CONTACT:  Patricia Viets            FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                    1/16/98

Eveline Cropper-Conquest, a secretary at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Command and Data Acquisition Station in Wallops, Va., has been honored by Virginia Governor George Allen for her work in tutoring students.

Cropper-Conquest was one of eight people in Virginia to receive a 1997 Governor's Champions in Education Award. Cropper-Conquest, who received the award from Governor Allen at a reception in Richmond recently, was commended for all her contributions to improve education in Virginia and for helping students pursue and achieve academic excellence.

Cropper-Conquest started a program called HELP, the Horntown Educational Learning Project. It was initially organized to tutor high school students from Horntown, in Accomack County, to achieve better grades. The focus quickly spread to elementary school students as well.

"Miss Eveline," as the children call her, coordinates a group of volunteers who meet at Tabernacle Baptist Church Annex to assist students with their homework and to provide tutoring in various subjects. Miss Eveline also spends extra time beforehand canvassing the Horntown neighborhood, picking up children and taking them to the Annex. When the sessions are over, she takes them home again.

About 150 children have received help with homework or tutoring through HELP.

Miss Eveline initiated a summer pre-kindergarten program that graduated 80 two-to-six year old students. These students learned basic skills to keep them from entering school already at risk. She also entered into partnership with NASA to provide a Saturday Youth Program (SYP). This program introduces elementary and middle school children to a variety of science and math careers. One of the goals is to target minority middle-school children so that they will be motivated to maintain their academic focus throughout high school. These 30 minority children will provide a pool of eligible candidates for scientific internships that target sophomores and juniors.

The Department of Commerce's Eastern Administrative Support Center donated several obsolete computers to HELP that were upgraded with United Way funds. These computers are used by the children weekly for homework assistance; and adult computer classes are conducted by Wallops CDA employees.

Cropper-Conquest is the first and only minority woman to sit on the Accomack County School Board. She also chairs the Wallops CDA EEOAC Community Outreach Committee. She has also received a 1997 Jefferson Award from the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Governor of Virginia's Business Education Partnership Award. She lives in Horntown with her husband, Gregory, a Baptist minister.