John Shaw, Jr., Ph.D. (M.S. physics ’76), watched his father go to night school and do his homework at the kitchen table to earn a college degree as he worked and raised a family.
Shaw, a retired physics professor, established a scholarship in his father’s name to give other students the opportunity for academic achievement.
“My father liked to be busy from the minute he got up in the morning to the minute he went to bed,” Shaw says.
老约翰·肖在他作为联邦航空管理局技术员的职业生涯早期参加了函授课程。 When he became a FAA instructor, Shaw’s mother suggested that he attend night school.
“I never felt neglected by the fact that he went to school,” Shaw says. “When I was young, he would play catch with me, and read to me and my sister before we went to bed at night.”
In addition, Shaw’s father, who was the first person in his family to graduate from college, was teaching him the value of education and perseverance through his own academic goals. 他在肖12岁前两个月从大学毕业。 When Shaw’s father retired, he was deputy regional director for the FAA.
“When I asked him of all the jobs that he had, which was his favorite, he said, ‘Teaching,’” Shaw says.
“Urban universities offer opportunities that are out of reach for other schools. If you’re in Kansas City, the large employer base means it’s easier to get a job while you go to school."
这是肖和他父亲的共同点。 当肖开始上大学时，他知道自己想要获得博士学位，成为一名大学教授； 他在西北密苏里州立大学教物理，直到2016年退休。
“Seeing my dad graduate was an extremely important event in my life,” he says. “I’d always loved learning, but when I saw him graduate and the professors in their full regalia, I began to realize that there was more to education than I’d realized. That was when I became more goal oriented.”
肖是城市高等教育的支持者。 他说，人们可能不明白，即使是获得奖学金和助学金的学生也要努力满足大学的经济需求。
“Urban universities offer opportunities that are out of reach for other schools,” he says. “If you’re in Kansas City, the large employer base means it’s easier to get a job while you go to school. My father wouldn’t have been eligible for a scholarship in that situation. Urban universities offer paths to education with which rural schools can't compete.”