Scholarship to Honor Northwestern's First Two Faculty Members Being Developed
February 10, 2022
The first class of Northwestern Normal School met at the Congregational Church (current Friends Church) until the Castle on the Hill was completed. This photograph was taken on Sept. 23, 1897. (Courtesy of Cherokee Strip Museum, Alva.)
For nearly 125 years, Northwestern Oklahoma State University has been educating future teachers and looking for ways to help students defray higher education costs.
And, because of the recent establishment of the Unsung Heroes Committee at the university, Northwestern’s first two faculty members will have a scholarship named after them that will help to continue these endeavors.
The scholarship will be named for Sara L. Bosworth and Mary DeLisle, who began teaching the school’s first 58 students on Sept. 20, 1897, in the old Congregational Church for a salary of $900 each for the school term along with the first president, James E. Ament, who garnered a salary of $2,400 a year.
“Bosworth and DeLisle were certainly pioneers and unsung heroes in higher education as not only the first women faculty members but the first faculty members for Northwestern,” said Dr. Janet Cunningham, university president, who earned a degree in education from Northwestern and became the first female president of Northwestern on July 1, 2006. “These two ladies will now be remembered by their names on this scholarship that will help future teachers.”
Tuition was free in 1897; however, a fee of $1.25 to attend the school was assessed to students from Oklahoma Territory while students from outside the territory paid a fee of $5, according to a September 1897 Woodward newspaper, “The Livestock Inspector,” provided by the Oklahoma Historical Society to Dr. Christee Jenlink, associate dean of education/professor of education, and chair of the Bosworth-DeLisle Unsung Heroes Subcommittee that was tasked with finding a way to honor these first two faculty members.
Bosworth, who is listed as teaching Latin at Northwestern, served as superintendent of the Logan County Schools before coming to Northwestern, and according to the “The Daily Oklahoma State Capital” from Sept. 20, 1893, she accepted a position at Oklahoma University in Guthrie Oklahoma Territory in 1893.
Bosworth moved to Kansas in 1900 and died in Wichita in August 1931 at the age of 92. According to her obituary, “Miss Bosworth taught at Northwestern when it was but a normal school, when the administration building had been conceived but not built and when classes met in the old Congregational Church, where the First Friends Church now is.”
Bosworth’s brother William was the minister for the Alva church where Northwestern paid $150 in rent.
According to “Northwestern Oklahoma State University: A Centennial History” written by longtime public relations director at Northwestern Wayne Lane, by the end of Northwestern’s first year of existence, 166 students were enrolled. In its second year, there was a need to acquire space at the Baptist Church because enrollment grew to 211 students with 73 students being turned away because of lack of room.
By the time the first classes were held on Sept. 11, 1899, in the Castle on the Hill, the university’s first building that was completed in April 1899, 413 students were enrolled making the Northwestern Normal School larger than Oklahoma Territory’s other four institutions of higher education -- Oklahoma Agricultural & Mechanical College, 367; the Territorial Normal School in Edmond, 322; the University of Oklahoma, 295; and Langston University, 187. Ten teachers and a president’s secretary were now employed.
Jenlink said that it was interesting to learn of Bosworth’s actions to fight for funding for the schools for which she was responsible as she filed suit in 1895 against the Commissioners of Logan County because they refused to levy a tax to support public schools in the county.
“So that is not a new thing,” Jenlink said. “In the 1890s she was already fighting for equitable funding for public schools.
“Reading about her, I get the sense that she didn’t stand still. She was willing to take charge and willing to do what was right for education. That’s interesting on two fronts – one because of the times, and two, being a female. That had to be difficult.”
DeLisle was serving as principal of the Alva Public Schools before becoming faculty at Northwestern. She earned a teaching certificate in Oklahoma in 1895.
In the recording of the ninth annual meeting of the Territorial Teachers’ Association in 1899, DeLisle was listed in the faculty section for Northwestern as “Principal of Practice School.”
She was married to John M. DeLisle, a newspaper editor and teacher, and had a foster son, Robert DeLisle. She died in Woodward in March 1930 at the age of 78.
According to her obituary, “She was well-known and had many friends having taught in Woodward and surrounding towns for several years. She was a graduate of the University of California and has taught 53 terms of school during her lifetime.”
“The fact that these two women would leave what they were doing and come to a brand new institution that did not even have its own facility is remarkable,” Jenlink said. “They epitomize the ‘can do’ attitude that is integral to being an educator.”
Hundreds of one-room schoolhouses were being put up in this area at that time, and the need for properly trained teachers was recognized early on.
“You hear that and you think, nothing has changed,” Jenlink said. “We have programs to train effective educators because there is such a need, and after 125 years, it’s still there.”
Jenlink noted that the state’s six regional institutions all began out of a necessity to train teachers, and the mission has not changed, especially now that the need for teachers is greater than it’s ever been because the youngsters who attend school today have so many needs.
She explained that it’s been known for more than 15 years that there was going to be a teacher shortage because the number of teachers eligible to retire has been greater than the number coming into programs.
“Every child needs and deserves a well-trained, day-one-ready educator – and I use the term educator because there’s a difference between educator and teacher. A teacher teaches subjects, and an educator helps children learn, and that’s something I really try to emphasize with our student teachers – are you a teacher of subjects, or are you an educator whose purpose is to help children learn?”
The Bosworth and DeLisle Scholarship along with other scholarships specifically for those going into teacher education are some of the ways Northwestern continues to try to ease the students’ financial burdens.
As students enter into their student teaching semester, which Jenlink noted is so valuable, many of the students have to give up their jobs because student teaching is a full-time job.
“Like all of us they have expenses they have to meet,” Jenlink said. “This scholarship will help with those living expenses.”
However, it may take a little while before the first scholarships can help with those expenses as $20,000 will need to be raised to fully establish the award.
Jenlink said that the first initial donation to the scholarship fund comes from the family of Northwestern’s own Dr. Martie Young, professor of education. A memorial fund in Young’s son’s name, Lawrence Yunker, was established at Northwestern upon his death, and those monies will be transferred to this scholarship.
“Our family has the privilege to be the first donors to this prestigious new scholarship honoring the first educators at Northwestern,” Young said. “In memory of our son, brother, dad and nephew, Lawrence Yunker, we value this opportunity to show our support for Northwestern, as well as the teaching profession. Teachers have always played a huge role in all our lives, and although he was not a teacher, Lawrence would be proud to be connected in this way.”
Jenlink said that this first donation in honor of Young’s son also is significant because of all that Young has done regarding teacher preparation at Northwestern.
Young has worked at Northwestern for 29 years and has served as the director of student teaching for 20 of those years.
“I commend the family of Lawrence Yunker for choosing to donate funds from his memorial to this scholarship,” Cunningham said. “I taught Lawrence when he attended Northwestern, and he was an excellent student. He would be proud to be honored in this way.”
Jenlink said that they are now actively accepting tax-deductible donations to completely fund this scholarship. Monies may be given to the Northwestern Foundation directly, or Jenlink will accept donations on their behalf.
“We are hoping that all of the educators that Northwestern has trained over the last 125 years will value this and help with it,” Jenlink said. “Any donation, no matter the size, is welcome. The more money we raise; the more student teachers we can help.”
Once the scholarship is fully funded, monetary support to help offset living expenses incurred during the student teaching semester will be presented to the selected student(s) each year at the annual spring reunion ceremonies. Students must meet designated criteria for the scholarship and apply by March 15.
“I think it’s appropriate that this scholarship will be given to teacher education students while honoring these teachers of teachers,” said John Barton, associate professor of speech emeritus/dean emeritus of Northwestern and long-time Alva resident who organized the overall Unsung Heroes committee. “Bosworth’s and DeLisle’s leadership will not be forgotten.”
Other members of the Bosworth-DeLisle Unsung Heroes subcommittee include Shannon Leaper, library services director/assistant professor of library and information science; and Ethan Sacket, student success coordinator/transfer student recruiter, who replaced original member Donna Anderson, former superintendent of the Cherokee Public Schools.
“I’m encouraged by the other four sub-committees working toward finding ways to honor Northwestern’s other unsung heroes, and hope that plans to do so will continue to be developed this semester,” Barton said.
If interested in donating to this scholarship, please contact Jenlink at (580) 327-8450 or cljenlink@nwosu.edu or the Northwestern Foundation at (580) 327-8593 or aebird@nwosu.edu. To learn more about Northwestern’s education program, visit www.nwosu.edu/school-of-professional-studies/education.
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