What Makes a Lancer a Lancer?
Courage, Leadership, Service and Giving Back
By President Barry M. Maloney
When I look back at the many remarkable individuals who have graduated from Worcester State during our 150-year history, some common themes emerge, and together, they tell the story of who we are as Lancer Nation. It was the Reconstruction Era when our founding institution, the Worcester Normal School, opened its doors in 1874. Jennie Cora Clough, whose grandfather had been born into slavery in Lancaster, Mass., according to Remembering Massachusetts State Normal Schools: Pioneers in Teacher Education, courageously became our first Black student, graduating in 1878. She went on to be the first Black teacher in Worcester’s Public Schools, initially at the newly integrated Thomas Street Primary school, where the nationalities were “58 percent Irish, 21 percent American, 12 percent Canadian, and 6 percent English.”
A portrait of alumna Sarah Ella Wilson hangs at Belmont Community School where she taught for almost 50 years. Photo by Matt Wright ’10.
Sarah Ella Wilson’s story builds upon Clough’s legacy. Another in that first wave of Black alumni, she graduated 20 years after we opened, then taught at the Belmont Street School for almost 50 years, impacting generations of students of all backgrounds. One of them, local CEO Saul Feingold, recognized Wilson’s life-changing impact on his six-year-old self by establishing the Sarah Ella Wilson scholarship at Worcester State when he turned 86.
And Wilson served many others, as well, through participation in groups such as the Worcester Women’s Progressive Club, Home for Aged Colored People, and the local NAACP. Her leadership as vice president of the Worcester Inter-Racial Council and as treasurer of the Northeastern Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs helped lay a foundation for the women’s and civil rights movements here in Worcester. Courage to forge a bold path of her own, before women had the right to vote and when segregation was a fact of life. Leadership, in her classroom and the community. Giving back abundantly in both arenas.
Those qualities emerge repeatedly over our 150-year history. Nearly half of that time, we offered solely education credentials. Most of those education graduates were women earning degrees at a time when very few had them. Some helped pave the way for women’s entrée into the field of higher education.
Two who graduated from our second iteration, the Worcester State Teachers College, were part of that vanguard: Helen Shaughnessy ’43 and Vera Dowden Baldwin ’34, M.Ed. ’53, both of whom have campus buildings named for them (see page 38). They became teachers: Shaughnessy, in Leicester and Auburn schools; Dowden Baldwin in Leicester, Rochdale, and Worcester. Then both became leaders, as faculty and administrators at their alma mater. Shaughnessy served as an associate professor, chair, and associate dean for a total of 29 years. One of her protégées, Dr. Elaine Tateronis ’63 , M.Ed. ’74 once said: “She was a role model to us all.”
Lt. Gen. Kevin T. Campbell ’73
Chair of the Worcester State Foundation, retired Army Lt. Gen. Kevin T. Campbell ’73, entered Worcester State College’s geography program during an era of social movements and campus protests at home, while Americans fought in the Vietnam War. Until January of 1973, young men had been subject to the draft.
Campbell chose a path of service. He joined ROTC at Worcester State and was commissioned into the Air Defense Artillery branch of the Army. His leadership abilities were immediately apparent as he ascended the ranks, becoming the commanding general of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command. He went on to lead as a vice president and corporate lead executive for Northrop Grumman Corporation, following his retirement.
He now offers his considerable expertise to benefit Worcester State students in his role as Foundation Board chair, never forgetting where he came from.
Nearly 20 years later, another Worcester State graduate, Imoigele P. Aisiku ’92, went on to become a medical doctor and a visionary entrepreneur. He has paid it forward to benefit those pursuing STEM coursework at Worcester State. His commitment to higher education, no doubt, comes from his parents.
Imoigele’s father, Worcester State Professor Emeritus Joshua Unuigboje Aisiku, Ph.D., hailed from Nigeria and taught for 24 years in the Education Department. His mother Brenda Aisiku is a retired special education teacher who taught in the Worcester school system and was named Worcester Teacher of the Year in 2005.
Imo has a deep commitment to helping those who are pursuing careers in science, health, and technology—especially students of color, especially first-generation students and those of modest means. He has seen first-hand how families with deep pockets provide advantages that benefit some other medical school students. He’s making sure that those mandatory internship and “volunteer” hours so critical for medical school acceptance are paid opportunities for our students, so that they can achieve their dreams of advanced degrees, including M.D.s.
Geovanna Diaz-Chavez ’12, M.A. ’14
Worcester State is fortunate to have many alumni who are combining their desire to give back with their professions. Foundation Board member Geovanna Diaz-Chavez ’12, M.A. ’14, shows how it’s done. She founded Style & Comfort with her husband, Johnny Chavez ’13. The company combines her human resources experience with her family’s background in construction to offer affordable design and build services for those with mental or physical challenges. As one who accessed our Alternatives for Individual Development / Upward Bound program while a student, Diaz-Chavez is committed to giving back and has established a scholarship for a Latina student.
Like Clough, Wilson, Shaughnessy, and Dowden Baldwin before her, Diaz-Chavez didn’t hesitate to take that often difficult first step of pursuing higher education, even though few from her circle had done so. Many Lancers like Campbell have personally challenged themselves to take a difficult path in a difficult time or, like Aisiku, set their sights on a goal, like medical school, despite barriers to their success. From these courageous pathways, leaders emerged, the kind who credit those before them and around them for their success and abundantly give back.
Graduates of the Class of 2024 are no exception; they have all persevered through tough times. Most of them entered Worcester State when we were mostly remote and much of the world was locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I have no doubt theirs will be the stories we tell on our 200th anniversary, as they make their marks in the tradition of the brave, yet humble, and giving Lancer leaders who came before them.
Top image: President Barry Maloney celebrates the dedication of the Imoigele P. Aisiku, M.D., ’92 STEM Center in 2017 with Dr. Aisiku, an alumnus who has given generously in support of STEM education at Worcester State.
