The Pony Express (Carthage, Tex.), Vol. 58, No. 4, Ed. 1 Monday, May 5, 2008 Page: 3 of 8
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Texas Digital Newspaper Program and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Panola College.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
The Pony Express -- 3
Norma Lawless retiring
after 36 years with Panola
Norma Lawless, professor in the
Business and Computer Science Di-
vision, will retire this month after 36
years of service to Panola College.
Lawless’s association with Panola
College began as a student here in the
fall of 1966.
“For me at that point, Panola
College was a big step from Elysian
Fields High School. My parents had
full expectations for advanced edu-
cation, and I, both my sisters, and a
niece and nephew attended Panola
College. My youngest sister and my
nephew were among my students.
The truth is, though, that my first
student was my year-and-a-half
younger sister, who received instruc-
tion in our ‘play classroom’ to teach
her what I had learned in my first
year of school! I guess I was born a
teacher,” she Said.
“I taught one year at Carthage
High School before joining .Panola
College during the second year of
operation of the college’s technology
division. I’ve been here ever since,”
she says with a laugh.
Work and school have always
gone hand in hand for Lawless.
While attending Panola College as
a student, she was also working as a
work-study secretary in the county
and district attorney’s office at the Pa-
nola County Courthouse for District
Attorney K. Baker. There, she says, “I
was further educated by the knowl-
edge and antics of Mr. Baker and
County Attorney Crawford Parker.”
After moving on to Stephen F.
Austin State University, she worked
part time in the financial aid depart-
ment and then the business educa-
tion department as a graduate assis-
tant and one summer as a purchasing
agent assistant at ALCOA. She also
spent a short time in corporate life
working for Texas Eastern Transmis-
sion Corporation in Shreveport be-
fore deciding to work on her master’s
degree. While in graduate school, she
taught business education at CHS.
There, she mentored a student teach-
er and sponsored UIL shorthand
during her first year of teaching, with
one student advancing to state level.
She holds Bachelor of Science
and Master of Business Education
degrees from SFA, and she’s done
post-graduate work at SFA, Texas
Woman’s University, East Texas
State University (now Texas A&M
at Commerce), and the University of
North Texas. She also received Dis-
tance Learning certification here at
Panola College.
“When I first started teaching, we
had a lab full of typewriters and a
console with tapes for practice dicta-
tion in teaching shorthand,” she re-
calls. “Technology changed all that,
and continues to change the pro-
cesses and practices in technology
education.”
“We don’t even teach shorthand
anymore. Back then, there were no
computers in this building for in-
struction in the office technology
area. The Computer Science Depart-
ment had the big mainframes with
keypunch cards,” she says.
“The first big improvements
from typewriters were the word pro-
cessors and memory typewriters. Of
course now we think of those things
as dinosaurs! Learning is a never-
ending process,” she adds. “There
was no such term as ‘software’ in
my vocabulary when I started teach-
mg.
Lawless was recognized last year
with a National Institute for Staff
and Organizational Development
award for excellence in teaching. She
treasures this award because it rep-
resented a nod from her peers, which
holds special meaning.
“I’m proud of the NISOD Award,
but my greatest accomplishments
are my students,” she says. “As any
teacher will tell you, I’m sure, seeing
students achieve success and having
students express appreciation are the
greatest rewards. Many students have
rewarded me—oftentimes after they
left Panola College and joined the
workforce—by acknowledging that
standards I required in the classroom
provided what they needed, even
though they might have resisted it at
the time. One of my students came
back to see me after more than 23
years to tell me how much she appre-
ciated what she had learned and how
it had helped her in her career. No
recognition can be better!”
Lawless plans to enjoy spending
time with her family and friends dur-
ing her retirement. Her immediate
plans include a cruise with stops in
Alaska and Canada.
“I’m looking forward to the trip,
but the big task when I return is or-
ganizing my own life and home - all
those things that we just don’t have
time to do when we’re teaching,” she
says. She added that she will definite-
ly feel a giant void in her life from the
loss of daily contact with her students
and all her special co-workers.
SOTA holds wheelchair washing event
By Rita Coe, Brandi Carlisle, Jamie
Culpepper, Alisha Head, and Tif-
fany Frisby
SOTA Club
This spring, the Panola College
sophomore SOTA (Student Oc-
cupational Therapy Assistant) club
members came together with the re-
cently established East Texas County
Co-op Chapter of Arnbucs, to pro-
vide a wheelchair washing event for
the residents at Carthage Healthcare
Center and Briarcliff Health Center
of Carthage.
The group spent Saturday after-
noon at the two facilities and was
able to wash about 90 wheelchairs.
SOTA looks forward to helping our
local community in various ways and
is honored to be able to provide ser-
vices to those in need.
The wheelchair wash was present-
ed to SOTA by the East Texas Coun-
ty Co-op Arnbucs member and OTA
director Cheri Lambert. The sopho-
mores not only washed wheelchairs
in Carthage but have challenged the
freshman SOTA members to partici-
pate in the East Texas County Co-op
Arnbucs wheelchair wash in Mar-
shall, Texas.
In addition to working with in-
dividuals to regain important life
skills, occupational therapists and
occupational therapy assistants work
throughout a community with fami-
lies, local governments, and com-
munity groups to ensure that each
is doing what it can to help people
maintain independence and dignity.
Two of the main objectives of the
SOTA organization and its members
are to provide at least one community
service project per semester as well
as to promote positive relationships
between the OTA students at Panola
College and the community.
The members of SOTA who par-
ticipated in this project would like to
thank the administration, staff, and
residents of these two healthcare fa-
cilities for so graciously allowing us
to become members of your “family”
during this event.
We were amazed at the overwhelm-
ing show of support that we received
from the staff members and residents
during our project. The residents were
pleased with the results of our efforts,
and it felt wonderful to be a part of
a community endeavor. It was a great
day for everyone involved.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
The Pony Express (Carthage, Tex.), Vol. 58, No. 4, Ed. 1 Monday, May 5, 2008, newspaper, May 5, 2008; Carthage, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth591883/m1/3/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Panola College.