tl20081113-01 "Now on TheTowerlight.com: View Video Word on the Street and listen to a podcast previewing the hoops season... Thursday www.thetowerlight.com FREE The Towerlight Faculty, students �Help Up� homeless Professor Mary Lashley and her students assist addicts in City Kristofer Marsh/The Towerlight Nursing professor Mary Lashley helps a resident of the Helping Up Mission in East Baltimore check in for a health fair held by the Towson nursing program Wednesday, Nov. 12. Lashley and her students aid drug addicts and homeless men in their recovery process. Economy hurts scholarships Shaky market jeopardizes newer Foundation awards Nick DiMarco Senior Editor Nursing professor Mary Lashley recalls being terrified the first time she decided to volunteer at a home-less shelter in Baltimore City. She went there five years ago with the intent of taking the blood pressure of a few men in need of help and then leaving. Instead, she became a key piece in the shattered puzzle that is the lives of hundreds of men. �It�s incredibly rewarding and it�s very fulfilling. In many ways, I see this as a defining moment in my professional career,� she said. �I�ve been [at Towson] for many years. You move up the ranks and at some point there�s got to be something deeper that draws you, that inspires you.� Lashley developed a number of grant-funded programs that have enabled health care in the ways of optical, dental, and medical treat-ment at the Helping Up Mission in East Baltimore. The shelter aids more than 400 men with histo-ries clouded by drug addiction and homelessness. �I think she�s pretty amazing. I think she�s a fantastic mentor and that she does a lot of good for the community and the school and we�re honored to know her and have her as a teacher,� Erica Jaworski, senior nursing major, said. Lashley�s spirit for her work is something she hopes to pass along to her students. At Towson she teaches classes based on community nursing at both the undergraduate and graduate level. She also brings students from her clinical group to the shelter, much like she did fives years prior. On Wednesday, Jaworski and other students were at the Helping Up Mission, taking blood pressures and instructing clients of their medi-cal needs. �When I first came down here I was a little biased. I just thought everyone was going to be homeless and dirty. My first day down here, I got a chance to talk to a couple of guys and they�re just regular guys,� Stephen Harris, a senior nursing major, said. �Lawyers, professionals, carpenters; they�re just guys that had drug addiction problems and it just really opened my eyes to this population and this place is here to help them.� Lashley�s involvement began on a common Sunday at church when speakers from the Helping Up Mission addressed her congrega-tion of their work. The Helping Up Mission is a free rehabilitation shel-ter that provides meals, clothing, See MISSION, page 8 Kiel McLaughlin Editor in Chief The federal government has been working to keep the ills of Wall Street from hitting Main Street for several months. This semester, the office of University Advancement is working to keep those ills from affect-ing York Road and students� ability to obtain endowed scholarships. Not since the early 2000s has an erratic stock market impacted the Towson Foundation scholarship endow-ment as severely as it has this year, John Mease, the Towson University Foundations director of finance said. �We are in a unique position in this market. I�ve never seen anything quite like this in my time at Towson,� he said. �With endowments that have been with us longer and longer, they have accumulated so much wealth they can sustain a down market. It�s the newer endowments that are currently suffering.� In order to endow a scholarship, a donor must give at least $25,000 to the TU Foundation. An investment com-mittee then puts that money into mutual funds, bond funds and other safe investments. The investment must See MARKET, page 8 Nov. 13, 2008 Towerlight Sports annual basketball preview page 13 Published by Baltimore Student Media for the Towson University Community "
