Mortar Board Initiates New Members

Mortar Board recently selected new members for the upcoming year. New members and their parents were honored during an initiation ceremony on March 27 at First Presbyterian Church in Jefferson City with a banquet following at the Morristown Country Club. The selected seniors for the 2009-2010 school year are: William Trentham, Cara Hawkins, Bethany Wells, Jack Harvie, Okitta Elliott (Summer), Joshua Carpenter, Benjamin Miesel, Philip Buck, Lindy Mason, Jacqueline Dutton, Kaysi Knight, Gillian James, Meredith Haynes, Allie Jenkins, Molly Brummett, Kari Parsons, Brianne Coon, Andrew Glibbery, Amanda Branch, Sarah Elizabeth Cook, Amy Aycock, Brianna Rector, Brooke Lane, Destry Cloud, Danielle Schlafer, and Kimberly Grace.

"Each one was specifically chosen for their excellence in scholarship, leadership and service in their everyday life. It is something that we see each one is passionate for. We have already selected the officers and feel that this coming year's group will do an awesome job in carrying on the Torch," said this year's Mortar Board president Delayne Allred.

The Mortar Board leadership for 2009-2010 are: Lindy Mason (President), Molly Brummett (Vice President), Amy Aycock (Vice President), Andrew Glibbery (Head Peon), Kimberly Grace (Historian), Cara Hawkins (Alumni Chair), Meredith Haynes (Secretary), Kari Parsons (Treasurer), and William Heath Trentham (Fundraising Chair).

"They all seem very eager to participate and really make a difference in our community and on campus. The group as a whole is very versatile. There's no one word to describe everyone because each person brings something unique and creativeto Mortar Board," said current Mortar Board secretary Melissa Parker.

New members are chosen in the spring of each year. Potential members have to be in the top 35% of the junior class, and are chosen based on the principles of scholarship, leadership, and service. Interested potentials must submit an application. Current members of the chapter then go through an extensive application review process to pick the seniors for the next year. Names of current members are displayed in the lobby of Stokely Memorial Cafeteria.

According to current Mortar Board member Olivia Ellis, this year's selection process took five hours and was a 'marathon of discussion.'

"I believe that we've chosen a great group of seniors for next year. There will be more members next year than in this past year, but that means there are many different backgrounds and talents among the group. I am sure they will be creative and bring new ideas to Mortar Board," said Ellis.

Mortar Board is a senior honor society dedicated to the ideals of scholarship, leadership, and service. Since its establishment in 1918, nearly a quarter of a million members have been initiated at 226-chartered chapters across the nation. In 1985, the collegiate members of the society decided they wanted each chapter to engage in and actively promote a national project each year. Over several years, the national project promoted many issues, and today's permanent project is "Reading is Leading."

Founded in 1958, Carson-Newman's Panathenées Chapter is named after Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. During the course of a school year, Mortar Board organizes service projects to raise money for several organizations, and make material contributions. One of this year's bigger projects for Mortar Board was the annual Cereal Bowl. All the cereal that was donated and the money that was raised were donated to Appalachian Outreach.

According to current Vice President Whitney Vancleve, this year's Mortar Board team participated in fundraisers through Krispie Kreme and Pizza Hut. They also held a fallparty at the Life Care Center in Jefferson City, where a live band played music, Mortar Board members did arts and crafts with the residents, and they also painted the women's fingernails. Last semester Mortar Board went and had a play date at the Boy's and Girls Club. A group of also went and "fluffed trees" for the Fantasy of Trees in December.

Mortar Board also sponsors the senior choice chapel where seniors can vote on a professor that they want to hear speak in chapel. This year's selected professor was Dr. Wayne Ballard. Members this year also participated in Mortar Board's permanent project through "Read Across America" by going to Jefferson Elementary and reading books to classrooms.

"We have a group of not only intelligent but, also service-oriented members. I think the new members will do fantastic next year. They already have a 5K setup for next semester, which will raise funds for Samaritan House. Our group is very unique in that each year the members get to select what type of service projects/fundraisers we want to do. Therefore, we as members get to focus on what we like or what we feel could best serve the community," said Vancleve.