LCCC Great Grads
Tristan Rader
LCCC Helps Lorain Man Get His Future on Track
Tristan Rader of Lorain remembers the day almost as if it were yesterday.
Rader was a first grader. He was going to his grandmother’s house for Easter dinner and he was going to read a story out loud for the family. He had practiced the book for almost three months and now, having all but memorized it, and he was ready.
He read “The Little Engine That Could” and he never felt as good as he did at that moment at Easter dinner.
So what’s the big deal? Well Rader had been diagnosed in first grade with a severe case of dyslexia, a reading disorder. “While the other kids were being rewarded for their literary achievements, I was all but excluded. Too young to be angry with God or my parents for this incompetency, I was simply frustrated at my brain. Reading was really hard and reading aloud was, in my mind, impossible,” Rader said.
But when the story “The Little Engine That Could” was read in class by his teacher, Rader was inspired. “Wow!” I thought to myself. “This engine is like me. Maybe I can do this: maybe I can read like everybody else. I got a hold of that book and didn’t let go.”
Jump forward to this academic year at LCCC and Rader was one of 56 students who entered “The Books that Stir Us: The Basbanes Project” by LCCC Academic Foundations Professor Kevin Hoskinson. The project asked LCCC students to submit essays that answered the question, “What one book contributed most to the story of your current life?”
The Basbanes Project was named after Nicholas A. Basbanes, author of seven books about books. Basbanes is a lover of books of every form, genre and heritage and he is a proud bibliophile and champion of books everywhere. He also reviews books for several national publications including the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Washington Post.
For Rader it was an easy choice – he wrote his essay about “The Little Engine that Could” and the impact it had on his life. In April the winners were announced and Rader was one of the three to be chosen. Each of the three winners received a $500 award and they got to meet Nicholas Basbanes who visited LCCC for the awards presentation.
“LCCC has provided an atmosphere that has allowed me to find my passion and pursue it,” Rader said of his experiences at the College. He has earned his associate’s of arts degree and is continuing on to earn a bachelor of business administration degree from Kent State University through the LCCC University Partnership.
He said LCCC’s instructors are dedicated to student success. “The people here knew and understood my struggles and through it saw my potential, even before I did. They helped me find my path and encouraged me to hold fast to it,” Rader said.
Rader has found his passion is film and multimedia productions. He is the owner/director of Creative Media Productions, Ltd., and is the media director at his church, both full-time jobs he handled while attending school.
Now he plans to use his winnings from the Basbanes Project to help pay for a documentary he and his partner will produce. “In October 2009 my partner in this project, Callie King, myself and a small crew are going to Uganda, the Congo and the Sudan to film a portion of a documentary entitled ‘The Human Story’,” Rader said.
Eventually he hopes to earn a master’s degree and possibly a doctorate degree while continuing to work as a documentarian and in film productions. “I intend to keep moving and growing in my field.”
Somehow we knew he “could.”