Jeff City Library honored with Twin Pillars Award
Carson-Newman University’s Center for Community Engagement awarded the Jefferson City Public Library the annual “Twin Pillars Community Partner of the Year” award for providing students with service-learning opportunities and showing exemplary service to the community. Pictured from left to right are library clerk Robyn Combs, Director David Phillips, and assistants Emily Shade and Melissa Bode.
Carson-Newman University has recognized the Jefferson City Public Library for its service to the community and its partnership providing students with service-learning opportunities.
While the University had to cancel the eighth annual Twin Pillars Community Celebration due to the pandemic, the C-N Center for Community Engagement still recognized students and the community for service and academic excellence.
The library received the “Community Partner of the Year Award” for working with C-N to provide service-learning opportunities and showing exemplary service to the community in the immediate area.
“The library has been a trusted partner of the center for several years now, and they have continued to show that they are such a huge source of empowerment for our students,” said Deanna Simpson-Beavers, the community development coordinator for the Center for Community Engagement. “The library offers many different program opportunities, along with being a huge resource for community members in Jefferson City.”
The center also announced the annual Twin Pillars awards for students and faculty.
The “Student Excellence in Scholarship and Service Award” for senior students who exemplify both academic excellence and a heart for service went to:
• Kinsey Clark, of Chattanooga,
• Mahala Faith Douglas, of Knoxville,
• TJ Bryant, of Marietta, Georgia,
• Thomas Fodor, of Talbot,
• Luke Patton, of New Market,
• Mitra Sarshuri, of Loudon, and
• Sarah Sofia, of Limerick, Pennsylvania.
Jazlyn Verner, a nursing major from Memphis, received the “Eagles Engage Student Award.” This recognizes the Eagles Engage scholar who goes above and beyond the program’s requirements of completing 10 hours of service per year.
Dr. Christine Jones received the 2020 “Faculty member of the Year for Excellence in Service and Academics” award. Jones has served as chair of the Community Service and Service Learning Committee and academic director of the then-C-N Bonner Center. She led the University’s c-nvolved initiative, a five-year plan for increasing service learning and community engagement across all academic disciplines.
“Since arriving at Carson-Newman in 2008, Dr. Christine Jones has exemplified what it means to take service and academics seriously alongside one another,” said Center Director Matt Bryant-Cheney.
Founded in 1851, Carson-Newman is a Christian liberal arts-based university affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention. The University is located in Jefferson City, Tennessee, among the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains and has over 2,700 students. Carson-Newman offers 50 undergraduate majors, as well as associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. The institution’s website is cn.edu<http://cn.edu/>.
