Cross-Country Cyclers to Benefit Onward Scholarships
Contact: Jerry Ellis, (207) 942-3582; John Hwalek, 581-2302; George Manlove, (207) 581-3756
ORONO — A recently retired UMaine program director and an engineering professor are hoping to raise awareness and scholarship funds for the university’s Onward Program by bicycling across the United States this summer.
Jerry Ellis, former director of the College Success Program’s Onward Program, and John Hwalek, associate professor of chemical engineering, shipped their 27-speed Trek 520 touring bikes to Seattle, Wash. last week and will fly to the West Coast June 16. They begin their 4,300-mile trip from Alexander Beach in Anacortes, Wash. to Sand Beach in Acadia National Park on June 18, riding about 80 miles a day and camping most of the way, with an occasional night in a hotel or motel.
A website has details about the trek and fundraising campaign. It also has a link to the Google map Hwalek created with 221 place-marks outlining the route. Ellis and Hwalek want to raise $12,000 for the Jerry Ellis Scholarship Fund for Onward Program students by the time they complete their 8-10-week trip.
Ellis, a 66-year-old veteran of the Vietnam War who holds master’s degrees in theology and in counseling, has run two marathons and practiced martial arts before taking up cycling. He views the ride as the pinnacle of his physical pursuits.
Ellis also grew up “in a really poor family” in Phillips, northwest of Farmington, and was the first in his family to go to college. He says he understands the challenges facing the 50 students the University of Maine accepts each year into the Onward Program.
Onward Program students typically are non-traditional students who otherwise would not be admitted into a traditional four-year academic program. Onward provides selected students a preparatory year on campus to take refresher courses in math, science, English and reading to hone their study skills before beginning first-year studies toward a bachelor’s degree.
“Onward really is an anomaly at the University of Maine,” says Ellis. “The epitome of the Onward student is a mother who has been divorced and has a couple of kids, who is really intelligent and never thought she’d be able to go to college. Some students are men who are displaced workers.”
But all have untapped potential, he says.
“I have known a lot of people who lived out in Milo or down in Bucksport or here in Bangor who had virtually no opportunities because they were poor and had children,” says Ellis. “They didn’t know how to get from being a single mom to a nursing degree candidate at the University of Maine.”
Through Onward, he says, “people have an opportunity to start their lives over again. It’s like a renaissance. I think it’s very important. I think it’s a good thing for the university to do.”
The College Success Program has several scholarships to help Onward and other at-risk or under-prepared students, and Ellis and his wife Ronnie started a scholarship fund through the University of Maine Foundation several years ago. It has $8,200 in it and begins generating scholarships once it reaches $20,000. Ellis hopes to raise that extra $12,000 through the ride with Hwalek, his long-time running, canoeing and bicycling companion.
Hwalek also looks forward to the cross-country adventure.
“It’s been a life-long dream,” says Hwalek, 53, who also has run several marathons and completed several triathlons. “I’ve been wanting to do this since I was a kid. It’ll be a good physical challenge.”
Hwalek’s son Jo-Jo and wife Ginger, a pianist and School of Performing Arts faculty member, will update Hwalek’s Google map with blogs and photos the riders will take along the way.
Alan Parks, Ellis’s successor in the College Success Program and creator of the Jerry Ellis Scholarship Fund website, notes that Ellis’s contributions to Maine’s underprivileged and first-generation college students goes beyond the 33 years he spent with the program. Ellis retired last summer.
“His life’s work has been around first-generation, low-income, and even students with disabilities,” Parks says. “Even in his retirement, he continues working to serve this population.”
Ellis can be reached by telephone for additional information at (207) 942-3582. Contributions can be made on-line to the Jerry Ellis Scholarship Fund through links on the Jerry Ellis Scholarship Fund website.
In May, 14 Onward Program graduates now heading into a UMaine degree program in the fall received a total of $10,041, according to Parks.