Crimson and Gold Connection; Edith Harvey

Welcome to Crimson & Gold Connection, keeping you connected to the people and current events at Pittsburgh State University. This is Trent Johnson. Thanks for joining us for Crimson & Gold Connection. Our guest today is 2015 Maritorious Achievement Award recipient from Pittsburgh State University, Edith Harvey. What did you study at Pittsburgh State University and when was your time here? I got my degree in 1972 and my major was a BS in elementary education. What influenced you or why did you choose to go into elementary education? I think there were actually a couple of reasons. Both of my parents did not go to college. So they were not as helpful as they wanted to be in the whole process. So on my own I began to research various colleges and I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. At that time Pittsburgh was known to be a great teachers college.

So that along with it being in post proximity to my hometown and what it had to offer was a good fit for me. And after I made the decision I found out that two of my aunts had attended Pittsburgh so that was just a no-brainer at that point. Can you reflect on your time at Pittsburgh State University and some of your favorite memories that you have? You know I thought about this question and I think what it was for me it was because of the size of the university itself and there was some diversity there but what was really important was that there were always communities within the larger campus community. It gave you the opportunity to become close with folks through your sorority or through clubs or whatever the university itself had to offer. So you never felt that you were alone away from home. You just felt like you were at another home. That was the key to all the positive experiences that followed.

What did you do after your time was finished at Pittsburgh State University? When I left there I did not go into elementary teaching. I started teaching with the Missouri Board of Education, Adult Education and I was placed at a nonprofit organization through President Johnson's War on Poverty and the purpose of the program was to train, under-employed and unemployed adults between the ages of 65 to get them their basic skills and give them the professional skills needed to get and keep a job so I taught adult basic education at that time. What are you currently doing professionally? I just retired from the federal government as an administrator at the U.S. Department of Education and in that capacity I was responsible for funding grants and contracts to school districts, organizations and higher education in a number of areas including teacher

quality, professional development, student advanced placing, curriculum and development assessment. I just finished my 26 years of working with the federal government in that capacity. You are a recipient of the 2015 Meritorious Achievement Award from Pittsburgh State University. How does that feel and what does that mean to you? Well, it is a very humbling experience, I mean it's nice to be recognized by any one individual or any organization but when you are recognized at a place where you started your beginnings and they're saying to you that you are one of them and that they're proud of what you've accomplished, it's just one of the greatest awards that I can receive or anyone could receive. Also an interesting fact, your husband was actually an award winner in 2012, how excited was he for you once you've both found out? You know what, I could not believe that he actually texted me and he said that Pittsburgh

have been trying to reach me for an award and I said well I think that they made a mistake and he must be for something else, must be for a contribution or something and he's no, and so he was elated, we both supported each other, we've been married for almost 45 years and so we supported each other in our endeavors and he was excited for me as I was for him. What's been the most rewarding thing that you've done over the course of your career? I gave this some thought and it really was when I was in Nebraska actually going to graduate school but I was working full time as director of a program at the Nebraska State of Department of Education and at that time because of my age I was the first black administrator at the Department of Education as well as the first director of the program but what I'm most pleased about there is that I was able for the first time to get an equal education opportunity policy that became part of the statute for the Department

of Education that was passed by the Bay Board which ensured that all students regardless of their racist sex had equal access and as a result of that policy of strategic plan and or implementation process has been put in place so that was my most rewarding experience. Do you have any goals looking forward? My goal has always been on two ends, the young and the old and what I plan on doing now that I have retired is working in some capacity to prepare the young underprivileged persons for their college experience or even to want to go to school and what to expect because I was in the dark when I first went to college and I think I would have benefited more and I had someone to kind of tell me what to expect so I hope to work with a nonprofit in some way where we can reach these children that don't have individuals to help them progress through the system.

What would your advice be to any individuals that are looking at a career path in the education field? I guess my advice would be in general but as far as education when I came up I knew of one thing which was to be a teacher but there are so many different fields and education that individuals can go into which is the matter of where it fits for them. But my advice beyond finding what the fit is would be to hook yourself up with a mentor. Individuals don't take advantage of the people who have been successful in their fields and learning from them and so by having a mentor that you can call on to give you advice, you know, council, I think is very, very valuable. Another thing that I think is that one of the students at Pittsburgh did this when I was in the US Department of Education. He asked for an internship at my agency. It was unpaid but he still wanted to do it.

But I think by having those kinds of experience whether they're paid or unpaid prior to getting out of school it can be very valuable and make you more employable than the next person. I think the third thing would be is thinking out of the box because we always have the tendency to do the same thing the same way without any thought. And we're going to move forward in education or any other area. We have to think ways that we can be more innovative and greater progress. Our guest today was 2015 Maritorious Achievement Award recipient from Pittsburgh State University, Edith Harvey. For Crimson & Gold Connection and KRPS this is Trent Johnson. Join us for Crimson & Gold Connection, Wednesdays at 8.50 and Fridays at 350.