Yeargan Scholarship Recipients Pursue Teaching
National Park College (NPC) announced the recipient of the Jim Yeargan Scholarship.
Laura Daes and Lorena Fitzpatrick will receive the $750 award for the spring semester.
The merit-based scholarship is named in honor of late faculty member Jim Yeargan and
was established by his peers upon his passing. Yeargan taught economics in the Business
Division. Dr. Sara Brown, director of the NPC Foundation recalls having Yeargan in
class, “I actually had him for both Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. He was a brilliant
instructor and made me love the 30,000 foot perspective.”
In 2002, the Faculty Council voted to rename the faculty scholarship fund to the Jim
Yeargan Scholarship Fund. Employees contributed to the fund until it reached an endowment
of $20,000 as of December 2007. It requires a minimum cumulative grade point average
of 3.50, a minimum of 12 credit hours and at least one year of remaining coursework.
Pictured left to right, Laura Daes, Foundation Director, Dr. Sara Brown, and Lorena
Fitzpatrick.
Daes is a graduate of Lakeside High School where she was a member of the color guard.
She plans to transfer to Henderson State University this fall to study instrumental
music education. Her goal is become a color guard instructor for high school band.
Daes shared her experience has been a struggle due to a recent family health crisis.
She said, “Anything is helpful. I am paying everything on my own with grants and scholarships.”
She added, “Thank you so much for the help and the opportunity. It will make a difference
for sure.” Fitzpatrick immigrated to the United States as a teenager. She hopes to
earn an education degree so she can teach K-12 and English as a second language. “Being
a bilingual teacher, I can really encourage [students] in their own language.”
She spoke about the difficulty she had over the years and how challenging it is for
immigrants who are not aware of the educational resources available. “I believe in
myself now. I actually think I can do this and I didn’t before. Having people tell
you that makes a huge difference.” She hopes to transfer to the University of Central
Arkansas to study K-12 World Languages.
