[456] Anderson's Work Lives On In Foundation Stipend Recipients

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 6, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

ANDERSON’S WORK LIVES ON IN FOUNDATION STIPEND RECIPIENTS
MTSU Accounting and Construction Majors to Receive Needed Educational Funding

(MURFREESBORO) – The June S. Anderson Foundation will present the foundation scholarships for the 2010-2011 academic year to Katherine Anderson of Manchester and Rhonda Davidson of Martin, at a luncheon at 12 p.m. on Friday, May 14, at the MTSU Foundation House, 324 W. Thompson Lane in Murfreesboro.
The foundation awards full tuition stipends annually to full-time MTSU undergraduate women who are 23 years of age or older and who are preparing for careers in nontraditional fields for women. Its namesake, Dr. June S. Anderson, was a chemistry educator who became the first female full professor at MTSU. Her name also graces the Women’s Center on campus.
“June had this great insight,” says Dr. Mary Magada-Ward, the first and only woman professor of philosophy in MTSU’s 99-year history and president of the foundation. “She was worried about the gender gap in earnings, and part of that has to do with the kind of fields that women are tracked into. So she wanted to encourage women to go into less traditional fields and, typically, more lucrative fields.”
Anderson (no relation to the late June Anderson), who also won a full tuition scholarship from the foundation last year, is pursuing an undergraduate degree in accounting and is on course to graduate in May 2011. From there, she plans to enter graduate school at MTSU and earn a master’s degree in business administration.
The 26-year-old married mother of a five-year-old daughter works in the Organizational and Employee Development Department at Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) in Tullahoma, Tenn. Her long-range goals include moving into a governmental accounting job and teaching at Motlow State Community College.
Recently, Anderson encountered the challenge of the waning economy when her hours at AEDC were reduced due to budget constraints. Additionally, her husband suffered an accident in November 2009 which left him temporarily disabled.
“Receiving this scholarship has been an honor to my family and me,” says Anderson. “It has also helped in reducing the financial burden of college.”
Davidson, a 43-year-old single woman who also has attended Dyersburg State Community College and the University of Tennessee-Martin, is majoring in construction management with a minor in business management.

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“Construction management is a career I am passionate about, and it gives me so much satisfaction, managing and coordinating complex and detailed aspects of building,” says Davidson. “What is stressful for most brings me energy and exhilaration.”
Davidson says she believes she will be able to find employment with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when she completes her degree in 2012.
“We need to remodel and renovate structures to support green building and energy conservation,” says Davidson. “I see the need for more construction managers each time I search professional websites for job listings.”
Now in its 27th year, the June S. Anderson Foundation has given out more than $275,000 in scholarships to deserving MTSU students.
“The foundation is run entirely by volunteers,” says Magada-Ward. “While we use the interest from the principal to pay for the scholarships themselves, the rest of the work of the foundation is generated entirely by donations.”
Tax-deductible contributions may be made by mail to: The June S. Anderson Foundation, Box 73, MTSU, Murfreesboro, Tenn., 37132. For more information, go to the foundation website at http://frank.mtsu.edu/~jsa/.


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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For color jpeg photos of Katherine Anderson and Rhonda Davidson, contact Gina Logue in the MTSU Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.


With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.