Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University’s Carl Goodson Honors Program recently announced the recipients of the 2010 Honors Scholarship Awards. Six honors students were granted the awards to pursue research in their respective fields of study.

“The Honors Program offers these grants as incentives to fund original research and interesting travel,” said Dr. Amy Sonheim, director of the Carl Goodson Honors Program. “The honors students themselves, being self-motivated and intellectually driven persons, design proposals for how to learn in new and exciting ways.”

The six students receiving scholarships are sophomores, juniors or seniors pursuing various fields of study.

“The Honors Council judged the funding of the projects based on how well each student made his or her argument in the proposals for academic research,” Sonheim said. “This year, the proposals were particularly strong. They were well organized, compelling for gaining original knowledge needed to complete larger thesis projects that take at least two, if not, three years to research.”

Nicci Fillinger was named the Ben Elrod Scholar, the most prestigious of the Honors Scholarship Awards. Fillinger, a sophomore Christian studies and Biblical studies major from Perry, Ark., will also be the first Ouachita student to benefit from the Greer endowment. This endowment was created by Dr. Tom Greer, the late Clarence and Bennie Sue Anthony Professor of Bible and the Humanities, to assist students who desire to study in China. Fillinger, who plans to use both the scholarship money as well as funds from the Greer endowment to study Chinese at Peking University in Beijing, China, hopes to become a Chinese translator after graduate school.

“Dr. and Mrs. Greer provided the money to support the China program at Ouachita, and Nicci’s current need fits perfectly with the intent of the funds provided,” said Ian Cosh, director of the Ben M. Elrod Center for Family and Community and director of the Daniel and Betty Jo Grant Center for International Education. “I know that Dr. Greer would have been delighted to know that one of our top students will get the opportunity to study in China.”

Fillinger’s time at Peking University will not only benefit her education, but will also help Ouachita continue a connection with China that Greer began during his lifetime.

“Ouachita’s relationship with Peking University was miraculously sustained through the continual correspondence and trips of Dr. Tom Greer,” Sonheim said. “He would arrange faculty exchanges between the two universities that enabled Ouachita to offer Chinese in its regular curriculum.”

Ananda Boardman, a junior political science major from Geronimo, Texas, received an honors scholarship for her research on media frames used by the Bush White House during the second Iraq War. She plans to use the funds from the scholarship to purchase computer programs that will aid her in this research. Boardman said, “The honors scholarship I have is going to help me tremendously with my summer research, and as that will benefit my career one day, it is directly helping my future.” Boardman chose this research because of her interest in both political science and mass communications. She hopes to eventually work for the State Department in foreign politics.

Reuben Cash, a sophomore accounting major from Springfield, Tenn., received an honors scholarship to further his research of the economic bailout plan. He plans to conduct his research in Chicago because he believes the city fits into the entire picture of the bailout and the economy largely due to the Chicago Board of Trade, the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago and the Chicago Federal Reserve. “I am grateful for the opportunity to enjoy my research through traveling and expanding my perception of the issue to venues beyond the OBU campus,” Cash said.

Amy Guiomard, a senior biology major from DeSoto, Texas, also received an honors scholarship. She will use the funds to present two separate research projects at the Association for Psychological Science in Boston this May.

Nate Peace, a sophomore Christian studies and Christian ministry major from Bedford, Texas, was named the Garret Ham Honors Scholar. He plans to attend Wheaton’s Theological Conference in Wheaton, Ill., to expand his knowledge of theology. “This conference will provide insights that I can only imagine and that will encourage me to dig into my area of interest,” Peace said. The conference, which will be held in April, will be Peace’s first step toward working with homelessness in Chicago this summer. “It is a school’s responsibility to provide opportunities for students to burst the bubble and become global citizens,” Peace noted. “In conjunction with that, it is the student’s responsibility to use the opportunity to the fullest.”

Nolan West, a sophomore biology major from Bolivar, Mo., was chosen as the Carl Goodson Scholar. West intends to use this money to study nanotechnology in a biology internship in Santa Barbara, Calif. “College is about more than just textbooks and tests. It is about educating the entire individual,” West said. “I am so grateful to the Carl Goodson Honors Program for being willing to provide funds so I can ‘go and do.’” This biological research will benefit West in applications to graduate school as well as provide him the opportunity to travel somewhere he has never been. West intends to apply to physician’s assistant school upon graduation from OBU.

For more information about Ouachita’s Honors Program, contact Amy Sonheim at [email protected] or (870) 245-5552.

By Rebecca Stone