NCCU alumna Earlene Armstrong spoke April 2 at the Honor's Convocation. (Photo:Aaron Daye/Echo Staff Photographer)

It has been 35 years since alumna Earlene Armstrong walked the sloping hills of N.C. Central University. But the advice she gave to NCCU students at the 55th annual NCCU Honors Convocation holds as much meaning now as it did then.

In the “good old days,” as Armstrong put it, there were 11 p.m. curfews and dorms weren’t co-ed.

“But times have changed, and so has the nation,” said Armstrong. “We live in a nation at war and terrorism is a real threat throughout the world.”

Armstrong is a professor of entomology at the University of Maryland. Her research has focused on insect pathologies.

Armstrong commented on the enormous advances in science. For instance, the human genome — chromosomes and their associated genes — has been mapped and this will provide new ways of fighting inherited diseases.

Still, we face great social challenges: divorce rates have climbed rapidly; the cost of a college education has jumped dramatically; and jobs are getting relocated overseas.

Armstrong remains optimistic. “It is this optimism that has served me so well throughout my life,” she said.

At NCCU, Armstrong earned her bachelor’s degree in 1969 and her master’s in 1970, both in biology. She earned a doctorate at Cornell University in entomology.

She has had a productive life. She won the 2001 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering.

The National Science Foundation has awarded her with a grant for her work at the University of Maryland at College Park, mentoring minority students in science, mathematics and engineering.

She has also created and directed the university’s Pre-Freshman Academic Program, a program that mentors freshmen and helps them with their math skills. The program helps increase student retention and graduation rates.

“Not only have the graduation rates increased, but students in the program have also gone on to graduate programs,” said Armstrong.

Armstrong said she saw optimism in the faces of NCCU students.

“As I look into the audience today and view you honorees, I see the faces of students who have set goals of academic excellence and are accomplishing them,” she said.

Armstrong wants students to persevere and persist with integrity and commitment.

If students do this, she said, they will make their dreams a reality.

“It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach,” said Armstrong.