By the time you read this, the temperature will be inching upward and thunderstorms are predicted to be on the horizon.
Right now, however, there are a few flakes of snow swirling around. We are under a freeze warning until midmorning Tuesday and, according to weather.com, there is a pollen alert for the area. And it is the last week in March.
I know Arkansas weather is weird, but this may take the cake.
I do not like cold weather. I know, in the past, we have had snow the last week in March — even in April. It’s just that I was spoiled last winter. Flowers popped up in February, it was warm and sunny — all the things that make me feel better.
Anyway, if ever you have to try to explain Arkansas weather, remember March 25, 2013, the day it snowed, there was a freeze warning and a pollen alert.
lll
I see Arkansas State University officials have decided all first-year students will have to have iPads starting in the fall.
That’s an additional cost of at least $500 for students who don’t have the darling of the tech world.
Apparently, school officials decided to go ahead with the requirement after determining many textbooks are available on the iPad, and are cheaper if obtained electronically.
Cheaper is better, but will your grant/student loan pay for an iPad? That’s the real question. If not, students may have to seek out schools other than ASU.
lll
Speaking of college, I have just been involved in the selection of two students for scholarships. I want to tell parents of future graduates, if you want your child considered for some scholarships, you might want to encourage them to do some serious community service work.
Sure, I look at grades, at extracurricular activities and whether the teen has worked throughout high school. It is the lack of that community service thing, however, that can get a name scratched off my list in a heartbeat.
The Rogers Quarterback Club’s scholarship was founded with money earned by seven years of Friday nights in a concession stand at Mountie football games. It continues to give scholarships thanks to donations and the proceeds of one of Whitey Smith’s chicken cooks.
Whitey’s gang is a dedicated bunch who stare down raw chicken at the crack of dawn on more Saturday mornings than not. They get nothing for their efforts, except the knowledge they are helping kids or a group that provides support for kids.
That makes me think the very least I should see on a scholarship application is some work to better the community. I make allowances for kids who work more than a couple of hours a week. Still, I only saw an hour or two of service logged on many applications.
Students, if you want the community to support you, then you need to get out and support the community. There are many, many volunteer opportunities available.
lll
Community service is one of those things a columnist could probably write about forever. Like I said, there are a lot of opportunities. Perhaps, however, a future high school grad would like to establish other opportunities. Here are a couple of thoughts:
w Michael Swaine has a “mending library.” For 11 years he has mended clothes on the streets of San Francisco, according to grist.org. He used to haul his sewing machine through the streets, mending people’s clothes for free. Now he has set up shop so people can easily find him and haul their clothes to him for repair. Others are welcome to help him mend.
This is a great idea — help people save their clothes from the rag bin. Think about how many lives that could impact.
w Another option might be setting up and maintaining a free seed library. There are many throughout the country. The idea springs from the heirloom seed movement. A wannabe farmer chooses seeds, plants and harvests a crop, then returns seeds from the crop to the library for use by another person.
For some people, plants that come from the seeds mean the difference in eating and going hungry, according to a report on NBC Nightly News.
Establishing or working on either of these projects would certainly show me that a scholarship applicant is serious about an education, and their community.
LEEANNA WALKER IS LOCAL EDITOR OF THE ROGERS MORNING NEWS AND THE SPRINGDALE MORNING NEWS. FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER AT WWW.TWITTER.COM/NWALEEANNA.