alumni today
SERVICE
Man in the Stands
Most Tar Heels fans probably take a lot for
granted when they walk into Kenan
Stadium, find their seats and enjoy the foot-ball game. Behind the scenes there are long
lists of duties and myriad employees taking
on those jobs. There is also a healthy crew of
volunteers, who arrive hours before game
time, check each section for problems —
from broken seats to hidden wasp nests —
guide people to their seats and answer a slew
of questions.
One of those is Glenn Gillen ’ 88, current
holder of the annual Martin L. Poythress
Service Award, named for a longtime usher
who died last year and recognizing top-notch
dedication among volunteer ushers. If you’d
like to congratulate Gillen at a home game,
you likely can find him where he’s been stationed the past nine years, in the stands near
the Kenan
Field
House.
“I was
assigned to
section
131 at the
far end of
the stadium,” says
COURTESY UNC ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS
Gillen, a
public relations and
advertising
manager
who found
out about
the volunteer opportunity through his local
Carolina Club. “It’s interesting because on
one side I have supporters of the visitors and
on the other side the UNC fans.”
Volunteer usher Glen Gillen ’ 88, right,
accepts the Marvin L. Poythress Service
Award from Senior Associate Athletics
Director Willie Scroggs at the end of the
last football season.
Thinking over the challenges of being a
fan and a host, Gillen says, “We are ambassadors of the University, so we refrain from
comments — even when things are not
going well.”
EDUCATION
A (Yearlong)
Teachable Moment
What inspires Cynthia Cole “Cindi”
Rigsbee ’ 79 is seeing her middle school students start to chart their paths in life.
“The motivation is in the eyes of those
kids in the classroom,” the teacher says. “I
have the opportunity to watch them find
themselves. I see them work out their little
dramas with each other. As a parent I didn’t
even see that with my own kids.”
Rigsbee, who also earned her master’s of
education degree at UNC in 2003, is the
sixth- and seventh-grade reading resource
teacher for Gravelly Hill Middle School in
Orange County. She was selected last year as
the AT&T North Carolina Teacher of the
Year and went on in the spring to be chosen
one of four finalists for National Teacher of
the Year.
Being the state teacher of the year involves
more than showing up at a ceremony to get a
plaque. There was a trip to Europe with other
teacher-of-the-year participants and shaking
the hand of President Barack Obama in the
White House Rose Garden, among other
adventures. But the real prize is spending a
year outside the classroom as a teacher-ambassador. So far, she’s put 20,000 miles on
a state car to speak to teachers-in-training,
teacher educators, potential teachers, college
students and beginning teachers.
There also is a two-year term advising the
N.C. State Board of Education. “You need to
get a wider focus than your classroom to do
this job,” Rigsbee says. “You have to get your
hands out there into educational policy, form
opinions and let people hear you.”
Rigsbee tells about the day U.S. Sen. Kay
Hagan joined her for a visit to Gravelly Hill.
“The senator asked me, ‘If you could change
one thing, what would it be?’ and I said,
‘High-stakes testing.’ We give too much
power to one test given on one day. I really
wish those lawmakers would go into a school
and feel the immense tension on testing days
for the teachers as well as the students.”
Rigsbee also finished a draft of a book,
Finding Mrs. Warnecke, a story that begins on
Sept. 5, 2008, when Rigsbee appeared on
ABC’s Good Morning America. She had written a letter about her first-grade teacher in
response to the show’s call for people who
had lost touch with someone they wanted to
VICTORIA BUCKNER
Cindi Rigsbee ’ 79 works with her reading class at Gravelly
Hill Middle School in Efland.
thank. Rigsbee thought she was asking the
TV audience to help her find the teacher. To
her surprise, she found herself in an emotional reunion with Barbara Warnecke. “It’s not
just about finding her, but about finding
myself as a teacher — how she turned me
around and how I have had those experiences with my students,” Rigsbee says about
the book, scheduled to be published next
year.
Rigsbee also credits Carolina for helping
her find her path. “I have told my husband,
‘You may not know what to write in my
obituary, but you have to write about those
two education degrees.’ My high school
teacher told me not to apply to UNC,”
Rigsbee says, working in another lesson. “So I
didn’t go to UNC at first and transferred. I
am proof you should not ever shoot down a
person’s dream.”
ONLINE: To read more about Cindi
Rigsbee’s stint as state teacher of the year, go
to
bit.ly/rigsbee_toy. To see the Good Morning
America segment, go to
bit.ly/rigsbee_gma.
