Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Ila Upchurch Banquet Is Saturday

The ninth annual Ila Upchurch Awards banquet will be held Saturday, April 18, at 6:30 p.m. in the Prescott Middle School cafetorium.

The banquet will feature Linda Pondexter, a native of Hope, as the speaker for the occasion.

Miss Pondexter attended Hope Public Schools and was an honor graduate of Henry C. Yerger High School. She was one of the nation's initial National Achievement semi-finalist. She received her B.A. in history and political science from Hendrix College in Conway.

Pondexter is the first African-American graduate of that institution. She is the initial recipient of the college's Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship for promoting understanding among the races. She received her MSE from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, where she majored in education with a minor in social studies.

She has done further study at the University of Mississippi State, Arkansas State University and the University of Central Arkansas.

Pondexter was elected to the nine-member executive committee of 1.98 million-member National Education Association (NEA) in July of 1989. She was Arkansas' representative on the NEA board of directors until her election to the executive committee.

She has been a regional director of the Black Caucus/NEA. She represented the caucus on the NEA political action committee, served as its liaison to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Change, and co-chaired its screening and endorsing committee. She has been a member of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education's Unit Accreditation board, NEA's National Council of Urban Education Association and facilitator of the LEAST Approach to Discipline.

Among other honors and positions held are: National Leadership Award from National Council of Negro Women; Certificate of Appreciation from City of Little Rock; Outstanding Teacher Certificate, Favorite Seventh and Ninth Grade Teacher and Teacher of the Year at Fuller Junior High School; Hendrix College Education committee and Board of Governors; Reader of Teacher Center Proposals for the state Department of Education; and member of Phi Delta Kappa and Who's Who Among America's Teachers.

Pondexter is the first teacher-member of the Little Rock board and served two terms as president of the Little Rock School board of education. She was elected in 1966 as the secretary- treasurer of the Arkansas Education Association and is currently serving a two-year term as full- time president of the Arkansas Education Association, the largest educational association in the state.

She is the niece of Mr. and Mrs. Elued Langston and Mrs. Archie Langston of Prescott.

Banquet tickets are $12 and may be secured from any member of the Ila Upchurch board of directors or Mrs. Gladys Kirby, president of the corporation