MURFREESBORO — A
pair of nontraditional MTSU students with Williamson County ties and divergent
career paths — economics and actuarial science — are recipients of two of this
year’s June S. Anderson Foundation scholarships.
Three awards of yearly full tuition were presented May 14 at
a luncheon at B. McNeel’s Restaurant in Murfreesboro.
Meredith Allen, a two-time recipient originally from
Fairview, Tenn., has lived in Murfreesboro since 1986. That’s when she first
entered MTSU as an aerospace engineering major.
She married and had children and put college on hold. After
her son died, her husband encouraged her to return to college as a way to deal
with her grief.
This time, the 44-year-old Allen is majoring in economics,
which she said is about “critical thinking and current news.”
“I would love to do something for a think tank or some kind
of nonprofit organization,” Allen said. “I have two special-needs children, and
I wouldn’t mind doing something that helps them and helps other children.”
Sharon Crisman, a 44-year-old actuarial science major who
grew up in Linden, Tenn., and now lives in Franklin, Tenn., said she majored in
accounting during her first stint in college. She gave up a four-year
scholarship after her husband finished his degree and obtained a job out of
town.
Three children later, Crisman decided to go back to college.
“I’ve been working part-time since I started (classes)
full-time in the fall of last year,” Crisman said, “but that job is ending this
month. So this news came at the perfect time for me, because I was in panic
mode wondering if I’d made the right decision.”
Crisman said she wants to start with an underwriting job in
the Franklin/Cool Springs area, where numerous insurance companies are located,
and ease into an actuarial job later.
The third Anderson Scholarship recipient, native Nashvillian
Misti Maynard, will turn 37 this year and majors in pre-occupational therapy at
MTSU. Ultimately, she wants to pursue a doctorate in occupational therapy at
Belmont University, but she doesn’t plan to teach.
“My mother suffered a disability, and watching her go
through all that is what inspired me to go down this track,” Maynard said,
explaining that she prefers to specialize in pediatrics instead of gerontology.
She said she is very grateful for her scholarship, not only
for personal reasons.
“It provides me with a wonderful opportunity, by (the
foundation) helping me, in the long term, to help someone else in my field,”
said Maynard.
A recipient of a June S. Anderson Foundation scholarship
must be a woman 23 years of age or older pursuing an undergraduate degree at
MTSU. She must be a full-time student with a minimum 2.00 grade point average, demonstrate
financial need and meet in-state tuition requirements.
The June S. Anderson Foundation was established in 1982 to
support women entering non-traditional educational fields. Anderson taught
chemistry at MTSU from 1958 to 1983.
Anderson founded Concerned Faculty and Administrative Women in
1975 as an academic support service for women and established the Women's
Information Service for Education in 1977. She also founded Women in Higher
Education in Tennessee, participated in the Rape Alert program, conducted women’s
studies classes and championed pay equity, child care centers and proper campus
lighting.
For more information about the foundation and its
scholarships, contact Dr. Mary Magada-Ward, foundation board president and a professor
of philosophy at MTSU, at 615-898-5174 or mary.magada-ward@mtsu.edu.
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