Students earn MSU awards from retired faculty association

Contact: Maridith Geuder

A senior and three recently graduated Mississippi State students are receiving special recognitions from the university's Association of Retired Faculty.

Presented annually, the organization's honors are designed to "encourage and recognize outstanding academic and service achievements by MSU students," said Charles A. Sparrow, engineering professor and ARF scholarship chair. Each award is accompanied by a $250 check and a plaque.

The 2003-04 group of ARF honorees includes:

Senior Laura M. Baker of Huntsville, Ala., receiving the College of Architecture's William L. Giles Award for Excellence, a memorial to MSU's 13th president and namesake of the architecture building. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dudley Baker, she is a President's Scholar who attended MSU as the Deanes Johnson Academic Scholar in Architecture. She is a member of Golden Key and Tau Sigma Delta honor societies and served as vice president of the campus American Institute of Architecture Students chapter.

May graduate William W. "Hunter" Jones of Calhoun City, receiving the Bagley College of Engineering's Harry C.F. Simrall Award as the computer sciences major whose academic and service accomplishments mirror those of the late college dean for whom it is named. The son of Mr. and Mrs. William Jones, he attended MSU as an Ottilie Schillig Scholar, one of institution's highest student honors. He also was Student Association attorney general during the 2003-04 school year.

May graduate Elizabeth F. McKinley of Hazlehurst, receiving the Charles Lindley Leadership Award as the outstanding senior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences where Lindley once was dean. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter McKinley, she is a human sciences/nutrition major and a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Ambassador. McKinley also has held leadership positions in the Student Dietetics Association and has been active in both the Student and Residence Hall associations.

May graduate Emily J. Stinson of Philadelphia, receiving the Peyton Ward Williams Jr. Distinguished Writing Award, a memorial to the former English professor who helped to found ARF and served as its first president. Stinson, an English major and the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Stinson, is recognized for the best essay in an upper-division English course. Her composition was titled "Stand Back and Give the Man Room to Grieve: The Misconception of Melancholy in 'Hamlet.'"