FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The College of Education and Health Professions will hold its annual Honors Convocation, April 10 in the Arkansas Union Ballroom to celebrate student accomplishments and to encourage future achievement. Scholarship donors will be recognized at a luncheon preceding the convocation.

"We are proud of the accomplishments of our students," said Reed Greenwood, dean of the college, "and we are grateful to the many generous scholarship donors who are helping these future professionals achieve their dreams."

Award presenters at the convocation include scholarship donors and representatives of organizations or businesses who have contributed scholarships to the college.

Five undergraduates who have been named senior scholars for 2002 will speak at the convocation. Welcoming greetings will be made by elementary education majors Jennifer David and Sherese Grigg and early childhood education major Nancy Garner. At the conclusion of the convocation, communications disorders majors Emily Nichols and Sarah Ross will offer closing remarks.

Greenwood noted that in addition to financial assistance, scholarships encourage students seeking an education.

"Each scholarship is both assistance and a vote of confidence in the future of a student," Greenwood said.

Seven new scholarships will be added to the roster of aid for aspiring educators and health professionals in the coming years.

Two David Banks Endowed Scholarships, one established by Beverly Enterprises and the other by Banks himself, will offer $10,000 in aid to undergraduates in education and health professions.

The Cooper family of Oklahoma will honor their mother, who was a nurse, and their father, an educator, with scholarship aid totaling $3,000 a year. Greenwood noted that the family’s respect for their parents’ contributions has become a legacy that will enable aspiring educators and nurses to earn a professional degree.

The Jimmie Lee Morgan Memorial Scholarship will assist students pursuing a Master of Arts in Teaching degree with a $500 grant to aid a student during the demanding fifth year teaching internship.

By endowing scholarships in nursing and teaching, Peggy and Donald Parks are addressing critical shortages in those professions. In future years, the Parks' scholarships will provide about $1,250 a year to aid nursing students and another $1,250 for teaching students.

UA alumna Nelda Wolf Richter endowed a scholarship that allowed nine nursing students to each receive $4,700 in scholarship aid during spring semester 2002. Mrs. Richter, who retired in 1979 as a registered nurse from the Veterans Hospital in Fayetteville, bequeathed nearly $430,000 to the college for nursing scholarships.