UVa-Wise students honored with Tice Total Achievement Awards

Four students at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise were honored with the Tice Total Achievement Award during the College’s 18th annual Scholarship Appreciation Luncheon on March 28.

Bryant O. Gray, Jade A. Bolling, Luke H. Parks and Brandon K. Alford were each presented with a certificate of recognition and a $1,000 award.

The Tice awards are presented to current UVa-Wise students who honor and encourage family values and community service, cooperation, creativity and scholarship. College faculty and staff nominate

Luke Parks, Jade Bolling and Bryant Gray

the students.

A generous endowment by Dr. Frederick Gordon Tice, in memory of his grandparents and their children, make the award possible.

Alford, a sophomore, manages a full course load while traveling home frequently to care for both his mother and grandmother. After struggling some in high school, he completed his GED and applied to UVa-Wise. He was named to the Dean’s List last semester. He started Phi Mu Alpha, an honors organization for musicians that now boasts 15 members.

Bolling, a junior English major, serves as the managing editor of the Jimson Weed, the College’s literary journal. As part of her job as managing editor, she brought nationally acclaimed poet Michael Chitwood to serve as a guest presenter at Coffee Night last fall, the first time a student has taken the initiative to secure a reading by such a renowned figure. Last summer, she enrolled in an immersion program in theology at the University of Oxford. A student in the Peake Honors Program, she recently completed a portfolio of original verse. She is also active in theater and is a singer and songwriter for College productions and in the community.

Gray, a junior in nursing, just returned from a mission trip to Belize with other College students, nursing faculty member Tauna Gulley and two UVa-Wise Board members. He is a work-study student in the Registrar’s Office. Gray is a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician and he volunteers at a local clinic. He is an academic coach for Student Support Services and will be a resident advisor next fall. He is the sophomore representative on the Honor Court, treasurer of the Black Student Union, president of the Pre-Professional Club and a member of the Multi-Cultural Alliance and the Student Mentor Program.

Parks, a junior majoring in health and physical education, serves as the vice president of the Student Government Association and has been an SGA senator in past years. He is involved in Baptist Campus Ministries and also serves as president of Teammates 4 Life.

Posted June 11, 2009