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Sunday, May 13, 2001

Stetson graduate started in fern fields

By JOE CREWS | News-Journal Staff Writer

DELAND — Mark Anthony Ramos' parents immigrated to the United States from Mexico about a year before he was born in Texas.

When Tony, the oldest of four siblings, was 3, the Ramoses moved to Florida to cut fern. Tony soon joined them in the ferneries.

Saturday afternoon, Ramos, along with hundreds of others gathered at Edmunds Center, received a bachelor's degree from Stetson University. On Monday, he returns to the same fern company -- Skinner's Wholesale Nursery in Bunnell -- as a management trainee.

Ramos helped finance his college education by working as a fern cutter until last August, when he was moved to the shipping dock as an assistant supervisor.

His supervisors are pleased with his work and with his degree, he said.

"When I was looking for a job, my manager was talking to his manager about me," Ramos said. "They called me in and offered me a job, and I decided to take it."

"Ever since I could walk, I've been cutting fern," the 21-year-old said Friday. Attending classes was a lot easier, he said, "especially during the summer when it gets really hot."

Skinner's Nursery has provided him with more than just employment. It was at a company baseball game in 1996 that Ramos met the woman who would become his wife.

Tanya is a Stetson alumna (Class of '99) and teaches ninth-grade math at Taylor High School in Pierson. They were married last June, Ramos said.

Ramos said he didn't face any discrimination during his four years at Stetson, which has a diverse student body.

And he valued his relationships with his instructors.

"They really care, and do all they can for their students," he said. "Dr. (Wayne) Bailey (a political science professor) went out of his way to try to set up interviews while I was looking for a job."

But the real credit for his success goes to his father and mother, he said.

"My parents did all they could, and pushed me to do well so I wouldn't end up doing what they're still doing," he said.

At Skinner's Nursery, Ramos won't be applying his knowledge of political science, his major at Stetson. But he plans to use it in the future.

"I follow the growing population of Hispanics, and hear them giving opinions about things they'd like to change," Ramos said.

"But nobody around here listens to their needs. I may get into doing something (to help them) in the future."

Ramos' degree was one of 435 conferred during Saturday's commencement program.

The majority of them went to undergraduates, but 53 graduate students received advanced degrees.

An honorary doctorate was conferred on June M. Hinckley, the keynote speaker.

A Stetson alum, Hinckley is an arts education consultant for the Florida Department of Education, a past president of the Music Educators National Association and chair of the Consortium of National Arts Education Associations.

She offered some advice to the graduates: Be useful, say thank you and live joyfully.

"Celebrate today; it's yours for the asking," she said. "Let us rejoice and be glad."

Seniors Kathleen Mary Dunn of Titusville and Luis A. Maldonado of LaBelle also addressed their fellow graduates.

Dunn's message was that the definition of success changes as one matures; Maldonado stressed the importance of relationships with family and friends.

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