personalities
Against all odds
Cheryl Pratt sits with her children, Abbey Trotte, 13, watching TV, Nick, 15, and Elizabeth, 10, the subject of Cheryl's sketch. Cheryl, a fine arts and architecture major, often uses her children as subjects for her sketches.
Doug Hesse / KANSAN
By Janice Swinton Kansan feature writer
n 1975,when Cheryl Pratt was only 17,her father promised her future husband that he would send Cheryl to
Manhattan to keep him company while he was attending K-State. That was as close as Cheryl came to attending college after high school.
"My brothers were expected to go to college, and my father paid for their educations and supported them throughout school," she said. "But my father frowned upon girls going to college, so my sister and I were not sent."
After high school, Cheryl dreamed of attending an art institute but didn't think she would make it. KU would be too expensive without her father's help. So, she did what was expected of her; she married her fiance and postponed her dreams of college.
But Cheryl is an artist. She found work with a freelance commercial artist, and came by other jobs that emphasized her talents. By the birth of her second child, she worked from her home.
Twelve years, three children and one divorce later, Cheryl got her chance to go to college.
"After my divorce, my father offered to buy a recycled children's clothing business and let me run it, and offered to buy a condo and let me live in it," she said. "But when I said I wanted to go to school I got no support."
Cheryl regrets that her relationship with her father has not been more congenial, but does enjoy a better relationship with her ex-husband.
In 1988, at age 30, Cheryl moved to Lawrence to study architecture and fine arts at KU. She worked three jobs in the office, including a job according to her, was the easy part.
In high school Cheryl was in the honors algebra program, but after receiving a "D" in geometry, she began to question her intelligence.
"As a woman, I had to overcome sexism from a father who thought that women should be married—not in college; a husband that wanted me to mind, and a school system that didn't allow women could excel in math," she said.
"After that one failure, despite my previous success, I didn't think I would be able to study architecture because I was too dumb to learn math," she said.
Before coming to KU, she started taking classes in math to prove herself that she could succeed. While enrolled at Longview College, she confronted with a math teacher who believed women could not learn math.
"My trigonometry teacher flat out announced that the three women in
his class would not make it," she said. And while the other two women dropped, Cheryl finished with an "A" for the course.
his class would not make it," she said
"My teacher was so impressed, he encouraged me to continue on. I guess I proved to him that women can succeed in math," she said. "But when I conquered differential equations, I knew I could make it."
"When I first came on campus, I felt old, "she said." Everything on campus is geared to the majority, which are younger students.
And Chrysol is making it despite a
traditional student.
Cheryl finds that a lack of time is the biggest challenge.
"You can organize as much as you want, but the human factor always factors in—such as one of the kids getting sick."
Sickness has often reared its ugly head in Cheryl's household.
"During my third year I became very sick, at the same time my son had to have eye surgery and one of girls had pneumonia," she said.
In the end she had to drop a class and take a few incomplete but she
She had been warned by her physician some months earlier that she needed to take a year off, but she was determined not to fail or give up.
Cheryl said she has had tremendous help from administrators and professors at KU.
The majority has been more than
understanding, she said. They have helped her move, found her a doctor and spent time with her son, Nicholas. Cheryl's children, Nicholas, 15, Abbey 13 and Elizabeth 10, are very supportive of their mother.
"We enjoy going on campus, working in her studio and meeting her professors." Nicholas said.
As an artist, Cheryl describes her life drawings as somewhere between reality and the abstract.
"When I do life drawings it is an emotional release," she said. "All of my images are abstract, so you can see real images in the same piece of art."
Cheryl enjoys spending time in her studio creating art. She often takes her children along in order to spend more time with them. Elizabeth, her youngest, says she enjoys being momma's helper.
Cheryl credits much of her success to just being herself.
"Being yourself is a lot easier than trying to please others. And it makes your failures and successes a lot easier to take if you are being yourself."
Cheryl encourages women to see beyond the physical limitations and also to remember the spiritual dimensions she will succeed—just as she will.
"I if wasn't so bull-headed I would have accepted society's limitations and given up, but I believe that I can do anything I want to do."
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
People and places at the University of Kansas
d an c e
Aspiring twinkle toes to try out tomorrow
By Michelle Betts Kansan features writer
University Dance Company to fill semester positions
Carey Wagoner auditioned for the University Dance Company for the first time as a senior at Lawrence High School.
Dancers aspiring to be part of the company can take part in the University Dance Company audition tomorrow right at 7 in studio 242 at The Center. The audition will last about two hours.
Janet Hamburg, director of dance at KU, said she expected between 30 and 50 dancers to perform.
There were about 70 people there," said Wagener. Lawrence senior "I was very nervous."
But she was accepted into the company after the audition and has been a member ever since. She is the current University Dance Company president.
Six faculty members from the department of dance will judge the audition and will observe the dancers as individual performers and in groups, Hamburg said.
Dancers who already have been part of the company must audition also, she said.
Hamburg said dancers who already had performed in the company did not necessarily have an edge over dancers who had not been in the
company.
"Sometimes there are people who are the performers," she said. "Their energy moves out and communicates to people."
There are now 25 people in the company, but the number of dancers is subject to change.
The ballet portion consists of a short ballet barre, in which dancers use a horizontal bar to perfect dance steps, an adage, or combination of quick movements and jumps.
During the audition, dancers will perform combinations in ballet, jazz and modern dance.
The modern dance portion of the audition will consist of two modern dance combinations, and the jazz portion will consist of one jazz combination. Also may perform a baroque dance combination.
Once the company members are selected, they will present a dance concert Dec. 4 and 5 in Crafton-Preyer Auditorium and will make several performances for the Lawrence public schools during the year. Selected members of the company will舞 at a collegiate dance festival at the University of Iowa.
Hamburg said an instructor would demonstrate all the combinations and review them with the dancers before they perform.
For people interested in auditioning who cannot attend tomorrow, the University Dance Ensemble will be holding auditions.
Art Exhibitions
Spencer Research Library
Hours: Mon.-Fri., 8-6; Sat., 9-1; Sun.
Closed 864-4334
Spencer Museum of Art
Hours: Mon., Closed; Tues.-Sat, 8-5;
Sun, 12-5 864-4710
Early Maps of the World
Contemporary Japanese Prints and Ceramics through Sept. 25
Baldwin Lee Photographs through Sept. 27
Seeking the Floating World: The Japanese Spirit and Turn of the Century French Art through Oct. 4.
Keith Haring Prints, William Burroughs Text
through Oct. 11.
calendar
KU Museum of Natural History
Hours: Mon.,-Fri., 9-5; Sat., 9-3; Sun.,
Closed 864-4540
*"Venus Unveiled: Images from the Magellan mission" through Sept. 24*
KU Art & Design Gallery
Att & Design Bldg.
Hours: Mon--Thurs., 8:30-4:30; Fri:
8:30-1:30; Sat, Closed; Sun, 1-4:30
864-4401
Basic Studies Scholarship Show through Sept. 4
Watkins Community Museum
1047 Massachusetts
Hours: Mon., Closed; Tues.-Sat., 8-5;
Sun. 1:30-4 841-419 841
Featured Exhibits:
The Weaver's Store of Lawrence: 1857/
1992
Clinton Lake Museum
Basketball Men: Early careers of James Naismith and Phog Allen
Bloomington Park East
Hours: Sat., 1-6; Sun., 1-
748-0800
Lawrence Arts Center
Reading, Writing, & Arithmetic through Oct. 1
Faculty Exhibit through Sept. 8
Education Arts Center
200 W. Ninth
Hours: Mon.-Fri., 9-5; Sat., 9-3; Sun.
Closed 843-2787
Theater & Dance
Sept. 2, University Dance Company Auditions
7 p.m., 242 Robinson Center
* Open to KU and community dancers
Sept. 7, English Alternative Theater presents:
"Some Americans Abroad," by Richard Nelson 8 p.m., 303 Strong Hall
Lectures & Seminars
Sept. 2; "Coping With Cancer," presented ...
Dr. Annete Stanton, Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 12 p.m., 1204 Oread
Sept. 2, SUA Lecture by Nadine Strossen,
president of
American Civil Liberties Union, 8 p.m., Kansas University Ballroom
Sept. 3, Faculty seminar, "The Canon,
3 p.m., Hall Center for the Humanities