Grant plugged in my credit card number and sent off $150 to the University of Missouri - Columbia (aka "Mizzou") to register as an incoming freshman for Fall 2011. He has received snail mail and email invitations from gobs of schools hoping he will apply with them; the University of Chicago, Brown University, Syracuse as examples of well known institutions, some smaller schools of note including James Madison, William & Mary, Trinity University (San Antonio, TX), University of Houston and some real small fry such as Liberty University and Lyons College. He also applied to the University of Oregon, beloved location of matriculation for his sister, but she understands his decision. However, Grant is Facebook friends with Inga's good friend Alex, who seems to be taking Grant's plans to go to Mizzou instead of Oregon rather hard. Unfortunately, one can only attend a single school at a time, and Grant has been pretty focused on Mizzou since this summer.
Of primary interest to Grant is the world class School of Journalism (#1 ranked "J-school"), which he hopes to parlay into a sports broadcasting career. I applaud him for having a dream and making plans to follow his dreams, and I am heartily encouraged by his acceptance into the J-school program, which offers a well connected alumni base known in the journalism/broadcast business as the "Mizzou Mafia". On the practical side of Grant's dream fulfillment is the fact that being a part of the Mizzou Mafia "Family" bodes very well for good career placement upon graduation.
Grant took up the special invitation extended last summer to visit Mizzou for a their Honors College Program. His Mom and I drove with him to Columbia, MO, in July, 2010, where we toured the campus, listened to Deans pitch their departments, programs and scholarships, learned about campus life and dined in the dorm cafeteria.
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| Grant & his Mother at Mizzou Tiger Plaza |
Grant had long expected to be attending The University of Texas in Austin, but that school's mandated acceptance of only the top 8% of Texas High School Seniors has made admittance to UT difficult to impossible for good students in competitive High Schools like Grant's. Once Grant began to focus on major and careers, the top ranking for Mizzou's J-School made his decision to by-pass applying to his parents Alma Mater an easy one; once he was satisfied by our on-site Mizzou tour. On the way back from Columbia, we spent a day looking over possible alternatives at the University of Tulsa and Oklahoma State, but without a specific tour arranged for us, Grant's interest was not at all piqued by these campuses.
Grant's cousin, Lisa, graduated from Mizzou and recommends it and the town. Grant has scored in the top tier on the SAT, which has qualified him for the Mark Twain Non-Resident Scholarship on top of other academic merit incentives offered to entice promising students to enroll at Mizzou. All things being equal, it may be cheaper to have him attend Mizzou rather than pay in-state tuition at the University of Texas. The only thing that could be a better deal now is if we, his parents die, and he is adopted by his Uncle Bill. Bill did his post-doctorate work at Mizzou and by adopting Grant, would make him eligible for the Legacy Exemption and waive out-of-state tuition and fees altogether.
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| "Truman" Mizzou Tiger Mascot |
While in Houston we visited NASA Johnson Space Center/Mission Control. There are lots of playland kind of rides and exhibits in the visitor's center - not what I was expecting for a premier technical and scientific agency, but perhaps it pays the bills and entertains the generations that did not have a black and white TV set rolled into their 4th Grade classroom so everyone could watch a Saturn V rocket liftoff on an Apollo Mission. Once past the rinky-dink rides, we lined up for a tour of the NASA working complex. Our tour shuttle carts where delayed because of thunderstorms in the area. Apparently NASA not only does not launch space craft during electrical storms, but also does not launch rolling tour trams either. Safety First.
I enjoyed the historic review of the American Space Program, triumphs and tragedies presented by NASA and recalling my perspective on space history to Grant, "Why when I was about your age..."
Our family is acquainted with two astronauts, one of which, Jim Reilly (Retired) was shown in footage on the International Space Station (ISS) playing with goldfish snacks in the weightless environment [Jim Reilly was a geologist with Enserch Exploration (my first oil company employer) before he was accepted as an astronaut by NASA]. I also related to Grant the answer to the question, "Where were you on July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong took 'One small step for a man, and one giant leap for mankind'?" When man first walked on the moon, I was listening to some old man croon "My Beautiful Western Montana", a song he had written and was pleased to perform at the Show Boat Review on the shores of Flathead Lake (the "Show Boat" was normally a pile-driving barge that installed docks on the lake) . My parents thought this family entertainment outing while visiting my grandparents would be more interesting than the historic events being broadcast from the moon and narrated by Walter Cronkite (University of Texas Alum). Some times it is hard to tell if you are about to witness a historic event - sometimes it is not so hard.
Returning from Columbia, MO, we drove through Yale, Oklahoma, location of the Jim Thorpe Home and Museum. I stopped for a little box turtle that was in the middle of the highway on the west end of town. Grant and I scooped him up and found a nice place in the woods for the turtle to roam. We figured the guy was as not as fleet of foot as Jim Thorpe and could likely use one "giant leap" for turtle-kind to keep from getting squished.
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| Grant saves "Thorpe" the box turtle Yale, Oklahoma |
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