like a natural fit.”
And he is happy with his decision, and pleased that
the transition from high school to
college wasn’t all that difficult. “I
got a lot of positive pointers from
the peer deans during New Student Orientation that made that
first week of classes a lot easier,”
he admitted,” and the faculty and
the older students I’ve met have
been really helpful.”
Although his 33 hours of advanced credit puts him ahead of
the curve vis-à-vis the majority of
his freshman classmates in terms
of his core curriculum requirements, he said he still spends
most of his class time with his
peers in courses related to his major. Roberts, who participates in ROTC through the
university’s joint agreement with Tulane University,
ultimately plans to pursue a double major in business administration with the goal
of enhancing his prospects for a
career in hospital administration
or with a health-related research
company. Ogidan leap-frogged
even further, entering Xavier with
65 college credits already banked.
That makes her a junior – academically speaking. She garnered
those credits through a residential
honors institute for junior and
senior high school students at
Lamar University, where students
can fulfill both their high school
requirements and earn college
credit. She amassed her credits
mostly in mathematics, the sciences and English.
Ogidan, looking to fast-track into a career in pediatric medicine, was following in the footsteps of two
older siblings who completed the same program
at Lamar and are now both in medical school. The
elder of the two, Patrick, now at the Albert Einstein
School of Medicine in New York, was a member of
Xavier’s first post-Katrina graduating class (2006).
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“I was looking for a change of scenery, and since my
brother had a good experience here, this was a natural choice,” said Ogidan, explaining
Ogidan her decision to attend Xavier after accumulating so many credits at Lamar.
“Besides, engineering is Lamar’s forte,
and I wasn’t really interested in that.
I want to be a doctor – and Xavier is
the place to be for that.”
Ogidan concedes that being far
ahead of the curve is not without its
drawbacks. As most of her advanced
credit was in core subjects, when in
class she finds herself a freshman
novice among seasoned upperclassman. “It’s been a little awkward
because most of them (the upperclassman) already know each other,
and here I am this stranger,” she said.
“Most of them don’t know my story – they figure I
must be a transfer or something.”
Stewart followed a different track to his advanced
credit hours – Advance Placement
Bailey (AP) classes. Taken at the high school
itself, these honor-level courses allow
students to meet their high school
requirements and earn college credit
at the same time – provided they
score high enough on a nationallyadministered exit test.
There is a trend of more freshmen
coming to Xavier with Advanced
Placement (AP) courses. For the current freshman class, there is a 36%
increase of those with AP credit over
last year’s class.
Stewart amassed 26 of those in
mathematics, business, history,
language and computer science, and then tacked on
three more credit hours attending Xavier’s Howard
Hughes Biomedical program this past summer.
Stewart
“Dupont offers more AP courses than
any other school in the state – it’s
a pretty rigorous curriculum – so
students are more or less expected to
take them,” said Stewart.
Since most of his advance credits
were electives, Stewart spends most
of his class time with his peers in the
more core subjects. He has adjusted
well to campus life, although he admits learning to manage your time is
one of the more difficult transitions
from high school. He credits the
New Student Orientation program
with providing some assistance in
that area, as well as with the social
aspect. No one else from his high school came to
Xavier, so he was grateful that orientation afforded
him “the time to get to know people without the
stress of going to class.” Stewart himself didn’t decide
to attend Xavier until mid-way through his senior
year in high school.
“My next door neighbor, who’s been like a grandfa-
ther to me, suggested that I go to an HBCU – and
he specifically recommended Xavier,” he said.
“Honestly, I had never heard of Xavier before that.”
It was his over-riding interest in medicine and the
human body – he’s currently thinking of a career
in anesthesiology or primary care at the moment
– that tilted the scales and sent him down to New
Orleans.
Bailey earned all of her 34 hours via Advanced
Placement courses at her high school – mostly in
the areas of science, English, mathematics and history – and that makes her a sophomore in academic
standing. While she also considered attending
some home state school – the University of Georgia
and Spelman College were on the list – she, like
Stewart, was sold on Xavier’s reputation for placing
African American graduates into medical school.
She is also on full scholarship.
Bailey, who plans to follow in her father’s footsteps
(he is a physician himself) or diverge slightly into
dentistry, took on the AP courses in high school not
so much to get a head start on college, but because
of the time management and critical thinking skills
they helped her develop.
“I looked upon the AP courses as a challenge, and
they were,” she said, conceding that, for the most
part, they were much harder than her standard
prep classes. “But I think by taking them I better
prepared myself for college and, eventually, med
school.”
Enrollment
Reaches New
Post-Katrina High
Post-Hurricane Katrina enrollment has hit a new
high again this fall, thanks to a solid freshman class
that exceeded projected levels and a welcome influx
of new transfer students.
Preliminary numbers show 781 new freshmen and
151 new transfers, which pushes the university’s
current overall enrollment to 3,394 students, two
percent higher than last fall’s figures. Enrollment has
grown slowly but steadily in the five years since Katrina had knocked down the student population to
around three-quarters of its best pre-storm figures.
Administrators are pleased with the University’s
Progress. Admissions had projected an incoming
freshman class of 775, so "getting 781 through
the door is a very encouraging sign that the Xavier
brand is still strong among those who seek a quality
education" according to Winston Brown, Dean of
Admissions.
“After Katrina we set out on a five-year plan to
gradually grow our freshman class back to a sustainable level of around 800 new students each year,”
he added. “We are pretty much on that schedule,”
he said.
President Obama Wows
Xavier Audience
The Xavier campus has seen its share of dignitaries over the years (including world leaders and the
Pope), but a new milestone was set this past month
when President Barrack Obama chose the university
as the site to deliver his Hurricane Katrina five-year
observance speech.
An enthusiastic group of New Orleanians (including
XU staff and students), as well as a host of national
media and other White House invited guests, gathered in the University Center Ballroom to witness the
historic event.
Miss Xavier 2010-11, Jade Young, a junior chemistry/pre-pharmacy major from New Orleans (Ben
Franklin High), was accorded the honor of introducing the President.
In his remarks, much of which focused on the effect
the storm had on the Gulf Coast region and the
progress that has been made since then, Obama
praised the university – and in particular XU
President Norman C. Francis – for its own recovery
efforts.
“And we see that here at Xavier. Less than a month
after the storm struck, amidst debris and flooddamaged buildings, President Francis promised that
this university would reopen in a matter of months,”
said Obama. “Some said he was crazy. Some said it
couldn't happen. But they didn't count on what happens when one force of nature meets another.”
“And by January – four months later – class was in
session,” he added. “Less than a year after the storm,
I had the privilege of delivering a commencement
address to the largest graduating class in Xavier's
history. That is a symbol of what New Orleans is all
about.”
PRESIDENTIAL VISIT: (above) President Barack
Obama delivers his Hurricane Katrina Observance
speech on the Xavier campus to an enthusiastic
crowd that included XU students; (left) Miss
Xavier, Jade Young, was accorded the honor of
introducing the President.
Qatar Pharmacy Pavilion
Open for Business
The official ribbon-cutting for the Qatar Pharmacy Pavilion wasn’t until this past
month, but the new five-story expansion has been open since August providing
students and faculty with access to high-tech teaching and research labs, plus
two large auditorium-style lecture halls and other amenities.
Connected to both the Library Resource Building and the existing College of
Pharmacy building, the new Pavilion faces the University’s I-10 boundary to the
north – dramatically changing the footprint of the campus.
Its opening has significantly enhanced Xavier’s ability to sustain its increased enrollment growth while drastically improving the overall quality of the academic
programs and research endeavors. And while the most visible of the campus
improvements recently completed or currently underway, the Qatar Pavilion is
just one of many projects recently completed or currently underway.
Construction has already begun on a world-class chapel to be erected in honor
of the university’s founder Saint Katharine Drexel and, nearby, a previously idle
building is being transformed into a new Student Services Center.
Elsewhere, modular housing units – replacing university-owned houses in the
neighborhood that were damaged during the hurricane – are going up in several
locations, while a new 111-capacity parking lot has been completed.
Across campus, multiple major renovation projects are underway to renovate the
university’s Art Village and to upgrade offices housing several academic departments. And that’s not all: a new Convocation Center is next up and already on
the drawing board.
READY FOR PRIME TIME: The official ribbon-cutting for the Qatar Pharmacy
Pavilion wasn’t until October, but the new five-story expansion has been open
since August providing students and faculty with access to high-tech teaching and
research labs, plus two large auditorium-style lecture halls and other amenities.
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Tuskegee Selects XU Alum President
For more than four decades Dr. Gilbert Rochon ’68
and Dr. Norman Francis ‘52 have had two things in
common. Both are XU alumni and both can trace
career milestones back to 1968 when Rochon was
finishing up work on the first of his three academic
degrees and Francis was beginning his tenure as
president at Xavier. Now they have three things in
common: both are college presidents. Rochon joined
that elite rank of higher education administrators
when he was named the sixth president of Tuskegee
University in September.
“As we reviewed and evaluated Dr. Rochon’s education and professional experience, it became evident
that he has been preparing thoroughly [without aim-
A native of New Orleans, Rochon calls Xavier “the
crucible for my interdisciplinary development”, noting that not only did he receive a quality education
as a student but that he practically grew up on the
campus due to the fact that his mother, Ursula Carrere Rochon Jupiter, was supervisor of the chemistry
laboratories for 32 years, while his father, Gilbert
Rochon, Jr. ’45, graduated from Xavier in pharmacy.
“I am respectful of what has gone on before at Tuskegee and hope to build upon those achievements and
its great heritage,” said Rochon, who officially takes
office next month. “I consider it an honor to follow in
the footsteps of such leaders as Booker T. Washington
(Tuskegee’s founder) and Dr. Benjamin Payton (who
has served as its president since 1981).”
Ironically, Rochon didn’t actively seek the position.
Rather he was one of 20 candidates recommended to
the university by a national search firm. Nevertheless,
once he looked into the situation he found it lined
up perfectly with his own talents, experience and
interests. “I can see so much potential at Tuskegee,”
he said. “The university is primed for a great leap
in technology, and is poised to make great strides
in public health and in community involvement.”
Tuskegee apparently agreed with that assessment.
And indeed it is. Rochon will be moving from Purdue
University, where he currently serves as a senior
research scientist at the Rosen Center for Advanced
Computing and director of the Terrestrial Observatory at Purdue University, a satellite ground station
which collects real-time data on the earth from
orbiting satellites for a multitude of applications.
Additionally he served as associate vice president for
collaborative research and engagement.
Rochon
ing for it specifically] for the presidency of Tuskegee
University,” said Dr. Andrew Brimmer, chairman of
the Tuskegee board of Trustees. His resume is very
impressive.”
Visit XU Online at www.xula.edu for more info,
to submit an online application for admission, or
make a donation
Office of Admissions
Phone: (504) 520-7388
Toll Free: 1-877-XAVIERU
Fax: (504) 520-7941
Email: apply@xula.edu