{"id":123638,"date":"2022-10-12T08:22:45","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T13:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=123638"},"modified":"2022-10-12T08:22:49","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T13:22:49","slug":"distinguished-alumni-to-share-insights-at-university-of-mississippi-honors-convocation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/distinguished-alumni-to-share-insights-at-university-of-mississippi-honors-convocation\/","title":{"rendered":"Distinguished Alumni to Share Insights at University of Mississippi Honors Convocation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Members of Barksdale family also returning for Honors College’s 25th anniversary<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A trio of successful Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College<\/strong> alumni are returning to the University of Mississippi<\/strong> on Thursday, October 13 for the fall Honors Convocation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theme for the convocation is “The Transformational Power of Honors Education at the University of Mississippi.” Former NASA <\/strong>engineer Markeeva Morgan<\/strong>,\u00a0Nisolo<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>founder-CEO Patrick Woodyard<\/strong>, and poet and teacher Sarah Barch-Gill<\/strong> are featured speakers for the event, which is part of the college’s 25th anniversary celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The convocation begins at 7:30 pm in the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts<\/strong>. Admission is free and open to the public, and tickets are not required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Honors College has helped us recruit some of the brightest minds from across the world,” said Ethel Scurlock<\/strong>, the college’s dean. “We have been able to provide a space for students to advance their critical thinking skills, learn in small classrooms that encourage creativity and independent thought, and financially support student research and travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Honors College is helping our students gain the experiences they need to be accepted into top graduate and professional programs.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several student leaders are also slated to speak. They include Edrei Pe\u00f1a<\/strong> and Deshauna Lee Vaughn<\/strong>, co-presidents of the Honors College Minority Engagement Council<\/strong>; Andy Flores<\/strong>, a 2022 Truman Scholar<\/strong> and president of the First-Generation Student Network<\/strong>; Sepp Cecil<\/strong>, director of the Honors Senate<\/strong>; and Lila Osman<\/strong>, Associated Student Body<\/strong> president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A member of the first class of SMBHC graduates, Morgan has earned a reputation as an innovative leader in the U.S. Navy<\/strong>, at NASA and at Boeing<\/strong>, where he leads two divisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inducted into the Ole Miss Student Hall of Fame<\/strong> his senior year and honored with the 2007 Outstanding Young Alumni<\/strong> award, Morgan earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UM, master’s in engineering management from the Catholic University of America<\/strong> and doctorate in systems engineering from George Washington University<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He serves on the boards for the UM Center for Manufacturing Excellence<\/strong> and the University Research Foundation<\/strong>. Morgan was selected as the inaugural Emerging Young Philanthropist<\/strong> by the Ole Miss Women’s Council for Philanthropy<\/strong> in 2018. He is an executive sponsor for the Dallas-Fort Worth<\/strong> and Oklahoma City<\/strong> chapters of the Boeing Black Employees Association<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morgan is a PMI-certified project management professional and was awarded the 2010 Modern Day Technology Award<\/strong> and 2021 Science Spectrum Trailblazer Award<\/strong> at the annual Black Engineer of the Year Awards<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An innovative entrepreneur, Woodyard is committed to issues that Ole Miss<\/strong> students care about: environmental sustainability, global impact, entrepreneurship, and service to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After studying global economics, business and Spanish<\/strong>, he moved to Peru <\/strong>to work in microfinance. There, he met shoemakers whose reality of low wages and unsafe working conditions reflected much of what the fashion industry experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dedicated to demonstrating 100% living wages and 0% net carbon, he founded Nisolo with the vision to offer customers comfortable, functional, high-quality products while manufacturing them in a manner that champions the well-being of people and the planet. Nisolo supports the livelihoods of more than 1,500 individuals in Peru, Mexico, Brazil<\/strong>, the U.S.<\/strong>, and Kenya<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Ole Miss, Woodyard co-founded and led several organizations, and was inducted into the UM Hall of Fame<\/strong>. Among other accolades, he has received the university’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award and has been named a Forbes 30 Under 30<\/strong> honoree, an “Innovator Changing the South” and a Global Accelerator Entrepreneur<\/strong> by the United Nations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 2020 graduate with a bachelor’s in English <\/strong>and minors in art and classics, Barch-Gill<\/strong> is making a name for herself as a poet and teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A second-year MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Arkansas<\/strong>, she is working on a collection of revised fairy tales that explore absurdity as a vehicle for thinking about gender and trauma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim <\/strong>and Sally Barksdale<\/strong> worked with Chancellor Emeritus Robert Khayat<\/strong> and late Provost Carolyn Stanton<\/strong> to establish the Honors College in 1997 with their largest philanthropic gift ever to the university. When Sally died in 2003, the Honors College was renamed in her memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim Barksdale’s gifts to the Honors College total more than $36 million. He also has provided support for numerous other programs on campus and at the UM Medical Center<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The college houses more than 1,600 undergraduate students from all of the university’s schools and College of Liberal Arts<\/strong>. The Honors College program features an increasing number of in-depth courses, opportunities for experiential learning in the U.S. and abroad, and avenues for effective engagement with community concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Edwin B. Smith<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Markeeva Morgan. Submitted photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Patrick Woodyard. Submitted photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Sarah Barch-Gill. Submitted photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of Barksdale family also returning for Honors College’s 25th anniversary A trio of successful Sally McDonnell Barksdale<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123462,"featured_media":123639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"Distinguished Alumni to Share Insights at University of Mississippi Honors Convocation\n\nMembers of Barksdale family also returning for Honors College's 25th anniversary","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17687],"tags":[22531,22915,22914,20216,7275,22909,21272,22910,5,22911,7067,22917,22912,15237,22913,22916,655],"class_list":["post-123638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-of-mississippi","tag-andy-flores","tag-deshauna-lee-vaughn","tag-edrei-pena","tag-ethel-scurlock","tag-gertrude-c-ford-center-for-the-performing-arts","tag-honors-convocation","tag-lila-osman","tag-markeeva-morgan","tag-mississippi","tag-nisolo","tag-ole-miss","tag-ole-miss-student-hall-of-fame","tag-patrick-woodyard","tag-sally-mcdonnell-barksdale-honors-college","tag-sarah-barch-gill","tag-sepp-cecil","tag-university-of-mississippi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Markeeva-Morgan-750.jpg?fit=750%2C750&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}