Lane Names Burroughs as New Head Football Coach

Former All-Pro NFL cornerback Derrick Burroughs has been named Lane College's next Head Football coach.

Burroughs was introduced to the media today at a 3 p.m. press conference in the J.K. Daniels Conference Center on campus. He replaces former Head Coach Trent Boykin.

Born in Mobile, Alabama, Burroughs grew up knowing that playing professional football was something that he always wanted to do. After graduating from high school, he earned a football scholarship to Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) where he made 1st Team All-Conference, and was voted the Defensive Player of the Year.

After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice, he was selected to the 1985 Blue-Gray All-Star Team where he was voted the game’s defensive Most Valuable Player. In that same year, Burroughs went on to be selected to the Senior Bowl and he was the 14th overall player taken in the 1st round by the Buffalo Bills.

Burroughs retired from professional football after a solid five-year career due to a serious neck injury, but says he still plays through the younger players that he coaches. He has spent 14 years coaching football with NFL Europe, Arena, and the XFL football leagues. He most recently was a defensive backs coach and administrative assistant for the New York Sentinels of the newly created United Football League.

TVA president speaks at Lane about leadership and morality

Tom Kilgore is the president and chief executive officer of the Tennessee Valley Authority. But he did not come to Lane College on Wednesday to spread a message of monumental power usage that in recent months has surpassed state records. He came to warn students that their education will mean nothing if they are not grounded in the meaning of the first four words of the Bible.

Kilgore focused his lessons of future achievement under the theme of "Leadership and Morality" by focusing on those four words as he spoke to around 1,000 students, faculty, business people and local leaders in the college's J.F. Lane Health and Physical Education building.

"In the beginning, God," Kilgore said. Using the first word of the Bible, Kilgore challenged students and others to review if they were moving their careers and personal lives forward by reviewing their relationships with people and groups.

"What are you involved in?" he asked. "Are you in your studies? Are you in the right place? Are you in the right groups? Your parents want you to be in college, not at college. Are you in trouble?"

An Alabama native, Kilgore became the TVA's president in October 2006. His duties include managing power production, resource management and economic development programs, according to the authority's Web site. He is also head of the authority's business council.

Concentrating on the word "the," Kilgore asked his audience if they knew what the one thing was they needed to be doing with their lives.

"Paul said, 'This one thing I do,'" Kilgore said, "not 'These things I dabble in.' What is the purpose of your life?" But to have answers to questions surrounding the Bible's first two words means nothing without practicing the third, he said.

"Beginning," he said. "The start. Some of us get started on time, some of us a little late. Some never get started at all to fulfilling the potential God has provided for them."

Still, Kilgore added, even beginning in the proper direction means nothing if one does not remember the Bible's fourth word: "God." "We cannot have a moral compass unless there is a rock," Kilgore said. "The Rock of Ages. You have to have your foundation right."

The Tennessee Valley Authority was established by Congress in 1933. It is a federal corporation and the nation's largest public power company, providing power to more than 150 municipal and cooperative power distributors.

President McClure said Kilgore was a great friend to him and to Lane, and he praised Kilgore for giving his time to spread God's word and help students find their own directions.

"There came a moment in the life of Tom Kilgore," McClure said, "where it came to his mind to bring a message to a college called Lane, and that is the highest tribute that anyone can receive."

Lane student makes study abroad dream reality

Lane College junior Heidi Walker's quest to study abroad started as an idea that she nurtured into fruition.

The 20-year-old business major had not considered studying in another country until she overheard her colleagues talking about their experiences during her internship with the U.S. Department of Commerce in Boston during the summer of 2008. When she returned to Lane's campus in the fall, she learned about a program offered through the American Institute for Foreign Study.

Although Lane College doesn't offer its own study abroad program, Cedric Deadmon, director of career planning and placement services, said students are encouraged to seek study abroad and internship opportunities.

"Lane is going to support any student with the desire to better themselves," he said. "She's the first student I've known to have studied abroad, but I've been told there have been others."

Initially, Walker had hoped to land a spot in China, but she opted for London, where she had the opportunity to have an internship as well as study. Her application process included submission of her transcripts, resume and essay as well as completing several additional questions to apply for an internship.

She completed the application process last March and received her acceptance letter last April. Her excitement was abated slightly when she saw the bill for her trip - $16,000.

"I had the dream, the desire to study abroad, but it wasn't financially feasible for me," Walker said.

She sought out scholarships to help pay for her stay in London.

"The institute had a $1,000 scholarship that I applied for, but I didn't get it," Walker said. "I thought, 'I have to find a way to pay for this.'"

Walker applied for the institute's diversity scholarship, which awards nearly half of the costs, a roundtrip flight and a three-day trip to Paris.

"I really didn't think I would get it," said Walker, her eyes welling up with tears. "I was competing against every other student in the country for it." When Walker learned that she was awarded the 19th annual diversity scholarship, she remembers screaming on the telephone. Thanks to the scholarship, she was on her way to paying the $16,000.

Walker said it took persistence and patience during the fundraising period.

"You've got to stay persistent because the money aspect doesn't happen overnight," she said.

Walker also received financial support from Lane College, AT&T and her family.

"Lane College was really supportive," she said. "I wouldn't have been able to go without everybody playing a part."

Walker was in London during the fall semester last year. While she was there, she worked as an intern at E! Entertainment Television's London office and studied British contemporary culture at Richmond University. She worked at E! Monday through Thursday and was in class on Fridays.

"I already knew the E! product," Walker said. "I was in a daze the whole time I was there because I was so happy to be there."

While at E!, her major assignment was to create a report to illustrate the number of page views for the E! Web site. Her work was included in a sales presentation to be used in France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom.

"It took me a month to complete it," Walker said.

She plans to continue to expand her resume with a few more experiences before completing her studies in December. She hopes to become a marketing executive for a major business or pharmaceutical company.

"I'm a creative person, and I like exchanging ideas," Walker said. "I'm serious about what I want to do with my life, and I hope to keep gaining experiences that show future employers that."

This month, Walker submitted an application to the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship. Selected students learn about diplomacy in the United States and study abroad the following year.

"Now that I've started (traveling) abroad," Walker said. "I want to keep going."

Celebrating an Abiding Legacy

The founder of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis urged a crowd at Lane College to carry the inner spirit to fight injustice that continues today.

Civil rights activist D'Army Bailey said Martin Luther King Jr. was a warrior for justice to mankind and gave the ultimate sacrifice by paying with his life.

Bailey, an attorney, author and retired circuit judge, spoke Wednesday during Lane's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Celebration.

Bailey spoke about the history of the civil rights movement influenced by people such as King, Emmett Till, Rosa Parks and The Little Rock Nine.

"We come from a rich history that went well on before that," Bailey said. "They didn't know they would be the instruments to spark the conscience of white America and black America for change."

Bailey also discussed his new book, "The Education of a Black Radical," which details the civil rights movement while he attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., in the 1960s. Bailey and other college students across the country were kicked out of school because of their stances.

"We made a decision as college students that more important than going to class was putting to the test those constitutional promises," he said.

The long struggle for equality must be put into perspective as it continues today, Bailey said. The walls of segregation were broken only 40 years ago, though the first black slaves were brought to the nation centuries earlier, he said.

Even when black people were able to get equal jobs, the wealth of the nation was already distributed mostly to corporations, he said.

"Don't look at this history as being ancient," he said. "We're still feeling the aftershocks today."

Most people remember King from his "I Have a Dream" speech, Bailey said.

But by the time of his death in 1968, King had said instead of moving one step at a time with peaceful protests, there needed to be a fundamental overhaul of the process, Bailey said.

Lane College President Wesley McClure said Bailey's strength could be seen in his ability to "not surrender to any person's view that you are less than the man you are.

"At no point in your life, Judge Bailey, have you allowed yourself to be a victim, because you found the will and faith to do the little things," McClure said to Bailey following his speech.

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