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LAWRENCE -- Plenty of moms and dads will be on the sidelines snapping photos as their sons and daughters walk down the hill in the May 19 commencement processional at the University of Kansas.
One mom will not be.
Katherine A. Fletcher, KU clinical assistant professor of nursing, is one of this year's outstanding teaching award winners, and her daughter Kelly Lynn Fletcher of DeSoto will be in the processional as a December 2001 graduate. Normally, Katherine Fletcher would stand on the sidelines congratulating graduates as they lined up for the processional from the bell tower into the stadium.
Fletcher won a Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Classroom Teaching and will be seated with this year's faculty award winners on the speaker's platform. "We will both be in the processional at different points," Fletcher said. She added that it was exciting to be honored with a teaching award during the same commencement ceremony in which her eldest daughter is graduating.
Her daughter Kelly completed a bachelor of fine arts degree during the fall 2001 term, but she took a course in portfolio preparation at KU this spring. She and others in the class will present their final portfolios Thursday, May 16, at Californos restaurant, 4124 Pennsylvania in Kansas City, Mo.
Kelly will seek work in advertising and graphic design. At KU, she served on the KU Arts Group, a nonprofit group that does design work for KU's School of Fine Arts and others. Kelly is a Desoto High School graduate and transferred to KU from Johnson County Community College, where she received a softball scholarship.
Her mother joined the KU School of Nursing faculty in 1984 and has been recognized on numerous occasions for her dedication and innovation in nursing education. In 1999, Fletcher, who teaches undergraduates in nursing of adults and critical care courses, received the Phyllis Keeney Lawrence Teaching Award. Her ability to relate to students also was recognized in 1989, 1996 and 1999 when senior nursing students selected her to receive the Jayhawker RN award, which annually recognizes the outstanding nursing instructor.
With one of only four grants from Sigma Theta Tau International to develop national nursing teaching models, Fletcher is working with nurses at KU Medical Center to create an undergraduate case manager/care coordinator roles course that uses Web-based technology.
Fletcher and her husband, Bill, have three daughters. Kelly is the eldest; Melissa will be a senior at Central Missouri State; and Jennifer is a junior at Washburn University. Melissa and Jennifer both have softball scholarships. The Fletcher family members all plan to attend commencement. Katherine Fletcher's parents, Gerald and Shirley Grauer of Lincoln, Neb., and her mother-in-law, Nadine Fletcher of DeSoto, also will be in the stadium to congratulate their granddaughter, daughter and daughter-in-law.
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