Cottey speaker series begins today

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Nevada Daily Mail

Cottey College will be presenting "For Women, By Women, About Women: Shaping Our Own Destiny," a first annual series of events featuring recipients of the five projects of the P.E.O. Sisterhood. The first two speakers will address the campus, and community on Wednesday, Nov.15, at 7:30 p.m. in the Missouri Recital Hall. Admission is free and the event is open to the public.

The Recital Hall is inside the Haidee and Allen Wild Center for the Arts on the northeast cornet of Austin and Tower streets in Nevada.

The first two speakers in the series are recipients of the P.E.O. Program for Continuing Education. Sonya Cohan, from Palm Beach, Fla., and Lori Underwood from Great Bend, Kan., will kick off the series.

Cohan is founder and executive director of Greener Pastures Therapeutic Riding Center, where, as a physical therapist, she works with mentally, physically and emotionally challenged adults and children.

Cohan had a vision since youth of having a place that all children could go to and feel accepted. Exceptionally shy herself at 18, she volunteered she "always found refuge in a stable."

At Equikids, a therapeutic riding center in Virginia, and Cohan was hooked on the concept of the association of the horse with assisting children with disabilities, Upon completion of a degree with a minor in. Special Education at the University of Central Florida, Cohan had acquired three horses and needed to find a suitable location to stable them. Upon further thought, she realized she could use the animals for therapy; hence the building of Greener Pastures Therapeutic Riding Center, Inc.

Underwood is a music educator and teaches grades 5-12. She is a member of P.E.O. Chapter HR in Great Bend, and has been a P.E.O. for 28 years.

Underwood spent the last two years in school full time, after years as a stay-at-home mom (and occasional big band and jazz singer). She took one year off from night school, at Barton County Community College full time while working full time as the Great Bend Middle School vocal music assistant. She then spent a summer at KU, made a big move back to Lawrence, Kan., in the fall of '05 to finish classes on campus, did her student teaching last spring, and finally graduated from college. Underwood just began a new job as the vocal music teacher in Ellinwood, Kan. She loves her job and hopes to be a perfect example that you're never too old and it's never too late.

One purpose of the speaker series is to educate the campus community and others about the important work of the P.E.O. Sisterhood as it supports the education of women. The second event in the series has already been scheduled. Hikuepi Kajiuongua, a recipient of the International Peace Scholarship, will be at Cottey on Feb. 7, 2007.

Katjiuongua is a doctoral student in the agricultural economics department at Michigan State University. She is from Namibia, South Africa.

The P.E.O. Sisterhood has five educational projects: P.E.O. Educational Loan Fund., Cottey College, P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship Fund. P.E.O. Program for Continuing Education, and P.E.O. Scholar Awards. P.E.O., headquartered in. Des Moines, Iowa, is a philanthropic organization of almost a quarter of a million members where women. celebrate the advancement of women; educate women through scholarships, grants, awards, loans, and stewardship of Cottey College; and motivate one another to achieve the highest of aspirations.

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