[331] March 9 deadline looms for scholarship for Tennessee college women

MURFREESBORO — MTSU could send a representative to the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders.

The conference is slated for May 28-30 at the University of Maryland, College Park. The two-and-a-half-day event is designed to enhance the leadership skills of college women students and to promote effectiveness in their work on campus and in the community.

The deadline for Tennessee colleges and universities and Tennessee branches of the American Association of University Women to nominate students for the conference scholarship is Monday, March 9. Nominees must submit applications by Friday, March 13.

Naomi Plant-Moran, an MTSU senior anthropology major from Murfreesboro, attended last year’s conference. This year, she is president of the MTSU student chapter of AAUW.

“I had never heard of NCCWSL before my involvement with AAUW, and, as a single mother of two children, struggling through my undergraduate degree and battling poverty every day, the idea that I would ever get to do something like (attending the national conference) was like a dream,” Plant-Moran said.

The 2014 gathering attracted more than 500 young women from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Jamaica. Plant-Moran said Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Sen. and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was the keynote speaker.

“I never knew women could be so kind to each other or raise such a feeling of love in a room, and the AAUW scholarship made it possible for me to be able to attend the conference and get to have that experience,” Plant-Moran said. “I will treasure it for my entire life.”

The scholarship will cover conference registration, lodging and meals. Universities and AAUW branches are expected to contribute to travel funds.

For more information about NCCWSL, go to www.nccwsl.org.