Up & Coming Weekly

January 08, 2019

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

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JANUARY 9-15, 2019 UCW 19 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM CASEY GROOVER, FTCC Disability Support Services Coordinator. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. EDUCATION FTCC works to ensure equal learning opportunities for all by CASEY GROOVER Individuals with disabilities have long struggled with and continue to struggle with a lack of appropriate assistance. Many who cope with physical or mental impairments have not always received appropriate assistance because of their limitations. As a consequence, career and educational options can seem dim for these individuals. In the past, society offered little to no sup- port related to jobs and educational opportu- nities for individuals with disabilities. This was primarily because of a lack of acceptance for those individuals coupled with problems in providing adequate accommodations for indi- viduals who needed them. Currently, our society agrees that it's impor- tant to treat all people fairly. Acceptance is growing nationally for those who have dis- abilities. Many areas of government are inspir- ing and encouraging people to live rewarding lifestyles regardless of their situations or limitations. Federal and state laws are helping everyone reach for academic accomplishment and achievement. Contemporary standards and regulations associ- ated with the Americans with Disability Act protect individuals with disabilities from discrimination at federally funded colleges. Fayetteville Technical Community College collaborates with this initiative by providing students with quality, non-discrimina- tory education. FTCC's Disability Support Services Office works hard to assure students that FTCC is working on their behalf. Students who have documented psychologi- cal and medical disabilities often obtain services through FTCC's Disability Support Services Office. FTCC provides these services, known as academic accommodations, to students at any time as needed during each semester. Accommodations depend on the student's diagnosis. A few examples of common accommodations students might receive include extended time on assessments, a separate setting for assessments, use of assistive technology, preferential classroom seat- ing, extended time transitioning between classes and more. Accommodations related to a student's dis- ability are determined according to the proper diagnostician and Office of the Civil Rights recommendations. Approvals for services are accessible through a straightforward application process for academic assistance. FTCC ensures that faculty and staff employees throughout the college understand the impor- tance of implementing ADA standards and regu- lations. FTCC also promotes assured methods of maintaining ADA compliance. FTCC also pro- vides professional development opportunities and training for school personnel to verify poli- cies and procedures are efficient and effective. FTCC provides equal learning opportunities to all regardless of a student's physical or mental impairment. An office representative from the Disability Support Services Office will be happy to assist current and future FTCC students with their inquiries about eligibility for receiving accom- modations. Students can sign up now for spring classes, which begin Jan. 14. For additional information, please email grooverc@faytechcc.edu or call 910- 678-8479. What really happened to Virginia Dare, the first child of English parents born in the New World? This is the same Virginia Dare whom I suggested recently belonged on "The World Almanac's" list of famous North Carolinians. A few weeks ago, I wrote about Sir Walter Raleigh's organization and estab- lishment of the colony on Roanoke Island as described by Andrew Lawler in his book "The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke." He called the expensive and intricate preparations for the colony "the Elizabethan equivalent of the Apollo program." In July of 1587, the colonists arrived on Roanoke Island led by its governor, John White, whose grand- daughter, Virginia Dare, was born Aug. 18. A few days later, White sailed to England for much-need- ed supplies. When he finally returned in August 1590, the colony had disappeared, leaving only a carving of "Croatoan" on a tree as a possible clue. There are a lot of answers to the question of what happened to Virginia Dare, her family and their fel- low colonists. Most are legends. Some say Virginia Dare grew up into a lovely young woman and was transformed into a white doe, an animal that still haunts coastal North Carolina. Another story says she and other colonists made their way to Robeson County where some locals will show you her burial site near Red Springs. Less imaginative authors suggest that the colonists, including Virginia Dare, died from hunger, disease or a massacre by Native Americans. Others suggest that the colonists joined nearby Native Americans and were absorbed by them. In "The Secret Token," Lawler gives a history of the developing interest in Virginia Dare and the Lost Colony. After her baptism certificate in 1587, there was no public mention of her until 1834. In that year, Harvard-trained historian George Bancroft published his influ- ential "A History of the United States." Lawler writes, "It is difficult to overstate his impact on the way we see Raleigh's colony today." For Bancroft, the colony was "the germinating seed" for our country and its institutions, "just as important as its revolutionary coming of age." Lawler writes that for Bancroft, "Roanoke was, in essence, the nation's humble Bethlehem, and Virginia Dare was its infant savior destined for sacrifice." Bancroft's version sparked an explosion of writ- ing and activity around Virginia Dare. In the 1890s, some white supremacy organizations adopted her. Lawler writes, "Roanoke Island emerged as a pil- grimage site for Anglo-Americans seeking to reaf- firm their racial dominance at the annual celebra- tion of Virginia Dare's birth." According to Lawler, Marjorie Hudson — Chatham County author of "Searching for Virginia Dare" — takes a different and less exclusive path. She writes that Virginia Dare "is the archetypal mother, a source, like a great river of strength and blood for descen- dants of a convergence of two great peoples." Lawler chronicles efforts to learn where the colo- nists, if they survived, went. To Croatoan, now a part of Hatteras Island? To Site X, a place marked under a patch in a map drawn by John White, located where the Roanoke River flows into the Albemarle Sound? Or to the Chesapeake Bay near where the Jamestown Colony settled and where Powhatan, the local Indian king, massacred them? Or near Edenton, where in 1937, a California man said he found a large stone? It was inscribed with a message from Virginia Dare's mother, Eleanor, to her father, John White, reporting the death of her husband, her daughter Virginia, and other colonists. Lawler's account of this probable fake "Dare Stone" is almost as interesting as the story of the colonists told by Harnett County native and Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Green's outdoor drama, "The Lost Colony." Students who have documented psychological and medical disabilities often obtain services through FTCC's Disability Support Services Office. Photo by Igor Rodrigues on Unsplash LITERATURE D.G. MARTIN, Host of UNC's Book Watch. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly. com. 910-484-6200. What happened to Virginia Dare? by D.G. MARTIN Andrew Lawler's book explores the lost colony of Roanoke.

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