Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Posey County resident earns Dain Garrett Merit Award
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Angela Greenwell of Mt. Vernon, Indiana, is this year’s recipient of the Dain Garrett Merit Award, a $500 award given in March 2005 during the School of Liberal Arts Honors program at the University of Southern Indiana. The award, funded by Dain Garrett, an outstanding USI honor graduate from Carmi, Illinois, who died in 2003, is given to a current student who excels academically and has overcome a hardship to continue his/her college education. As a student, Garrett earned many of the significant scholarship awards from the USI History Department and combined the monetary portion of the honors to fund this award. Greenwell is working toward a baccalaureate degree with a double major in history and social science secondary education. The birth of her first child occurred one week before classes began in fall 2002, but she missed only the first day of that semester. She has continued to maintain this attendance record following the birth of her second child as well. Students competing for the award submit an essay describing the obstacle the student faced and how it was overcome. A dedicated wife and mother, Greenwell wrote, “It is important for me to finish [my education] because one day I know my children will put it together that I was extremely young when I had them. I want them to be able to see that I did not give up on my goals, and…I will not accept them giving up on theirs.” In addition to the money received for his academic work, Garrett also added graduation gift money to the award fund. Donations from individuals who supported Garrett’s efforts continue to increase the fund. The Dain Garrett Merit Award received an additional income boost during the honors program. The Center for Communal Studies Prize, given annually to the best paper or project on communal societies by an undergraduate or graduate student from any university worldwide, was presented posthumously to Dain Garrett. The prize recognizes the master’s thesis of Dain Garrett, who was awarded the master’s degree posthumously in 2004 by California State University at Dominquez Hills. His groundbreaking research deals with a modern anti-communist communal group in Illinois and is titled, “The Johnny Bob Harrell Compound: Church, Commune, or Cult?” The thesis now resides in the Communal Studies Collection of Rice Library’s archives. Connie Garrett, Dain’s mother, accepted the prize for her son, and the monetary portion of the award is being placed in the Dain Garrett Merit Award fund. Dr. Donald Pitzer, professor of history and director of the Center for Communal Studies, thanked Mrs. Garrett, often a classroom companion to Dain, who was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy in childhood. Dr. Pitzer said, “Without her cheerful, never-failing care she gave Dain, he could not have climbed to his remarkable academic heights or reached his 30th birthday.” Contributions to the Dain Garrett Merit Award are accepted by the USI Foundation in Evansville, Indiana. |
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