Gail Belokur, administrative assistant in the Departments of English and Politics, and Mary Taylor, a registered nurse in the Hammond Health Center, have been named the winners of the 2006–2007 JJ Staff Scholar Award at Ithaca College. Established in 1997 to honor the late president emeritus James J. Whalen, the annual award gives $200 to eligible staff members enrolled in a degree program at the college. The money can be used to pay for books and defray educational costs.
Candidates for a JJ Staff Scholar Award must be full-time staff members of the college working at grades 2 to 16. They must also be matriculating seniors who have completed at least 90 hours toward graduation and are maintaining a grade point average of 3.2 or higher. Length of service is also a consideration.
“This award for me is an affirmation,” says Belokur, “both of my potential and also of the support the institution gives to me as I pursue this goal.”
Belokur’s goal is to finish her degree in drama, then earn an M.F.A. in theater arts and embark on a career that would include remaining at Ithaca College while freelance directing or stage managing. Those pursuits reflect a fascination with the stage that began when she was a child watching theater performances in the Dillingham Center, a venue named after a former Ithaca College president and his wife, who happen to be distant relatives.
“Dorothy and Howard Dillingham were my great aunt and uncle,” says Belokur, a lifelong resident of Candor. “I have a lot of fond memories associated with them at the lake and of my grandmother, Betty King, taking me to the theater.”
Belokur’s attraction to the stage led her to take a drama adviser position in the Candor Central School District. During her tenure there, she took on the challenge of directing such demanding productions as Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella,” “Annie,” and “The Wizard of Oz.” Then came another challenge: completing her undergraduate education.
“I’d already earned 100 credit hours in teacher education at SUNY Cortland when I took the adviser job,” Belokur says. “After seven years at Candor, I realized it was time to not only finish up my bachelor’s degree but also to take my passion for the theater to another level. What better place to do that but at IC?”
So, with a mortgage, a husband, and three children who were themselves beginning to think about college, Belokur started working at the college in 2004. Enrolling in two to three classes a semester, she hopes to finish her degree by June 2008.
“I’ve always been a busy and active person, so the pace of my life hasn’t changed since I’ve been taking classes, although I have had to shift my volunteer commitments,” Belokur says. “It’s been quite an experience, especially seeing how extremely supportive my family has been. They see what I’m doing is both a passion and a move outside my comfort zone.”
Belokur’s husband George, her 17- and 15-year-old daughters Kristen and Shauna, and 12-year-old son Michael haven’t been the only ones who have gotten behind her.
“My department chairs, Claire Gleitman and Tom Shevory, along with the 30 faculty members I support, have been very understanding and flexible regarding time away for classes,” Belokur says. “Also, one of my coworkers, Lynn Tordella—who won the JJ Staff Scholar Award last year—has been an inspiration. Being students with families and full-time jobs, we can relate when the stress levels get high.”
Several additional faculty members have also supported Belokur; in particular, assistant professor of theatre arts Steve TenEyck.
“Even though my focus is on directing and stage management, the more a director knows about what goes on in design and tech, the stronger and more empathetic he or she is going to be to that part of the process,” Belokur says.
With that in mind, she received permission to enroll in TenEyck’s design class, a section usually reserved for design and tech majors. Belokur says the class required more time than any other college course she’s ever taken. The effort, though, was worth it. Not only did the instruction strengthen her appreciation of design and gain her new skills, it also led to a better understanding of herself as an artist.
“The end of that semester was a very special moment for me,” she says. “I felt that I had let go of being a high school drama adviser and became committed to a professional standard of theater. I was pushed hard to grow, and I did. The late nights and the long hours were definitely worth it.”
Besides enrolling in classes, Belokur will work on Ithaca College mainstage productions as part of her training.
“I am looking forward to my assignments for this year, which include serving as assistant director under Susannah Berryman for the ‘Count of Monte Cristo’ next April,” she says. The world premiere of this musical adaptation of the Dumas classic, along with working with Berryman, are experiences that Belokur says will be the next exciting step in her education at the college.
As theater has been a lifelong pursuit for Gail Belokur, so has health care been for Mary Taylor. After earning her RN certification from a two-year program at Jefferson Community College in Watertown, she planned to continue her studies for a bachelor’s degree. That plan changed, though, with the arrival of her first child, Luke. Taylor postponed her education to raise her family, which includes a second son Shane and a daughter, Mariah. Luke graduated from Ithaca College in 2005 with a degree in writing with an integrated health studies minor. Shane is a junior health and physical education major at the college, and Mariah is currently a junior at Ithaca High School.
“Shane and I have taken classes together, and I remember in one of them, on the first day, the professor asked us to go around the room and introduce ourselves,” Taylor says. “I made it a point not to say I was Shane’s mother, but as it turned out, it was okay with him. He’s actually told me he’s proud of what I’m doing.”
A staff nurse in the Hammond health center since 1984, Taylor has been working toward a degree in community health education for the better part of four years.
“Being able to work in community health appeals to me because it gives people the chance to directly address their health needs,” Taylor says. “That empowers them.”
The biggest challenge to working full-time and taking courses, she adds, is juggling her classes with her workload.
“When you’re in health care and dealing with emergencies, you can’t just put up an ‘Out to Lunch’ sign and leave. I know that my absence puts a burden on my coworkers, and I have to be sensitive to that. Being able to take classes as an employee is a wonderful benefit, and I am grateful for this opportunity. I appreciate the support from my coworkers.”
Her studies, Taylor says, have made her more sensitive toward her patients.
“I can now appreciate the academic stresses the students are under when they come into the center not feeling well. I can relate to them better because of that. It’s not just a nurse-patient relationship. We’re also classmates.”
Though currently on pace to graduate in three years, Taylor plans to bump up her coursework so she can graduate in 2008—the same year as Shane. With her degree in hand, she’ll continue to work at the health center and spend her summers at the home she and her husband, Jeremy, are building in the Thousand Islands region of New York. Her long-term goal, though, is to live six months of each year in the Thousand Islands and six months in Africa.
“The Africa idea came from my last internship, which involved a three-week stay in Malawi,” she says. “I spent my time there working with local health-care people gathering information on malaria, the leading cause of death of children under five. The health-care community, I’ve discovered, is world wide, and I’m still in touch with the people I worked with over there, sending them supplies and exchanging information. In the United States, I’ve been working with privileged patients who have access to quality health care. To balance my life, I feel a need to serve the poor whose basic health needs are unmet. In the future, my hope is to work with those who are underprivileged.”
And her husband’s thoughts on that?
“He’s okay with it,” Taylor said. “We would like to live Africa. It’s something to hope for. We’ll see what happens.”
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20060825125503388