Three young women with unconventional career paths now have a little more money with which to pursue their educational goals.
The June S. Anderson Foundation granted full-tuition scholarships to MTSU students Lori Grimes, Latesha Fitzgerald and Amanda Adams, all rising seniors, at a May 13 luncheon at B. McNeel’s Restaurant, 215 N. Church St. in Murfreesboro.
Grimes, a Shelbyville, Tennessee, resident, who is majoring in organizational communication, was living in California when pregnancy interrupted her attendance at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Her husband is retired from the Los Angeles Police Department, with which he served for 25 years before an on-duty injury forced his retirement 13 years ago.
Now that her daughter has graduated from MTSU and her son is a student there, Grimes is resuming her own college career.
Fitzgerald, a Brentwood, Tennessee, resident who is majoring in computer science, has three grown children. Her stepson is a pilot for Alaska Airlines, and her daughter is an actress. Her son, Jordan, is a junior majoring in graphic design at MTSU.
Fitzgerald said her dream to research solar and wind power was pre-empted by a 12-hour work shift and family obligations. However, she said, she now has time “to research cleaner concepts of electricity generation.”
Adams, a Lewisburg, Tennessee, native who is majoring in geosciences, is married with two children, ages 9 and 2. She said she has been interested in geology ever since she was a child and created her own rock collection.
Of the scholarship, Adams said, “This makes it possible for me to continue and not take out the maximum amount of student loans just to survive.”
Dr. June S. Anderson, a professor of chemistry at MTSU for more than 25 years, established the June S. Anderson Foundation in 1982. Its mission is to award scholarships to MTSU students majoring in programs of study underrepresented by women.
A native of Ripley, Tennessee, Anderson founded the Concerned Faculty and Administrative Women, an organization that improved the status of women at MTSU.
In 1977, she created the Women’s Information and Services Center, the forerunner of today’s June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students.
Anderson also founded MTSU’s first day care center in 1982 and was the first president of Women in Higher Education in Tennessee.
The 2015 June Anderson Foundation Scholarship recipients are, left to right, Lori Grimes, a rising senior from Shelbyville, Tennessee, majoring in organizational communication; Latesha Fitzgerald, a rising senior from Brentwood, Tennessee, majoring in computer science; and Amanda Adams, a rising senior from Lewisburg, Tennessee, majoring in geosciences. (Photo by MTSU News and Media Relations)
For more information, contact Mary Magada-Ward, foundation president, at 615-898-5174 or mary.magada-ward@mtsu.edu.