Birthday Cake & More

ASPIRE members, alumni, supporters and Delaware Center for Teacher Education staff celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the ASPIRE Program during the 2011 Alumni Weekend events held on the University of Delaware campus June 3-5.

The ASPIRE gathering was small  and it provided an opportunity  for 2011 graduates, Khalid Bilal and Denise Arreola, to be recognized and applauded for their success.  Khalid will teach English at Howard High School in Wilmington in the fall, and Denise is headed to Virginia Commonwealth University for graduate study in sociology.

The gathering included an ASPIRE parent, Merrie Pritchett, who delighted in reconnecting with Kathleen Feldman, who retired last summer, after more than 10 years of service to GEAR UP and ASPIRE.

The festivities also included an oral history of the program presented as their personal experiences by Cora Scott, who was among  the ASPIRE support program’s first participants in 1992, and LeToya Chism, who was among the first members of the ASPIRE student organization in 2000.

Current ASPIRE president Quindara Lazenbury organized a relaxing atmosphere that featured background music by jazz musician Jose Carmona III.  Quindara and Taria Pritchett, former ASPIRE president, served as the event’s official hostesses.