Hill applauds Lincoln honors students for setting good examples

Cole County Sheriff’s Lt. Gary Hill told nearly 300 Lincoln University honor students he looks up to them.

“Honors students hold a special place in my heart,” Hill told LU’s annual Honors Convocation on Thursday, because they “took the time to throw the rope back over the wall and help someone like me who didn’t (always) take education seriously in high school.”

Hill has lived in Jefferson City since starting at Lincoln in 1992. But succeeding in school wasn’t his first goal in life, he said.

As child in a military family, he noted, “we moved around a lot. I went to a different school just about every year of my life — so I had to get really good at making friends, losing friends and making them again.

“What I came to find out was, it’s really easy to make friends when you’re part of a team.”

In high school, he focused on football, wrestling and track — but not his classwork.

When he graduated from high school, he expected to play football at Oklahoma University.

But he took the ACT test three times, getting a score “I’m not very proud of,” he said during his 15-minutes address. “The highest I could get was a 16.”

Although that score always will embarrass him, Hill said he has no problem telling about it, because he wants people to know where he came from and who he is.

His grandfather’s sister and an aunt both lived in Jefferson City and encouraged him to attend Lincoln.

Because of his low score, Hill said, he was required to take some “developmental studies” classes to boost his basic skills, but he was told by some fellow students the “DS” designation meant “dumb and stupid; once again I was embarrassed because I didn’t take my education seriously.”

After three semesters, Hill flunked out of Lincoln because “I still didn’t want to put in the work. To compound the problems, I had a child on the way, as well.”

He worked at a number of jobs and after 3½ years, Hill said he’d saved enough to take a few part-time classes. He did well enough to be accepted again in 1997 as a full-time student.

“Now, I was focused and, like you,” he told the honors students, “I was ready to do the work.”

But he still needed assistance to be able to graduate in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

“It was because of honors students that I was able to … get my degree,” Hill said. “I took advantage of the Student Support Services. Inside Student Support Services, there were a bunch of students like you who were honors students … I had a student help me for just about every class, to get me to where I am.”

Hill joined the Cole County sheriff’s office in 1998, and told the students: “My first promotion, from deputy to sergeant, was because of my degree from Lincoln.”

He was able to earn a master’s degree in criminal justice from Columbia College and, he reported, “My degree from Lincoln University enabled me to be a candidate for, and later accepted to, the FBI National Academy. This is one of my greatest achievements.”

FBI National Academy graduates have completed a 10-week course that covers a number of topics, and represent less than 1 percent of the country’s law enforcement officers, Hill explained.

He is one of three candidates running to succeed retiring Sheriff Greg White, but he mentioned that race only once.

“I stand before you with the possibility of becoming Missouri’s first African American sheriff, ever,” he said.

“And it’s all because of students like you who excelled in academics, and took a little bit of time out of their day to help someone like me who, in the beginning, didn’t make education a priority.”

Thursday’s Honors Convocation recognized 292 LU students for their achievements.