Excellence in Education
By Staff
March 6, 2003
Casey James Rickles has been selected to receive the 2003 Linda and Billy Howard Computer Technology Scholarship for the spring and fall semesters at Meridian Community College.
The $1,200 award is funded through the MCC Foundation from a contribution made by the Howards.
Rickles is an honor graduate of West Lauderdale High School and a freshman at MCC. He was listed in Who's Who Among American High School Students and was selected as the U.S. Achievement Academy All American Scholar for 2002.
He also received awards in national history, government, and English. Rickles has attained the rank of Tae-kwan-do black belt in karate. He is studying computer science and plans to work in a related field.
Vernita Annette Alford of Enterprise has been selected to receive the 2003 George Howell Nursing Scholarship at Meridian Community College.
This $1,000 award is funded through The MCC Foundation from an endowment established by Mrs. Mathilde Howell in memory of her husband, Dr. Howell who practiced obstetrics and gynecology in Meridian for more than 40 years.
Alford is a sophomore in the Associate Degree Nursing Program. She is a member of both the Mississippi and campus student nursing organizations.
A president's list scholar, Alford has been inducted into Phi Theta Kappa the international scholastic society for two year college students.
She plans to attain a bachelor's degree in nursing. She is the mother of a teen-ager and works part time in the cath lab at Rush Foundation Hospital.
Two Meridian Community College students Pamela Elaine Hemrick and Crystal C. Jennings have been selected to receive the Catherine Hovious Nursing Scholarship.
These $1,000 awards are funded through the MCC Foundation from an endowment established by the Rush Foundation Hospital Nursing Alumnae Association.
Hemrick, 20, is a graduate of Clarkdale Attendance Center. She is a member of the Organization of Student Nurses and Phi Theta Kappa, the international scholastic society for two-year college students.
Her career plans include obtaining a master's degree in nursing.
Jennings, an honors graduate of Meridian High School, is also a member of the Organization of Student Nurses.
She is a graduate of the Respiratory Care Practitioner Program at MCC and is employed part-time at Rush Foundation Hospital. She is the parent of a 2-year-old daughter.
For the third consecutive year, Marsha Iverson, an art teacher at Northwest Junior High School, has received a $2,500 grant from the Jordan Fundamentals Grant Program.
The grant program recognizes those who, despite challenging situations and limited resources, strive above and beyond traditional lesson planning in order to motivate and inspire their students.
This year's grant project is a collaboration between Iverson's Art I and Edgar Hernandez's Spanish I students.
The students will build a "living lab" in the form of a mini theater set on wheels. The lab will give Spanish students a forum to practice spoken language through simulations in front of a theater set.
The art students will also design and paint the moving lab.
Previous projects funded by the grant program were a Japanese Shibori textile designs pieced and quilted by the art students and an arts and literary magazine compiled and printed by the English I and art I students.
