The Skyline Newspaper

Photo: Ida Casias will graduate in December. Photo by Steve Lang

Casias Continues Learning Path

By Steve Lang
News and Publications

Ida Casias' formal education may have ended after third grade if not for some encouragement from a kindly teacher.

"Never say 'I can't,' Mrs. Myers told me. 'Say, I'll try,'" Casias said.

She tried...and persevered. Now a teacher herself, she hopes to continue to convey encouragement to her own students.

Meanwhile, the 63-year-old Fort Stockton mother of 10 - including some who attended Sul Ross - plans to receive her B.A. degree in Administrative Systems and Business Technology at the end of the fall semester. Her journey has been an often-interrupted, illness-plagued trek, but despite complications from two open-heart surgeries, she plans to walk across the stage in the Pete P. Gallego Center on Dec. 15.

"To me, it's not a big thing....I'm not doing it to impress anybody; it's for me," she smiled.

After teaching herself to read in her pre-teen years, she later completed her GED as a wife, mother and caretaker for her elderly parents. Casias now teaches a computer course at Williams Regional Technical Training Center in Fort Stockton. In the meantime, she has been completing her bachelor's degree requirements via on-line courses and distance learning from Sul Ross. Earlier, she studied at Midland College.

"Everything I know, I learned in college," she said. "I only attended the last three months of each of the first three grades. Everyone else knew what they were doing [in class] except me."

She remembered being asked if she wanted to take a geography test at the end of her much-shortened third grade year. When Casias started to say she was unprepared, her Petersberg teacher told her the words she still lives by: "Never say 'I can't.' Say 'I'll try.'" She tried and received a 42, but "she [Mrs. Myers] was so proud of me.
It has always been my motto," Casias said.

"I still have a picture of Mrs. Myers in my photo album; she has always been an inspiration to me."

Elementary education ended after the third grade, but Casias' love of learning persisted.

"I would see kids going to school and I would envy them; I wanted to learn, so I read. I read my mother's books and magazines," she said.

She was able to read only single-syllable words on her first attempt, but Casias patiently divided multi-syllable words, pronouncing each syllable separately, then piecing the words together.

"Since I couldn't understand what the words meant, I got hold of a dictionary," she said. "That helped me learn how to spell, and I learned how to look up the meanings of words. I knew if I did not understand one word in a sentence, I was going to miss the whole point."

When she was 35, raising her large family, she walked across town to attend GED classes in Fort Stockton in pursuit of her high school equivalency certification. Later, she took an entrance exam to enter nurses' training in Midland. Overcoming her struggles with mathematics, she eventually passed that portion of the exam, but suffered a heart attack soon after. A month later, she had her first open-heart surgery and never learned that she had been accepted into the program until a year had passed.

"I didn't give up. After my year of recovery, I went back to work in a nursing home, then told my parents I was going to move to Midland to try and get back into the program," Casias said.

"They were disabled, I was caring for them, and they panicked, so I didn't go."

Instead, she opted for secretarial training in Fort Stockton, enrolling in a typing class and eventually learned to use computers in her advanced secretarial courses.

"At first I was afraid, but I overcame my fears. I realized if I was going to the pass the course, I needed to have my own computer."

Casias, who calls herself a perfectionist, did all her assignments at home. "Everything had to look just like it did in the book," she said.

When in class, she helped other students with their assignments. "One day, one of the other students said, 'Why don't you be an instructor?'" Casias said, and after completing an associate's degree in Office Systems Technology from Midland College, she eventually went to work.

After passing required exams, she was hired to teach computer training at the prison in Fort Stockton in 1999. Later, she began teaching at WRTTC for Midland College.

She continued to apply the encouragement teachers had offered to her as a student.

"Mr. Clark, from Odessa, helped me pass math. He said, 'Ida, don't give up on me; I haven't given up on you," she said.

"Teachers do and say things to keep students going. I try to be that kind of instructor."

Casias will be the first recipient of Sul Ross' newest degree, the Bachelor of Arts in Administrative Systems and Business Technology. Recently, she visited Mazie Will's classroom at Sul Ross and spoke to the students.

"It's the first class I've actually sat in," she laughed, noting that she has taken all her Sul Ross courses online.

"She is an excellent student and performs very well in the online classes," said Will. "When Ida spoke to my class, she really spoke to their hearts."

Casias' own heart condition makes her future uncertain, but she continues to move forward.

"I have all this education and I need to use it," she smiled. "If not, if I have inspired someone; God has at least let me go to school.

"If I can make a difference to someone somewhere, it will be worth it," she said.

"I think it has helped my children because 'if Mom can do it, so can I.' If I can do it with a third grade education, anyone can."

LVN Program Offers Educational, Occupational Opportunities

Sul Ross State University Licensed Vocational Nursing (LVN) students once again achieved a 100 percent pass rate on the national board licensure examination.

The 10 students in the 2006 LVN program all passed the NCLEX-PN. Over the past 10 years, Sul Ross' program has averaged over 94 percent to rank among the highest statewide.

Director Donna Kuenstler noted that Sul Ross' one-year LVN program offers a wide variety of both economic and additional educational opportunities for its participants.

"Occupational opportunities exist for LVNs within this community," she said.

"Long-term care facilities, the local hospital, at least one physician's office and other providers, the Texas Department of Health, and home health care concerns, all use LVNs."

In addition, Sul Ross' program is aligned with Midland College for a transitional Applied Science Degree in Nursing. After completion of this one-year program, the student earns an Associate's degree in Nursing, signifying two full years of classroom and clinical hours.

Kuenstler noted that all of the Midland College classes are offered via distance learning, so students can literally earn while they learn.

"In the two years of the cooperative program, eight of the nine graduates [from Midland College] began in the Sul Ross vocational nursing program," Kuenstler said.

"The advantage of the program is that students do not have to leave their jobs or the community to continue their education."

Additionally, distance learning classes are available through the Texas Tech University nursing program to enable students to pursue a bachelor of science degree in nursing, again while continuing to live and work locally.
"The sky is the limit," said Kuenstler.

"A student does not have to leave the community if he or she chooses to pursue a bachelor's, master's or even a Ph.D. in nursing. It's all available on-line."

A critical shortage in Texas and nationwide continues to make all levels of nursing excellent career opportunities, according to Kuenstler.

"Part of the shortage is due to an aging population," Kuenstler said.

"Nurses at the associate's and LVN levels are needed because the bulk of that population is or will be in long-term care facilities.

Additionally, nearly 50 percent of all RNs will be more than 50 years of age by 2010, and record numbers of nurses will be retiring or leaving the profession over the next 10 years, leading to a projected shortage of more than a million nurses by the end of this decade."

Sul Ross' LVN program begins each January and concludes the following December. Scholarships for tuition are available to qualified applicants.

For more information, contact Kuenstler, (432) 837-8171 or dkuenstl@sulross.edu

Fraternity Plans Reunion

A decade of memories will be re-lived by the alumni of the Beta Gamma Chapter of Alpha Kappa Lambda Fraternity (AKL) when they reunite Friday and Saturday, Oct. 19-20, in Alpine.

The chapter was active on the campus of Sul Ross State University during the 1970s in which time over three hundred students became members of the order. Many have not returned to Alpine since graduation, in some instances, 35 years ago or more.

AKL, a prominent national social fraternity, was presented its charter by then Executive Director Lewis Bacon at an installation banquet in the dining room of Mountainside Dormitory in the spring of 1970.

Accepting the charter on behalf of the men of Beta Gamma chapter was President Tom Lawson. The fraternity remained active as an integral part of campus life until 1981.

Through the years, the members of Beta Gamma chapter have spread far and wide, raised families and have had distinguished careers - teachers, administrators, engineers, doctors, ministers and journalists.

The AKL reunion will headquarter in the Holland Hotel in Alpine. On Friday, Oct. 19, at 2:00 p.m., a scrapbook of memories will be presented to the Archives of the Big Bend in the Wildenthal Library. A tour of the campus will follow. An informal social gathering will take place from 5:00 -7:00 p.m. on Friday evening in the meeting room of Edelweiss Restaurant. Old friends and new are invited to attend. On Saturday, Oct. 20, at 5:00 p.m., there will be a chuck wagon dinner at Kokernot Lodge.

For more information, call Dennie Miller, (432) 837-8813.