Spring - University of Central Missouri

PRINCIPaL tRuMPEt ChaIR
thaNKS PadGEt
fOR SChOLaRShIP
Alex Caselman loves to play the trumpet.
He’s been interested in music his entire
life but something happened as a high
school junior. He realized music could be
a career.
“I always knew that Central Missouri was
a fantastic educational school, and the
music department was attractive,” he
says. His family also had strong UCM ties.
Both his parents
have music
degrees from
UCM, and his
brother, Adam,
is currently a
photography
major.
For Caselman,
the choice to
attend UCM
happened as
a high school senior when he heard
performances by the Marching Band and
the Wind Ensemble. “I decided then that
I wanted to be part of that,” he adds.
He’s now a senior music education major
and for two years, has been principal
trumpet chair for the Wind Ensemble. As
such, he receives the Douglas E. Padget
Principal Trumpet Chair Scholarship.
“This scholarship has made many things
possible for me,” he says. “For starters,
I was able to purchase numerous
recordings of famous trumpeters and
buy sheet music to add to my music
library. I was able to get things like
valve oil, mutes and other items that
are essential for trumpet players. The
scholarship has made a tremendous
impact on my education.”
That was the intent of Padget when
he established the scholarship in 1993
when he graduated with a bachelor of
music in education and signed his first
teaching contract. He saw his gift as an
opportunity to give back to help other
deserving students.
As a student, Padget participated in
University Concert Band for five years,
and he received scholarships, often to his
surprise. He since has finished a master
of arts in music and is teaching at a
middle school in Blue Springs, married to
another UCM music alum, Robin Rolf.
Caselman is grateful for his UCM
education. “My favorite experience to
date has to be performing with the Wind
Ensemble in New York last year at the
world-famous Carnegie Hall. We were
in New York five days. We had a very
successful performance and received a
standing ovation. It was amazing.”
EStatE GIft ENhaNCES
SChOLaRShIP hONORING SIStER
A gift from the estate of Hazel Nance
of Lakewood, WA, will increase a
scholarship originally established by
her husband, the late Lt. Col. E. James
Nance, in honor of his sister, Corinna.
The Corinna Harte Nance Memorial
AT THE SpRING CAREER ExpO, BLACK AND VEATCH pRESENTED A $2,500 CHECK TO THE UCM SCHOOL OF
TECHNOLOGY TO SUppORT ITS COMpUTER-AIDED DRAFTING AND DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
AND ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY AREAS. WITH UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS ALICE GREIFE, DEAN; KYLE pALMER,
pROFESSOR, AND JOHN SUTTON, SCHOOL CHAIR, ARE BLACK AND VEATCH EMpLOYEES, FROM RIGHT:
MIKE WAGGONER, STEVE ROBINSON, TERRA GARDEN, TREY BUIST AND MELISSA ALLCORN. ALLCORN,
BUIST AND WAGGONER ARE UCM GRADUATES.
Scholarship helps students who graduate
from Osceola High School or are from
St. Clair County, MO. They must be a
full-time student at UCM pursuing a
degree in teacher education; have a
minimum 3.0 grade point average; and
show good character, leadership and
service.
When he established the scholarship
in 1999, Nance praised his sister’s
intelligence and her penmanship, which
he described as “a thing of beauty.”
She was a graduate of Osceola and
was Nance’s first-grade teacher. While
attending UCM in 1927, she became ill
and died two years later at age 22.
Nance attended UCM from 1938 through
1940, when he volunteered for flight
training in the Army Air Corps upon the
outbreak of World War II. During his
military career, he and Hazel lived in Iran,
Germany and the Canary Islands. They
built La Florida Tennis Club on the island
of Tenerife and operated it for 17 years
before returning to Tacoma, WA. They
were married 44 years. He passed away
in 2007; Hazel died in 2010.
NEw SChOLaRShIP fOR OdESSa
hIGh SChOOL GRaduatES
Most people got to know Martha
Johnson as a grade school teacher in the
Odessa R-VII school district in Missouri.
She taught for 33 years, primarily in the
second and fourth grades. So respected
were her abilities as a teacher that she
was inducted into the Odessa R-VII
Public Foundation Hall of Fame.
Johnson received a bachelor’s degree
in education from UCM in 1957, followed
by a master’s in 1972.
When she died in 2010, her family
wanted to do something special to
remember her so they created a
scholarship they knew Johnson had
talked about doing herself.
The Martha L. Johnson Education
Scholarship will help a graduating senior
from Odessa High School planning to
pursue a degree in teacher education
at UCM. They must rank in the upper
25 percent of their high school
graduating class; be actively involved in
school, church or community activities;
and show financial need.
University of Central Missouri | today 21