Brenda Jane Meadows Dittman
If you look up the word “commitment” in the dictionary, you would no doubt find a portrait of Brenda Jane Meadows Dittman, a 1978 Morris Harvey College graduate who set new standards in terms of dedication to the value of higher education.
Ms. Dittman was not a conventional college student. She began attending classes as a mother of four, with children ranging in age from 11 to five. Getting to class meant not only making sure her family’s daily needs were met, but also making a daily commute, rising before dawn each day, to Charleston from Frametown, West Virginia – at a time before Interstate Highway 79 was open for the full distance between the cities. She returned home in the evening to prepare dinner, help her children with their homework and then turning to her own class work in the wee hours of the morning.
Even with the responsibilities of caring for four young children, Ms. Dittman was an exemplary student. She majored in education with specialties in art and history and graduated with a perfect 4.0 grade point average. In fact, according to her daughter Ronna, who is executive director of Beckley College, Ms. Dittman only received one grade lower than an A during her entire time at Morris Harvey – a B on a single paper in one of her classes.
After graduation, Ms. Dittman became a teacher with the Braxton County School System, teaching honors history and advanced art to high school students. After a stint in Orlando, Florida teaching honors history at several high schools, she returned to West Virginia and her current position with the West Virginia Department of Education. Despite health issues connected with a near-fatal car accident, she continues to inspire teachers throughout the state as well as citizens seeking to improve themselves through the adult education classes offered by her department.
She is also actively involved in the lives of her children, and now her grandchildren, providing financial support for classroom activities at Davis Elementary School and lends a helping hand to students who don’t have the financial means for new clothing and adequate school supplies.
Said her daughter Ronna Dittman, “My mother is a giver – she has been her whole adult life. She always responds when someone is in need, even if it means she will go without something herself.”
Jane Dittman has fond memories of her years at Morris Harvey. She said it was a school that provided personal attention, and that no faculty member’s door was ever closed to her. She considers her education to be one that would stand up against that provided by any institution. Ms. Dittman cited two of her favorite professors, Evelyn Harris in history “who was intelligent and very enthusiastic about the subjects she taught” and Henry Keeling, the head of the art department “who was very creative and very encouraging.”
Mother, grandmother, extraordinary student and teacher. Yes, Jane Dittman provides an ideal example of the word “commitment,” but that seems to barely scratch the surface of the life of a U of C graduate who has made it her mission to touch and affect the lives of those around her.
Ms. Dittman was not a conventional college student. She began attending classes as a mother of four, with children ranging in age from 11 to five. Getting to class meant not only making sure her family’s daily needs were met, but also making a daily commute, rising before dawn each day, to Charleston from Frametown, West Virginia – at a time before Interstate Highway 79 was open for the full distance between the cities. She returned home in the evening to prepare dinner, help her children with their homework and then turning to her own class work in the wee hours of the morning.
Even with the responsibilities of caring for four young children, Ms. Dittman was an exemplary student. She majored in education with specialties in art and history and graduated with a perfect 4.0 grade point average. In fact, according to her daughter Ronna, who is executive director of Beckley College, Ms. Dittman only received one grade lower than an A during her entire time at Morris Harvey – a B on a single paper in one of her classes.
After graduation, Ms. Dittman became a teacher with the Braxton County School System, teaching honors history and advanced art to high school students. After a stint in Orlando, Florida teaching honors history at several high schools, she returned to West Virginia and her current position with the West Virginia Department of Education. Despite health issues connected with a near-fatal car accident, she continues to inspire teachers throughout the state as well as citizens seeking to improve themselves through the adult education classes offered by her department.
She is also actively involved in the lives of her children, and now her grandchildren, providing financial support for classroom activities at Davis Elementary School and lends a helping hand to students who don’t have the financial means for new clothing and adequate school supplies.
Said her daughter Ronna Dittman, “My mother is a giver – she has been her whole adult life. She always responds when someone is in need, even if it means she will go without something herself.”
Jane Dittman has fond memories of her years at Morris Harvey. She said it was a school that provided personal attention, and that no faculty member’s door was ever closed to her. She considers her education to be one that would stand up against that provided by any institution. Ms. Dittman cited two of her favorite professors, Evelyn Harris in history “who was intelligent and very enthusiastic about the subjects she taught” and Henry Keeling, the head of the art department “who was very creative and very encouraging.”
Mother, grandmother, extraordinary student and teacher. Yes, Jane Dittman provides an ideal example of the word “commitment,” but that seems to barely scratch the surface of the life of a U of C graduate who has made it her mission to touch and affect the lives of those around her.