Spring is a time for school awards. The LoJo has carried several stories about honors and awards for local high school and middle school students. College students have also been honored. Some of their stories follow.
Western Kentucky University
WKU sophomores Raymond Van Zee of Russellville and Adam “Blake” Adams of Monticello designed and built a model of a wooden covered bridge for a proposed nature center in the Cuyahoga Valley Recreation Area. Then they tested its capacity … until it broke. Using only 1/8-inch by 1/8-inch balsa wood with glued joints, their bridge carried 22 pounds. Their bridge won the competition. Dr. Warren Campbell, team advisor, said: “WKU had the best strength to weight ratio of any bridge in the competition.”
Seniors Aaron Dockery of Somerset (team captain) and Emily Mesker of Hiseville (assistant captain) led the Concrete Canoe team in the design, construction, presentation and paddling of Courageous. At 186 pounds, it is one of the lightest canoes WKU Engineering has ever made.
Team Courageous, inspired by a fellow civil engineering student battling cancer this year, included raising cancer awareness in their team goals. Elizabeth Cardwell of Russellville was a member of the team.
The LoJo
More than 300 students presented research during WKU’s 43rd annual Student Research Conference on March 23 at Gary Ransdell Hall. The conference, part of REACH (Research Experiences and Creative Heights) Week, showcased the scholarly activities of graduate and undergraduate students of diverse disciplines from across WKU’s Bowling Green and regional campuses.
In Natural Sciences Joshua Slaton of Auburnand Nathan Barzee presented “Peel the Pup” (Dr. Kevin Schmaltz); Additional Authors: Kevin Schmaltz, Kevin Kappes and Trey Spargo
In the Undergraduate Poster Session, Social Sciences/Services category, Emma O’Grady and Kesi Neblett (of Russellville) presented: “No Tunes Allowed: Can Listening to Music Improve Your Exercise Performance? The LoJo
WKU’s Department of Architectural and Manufacturing Sciences has awarded the Walter B. Nalbach Industrial Education Scholarship for the 2013-14 academic year to Morgan T. Armistead, an architectural sciences major from Russellville,. Armistead's parents are Eric and Rhonda Armistead of Russellville.
The LoJo
Superior Cadet Award
The Department of the Army provides awards to recognize the Superior Cadet of each Military Science class, who demonstrates both Military and Academic excellence, as well has outstanding achievements in campus activities. The 2013 recipients included MS3 Award: Cadet Jordan Chick of Russellville, a junior majoring in sociology..
Chick, a graduate of Logan County High School, also received the Wassom Award, which is given annually in honor of Brigadier General Herbert M. Wassom, a native of Rockwood, Tenn., who graduated and commissioned from WKU in 1961. Gen. Wassom was killed Aug. 17, 1988, when the plane carrying him, the president of Pakistan and the U.S. ambassador crashed in Pakistan. This award is presented each year to the top MS3 Cadet. Chick also received the Endowment Scholarship.
The LoJo
WKU’s College of Health and Human Services honored its outstanding students during an annual awards ceremony April 13 at the Sloan Convention Center:
Brooke Yokley received the William E. Neel Outstanding Scholarship Award and the Mobile Dental Health Unit Excellence Award. She worked this spring as an assistant coach for the softball team at Logan County High School. A graduate of LCHS, she was a standout player for the Lady Cougars in high school.
The LoJo
WKU’s Potter College of Arts & Letters honored its outstanding students during an annual awards ceremony. Among those recognized April 14 at the Carroll Knicely Conference Center were the following:
Art
Ashley Hurt of Lewisburg, Ruth Hines Temple Scholarship
Film Studies
Jayme Powell of Warren County (the daughter of Logan natives Terry and Barbara Dennison Powell), O’Neill Locken Scholarship
History
Shanna Downey of Auburn, Gwyneth B. Davis Pre-Law Scholarship
Music
Justin Kirby of Bowling Green a graduate of LCHS, Howard Carpenter Scholarship
Chris Blake of Russellville, Edward J. Pease Memorial Scholarship
Sarah Fox of Russellville, Athena Cage Scholarship (Cage is a music professional from Russellville.)
Conner Eisenmenger of Prospect, Athena Cage Scholarship
Sociology
Priscilla Page of Russellville, Outstanding Student of Criminology
The LoJo
The Office of Scholar Development has awarded 17 WKU students a total of $38,450 in Lifetime Experience Grants, with help from the WKU Sisterhood, John and Jacque Hughes Jarve, the WKU Honors College and the Office of International Programs.
The awards are designed to enhance students’ competitiveness for national scholarships by supporting research, international study, creative activities, student-led engagement efforts or scholarly activities.
Sarah Fox, a graduate of Russellville High School who is a music performance and history major, used her LTE Grant to found and direct “Musical Thursdays,” an after-school music enrichment program at T.C. Elementary School in Bowling Green.
The LoJo
Brett Austin, son of Mark and Lee Ann Austin of Bowling Green, graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA majoring in biology and chemistry with an area of concentration in pre-med. Brett was honored as Scholar of Ogden College of Science and Engineering earning the highest grade point average in the college. WKU awarded Brett, a member of the cross country team, the Male Scholar Athlete of the Year honor at the “TOPSY” Awards from Western Kentucky University on May 11, 2013, with highest honors. He is a grandson of the late Eugene Carnall and Ruth “Cricket” Carnall of Russellville.
The LoJo
Kesi Neblett of Russellville was one of the speakers at her graduation from the Carol Martin Gatton Academy on the WKU campus
Other Colleges
Dr. Victoria Sansom Sherertz graduated with honors from the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy, which is ranked 5th among all pharmacy schools in the nation. During the ceremony she was awarded with “Most Outstanding Graduating Woman,” as selected by classmates and faculty. She was also awarded the “James Rhodes Award,” an award that is given to a graduate who is of outstanding moral character, viewed as consistently honest and trustworthy by peers, and who shows a strong commitment to clinical pharmacy practice.
During her final professional year, the RHS graduate was the national winner of the “American Pharmacist Association (APhA) One to One Patient Counseling Award” and was honored in March at the National APhA Meeting in Los Angeles. She was the first UK pharmacy student to receive this award. She was published in Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, served as President of Christian Pharmacist Fellowship International, and completed research projects alongside two professors. Victoria spent four years at Western Kentucky University and played on the women’s golf team and was named Scholar Athlete of the Year.
She will begin her pharmacy career at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Indianapolis, Indiana. Victoria is married to Matt Sherertz and is the daughter of Shawn and the late Paul Sansom.
The LoJo
Russellville High School graduate Dean Johnson had made his momproud. Tracey Shifflett writes: Dean graduated from UK not only with magna cum laude honors, but also with Departmental Honors in English and as a University Honors Program graduate. All of this was accomplished while working 20+ hours weekly, teaching high school marching bands, and traveling four hours one way to Nashville every weekend from late November to mid-April in order to participate in Music City Mystique Indoor Drumline. Rehearsals were held Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and totaled approximately 20 hours each weekend.
The LoJo
Alex Watkins completed hisMaster of Arts in Religion with a concentration in Pastoral Studies and Worship from Liberty University. A graduate of Russellville High School and WKU, he is minister of music and worship at New Friendship Baptist Church outside Auburn.
The LoJo
Ricky Dean Bibb, a graduate of Russellville High School in the 1970s, became a graduate again in mid-May when he completed his Associate of Arts from Southcentral Kentucky Community & Technical College, formerly Bowling Green Technical College. He says he plans on “working in the Social Field, maybe as a counselor and continuing to work toward my Bachelor & Masters.”
That same weekend his son, Ricky Hopper Bibb, graduated from WKU with a bachelors degree, a couple of days after Ricky Dean was part of a front page story in the Daily News as a mature adult who went back to college and succeeded.
“I was scared to death, not knowing if I could do this,” he told the newspaper about being the oldest person in his class. “Now, I know that anything is possible,” he said. “I’m 54 years old, and I’m a graduate.”
The LoJo
Logan County High graduate Erica Meguiar of Auburn went to Murray State as a softball player, but she gave up the sport to concentrate on academics. It’s paid off. Her grandmother, Lavelle Meguiar, reports that not only has she earned her degree but is returning to MSU as a graduate assistant.
Auburn Businessman/Pre-Med Student
The Bowling Green Daily News carried a story by Justin Story on Johnathon Randolph of Auburn, who “studies chemistry as a graduate student at Western Kentucky University, but when he isn’t on campus, Randolph is perfecting the formula for his business venture.”
Randolph, of Auburn, operates Hands of the Hill, which sells hand-crafted, locally made furniture. Story says the business, which is located in downtown Bowling Green, “has made quantum leaps uncommon for a new entrepreneur.”
In less than a year, the store has gone from an idea to a physical retail space in Fountain Square donated to the university, to another downtown storefront Randolph is renting.
Hands of the Hill originated when Randolph submitted a business plan to the university in a campus contest and was one of two winners. Kris Schell, executive in residence at WKU’s management department and a faculty member at the university’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, has been involved in the mentoring him since he reviewed Randolph’s business proposal.
“When he had questions about his products and what he should be charging, we would talk about that,” Schell told the Daily News’ Story. “He had a very clear idea right from the very beginning. The existing business was already going, he just needed sales and a storefront area. His products are good, he’s able to create a big list of folks he’s been working with and has multiple repeat buyers.”
Hands of the Hill, which Randolph says pays his bills, is probably temporary. The young Auburn man hopes he will become a doctor operating his own small practice. The experience of having owned and operated his own business should be an asset.