Melton began by describing the many activities she has been involved in during her time at Jewell.  She held executive positions in the Nonprofit Leadership Association (NLA) and Feminist club and was the chief copy editor for the Hilltop Monitor for two years. She is a Resident Assistant and a member of multiple honor societies.

She went on to discuss the extracurricular activities that have made a major impact on her life and how exactly they have affected her.

“I think my involvement in NLA  has been really formative for me. For one thing, a lot of the people who have been on the executive committees all three years that I was involved in it were really strong women in the nonprofit sector, or planning to go into the nonprofit sector, so I found a lot of really important and valuable friendships that guided me in really formative ways through that organization. And it gave me a way to kind of bridge a gap between my interests in nonprofits and my major in the humanities. It introduced me to a bunch of nonprofits in the area, a bunch of different ways that you can get involved in nonprofits from fundraising to marketing to more on-the-ground work that you see and just being able to do fundraising myself,” Melton said.

“The Hilltop Monitor is probably the organization where I found the most friendships and just that feeling of really welcomed involvement. It also helped sharpen my writing skills and helped me use them in a more tangible way than I ever really have before, so that was exciting for me,” said Melton

Melton also described the two classes that have most influenced her plans for after graduation.

“I took my capstone last semester, Well-Being by Design with Dr. Wetmore, and that evolved into an independent study I’m doing on housing in Kansas City and how that’s been structured to be unequal and problematic. So that has directly propelled me into working for Habitat for Humanity. But I really started thinking about this kind of wanting to bridge the gap between the humanities and the policy/nonprofit world when I first took my World Literature tutorial with Dr. Jani, who was an adjunct professor at the time. She focused on human rights literature and we read a lot of theory about this gap between theorists and intellectuals and the people who they’re supposedly helping. So that got me interested in this kind of trying to take my humanities education and do something more tangible,” said Melton.

Melton is spending a year working for a nonprofit before attending graduate school. Melton would like to use the experience and degree she will earn to begin work that combines the interests she previously discussed.

  “In June I will move to Lacrosse, Wisconsin. I’ve never been to Wisconsin, I think I might freeze to death. I am taking up an Americorps Vista position. I am doing fundraising and marketing for Habitat for Humanity of Wisconsin and that’s a 12-month role. Then in September of 2019, I will be going to the London School of Economics and Political Science and I’ll do a 12-month masters program in International, Social and Public Policy,” Melton said.

The night was a combination of celebration of student accomplishments and of music. In between professors announcing awards, students performed musical interludes. Dr. Ian Coleman, professor of music, described the music as an opportunity for reflection on the achievements and accomplishments of the students.

Besides departmental awards, the College recognized senior honors including members of Mortar Board, seniors graduating with honors and members of the Phi Epsilon honor society. Dr. Maggie Sherer, professor and chair of physics, presented members of Mortar Board, a national senior honor society “demonstrating the ideals of leadership, scholarship and service. Members are selected through an application process and must meet the ideals of the society and have a grade point average in the top 35 percent of their junior class.”

Members of Mortar Board from the class of 2018 are:

Kristen Agar, Johanna Alpert, Seki Anderson, Caris Boegl, Molly Carroll, Madlyn Cox-Guerra, Courtney Eddins, Mackenzie Giegling, Madison Giles, Lydia Hanman, Kelsey Jones, Jesse Lundervold, Grace Miller, Allison Mulnix, Hannah Nicolay, Crista Pinkston, Paige Shoemaker, Brianna Steiert, Erika Storvick, Blair Sundhausen, Elizabeth Tucker, Robert Warton, Grace Webber and Valerie Yeutter.

Jacob Pfeiffer performing a vocal interlude

Dr. Anne Dema, provost, recognized members of the Phi Epsilon Honor Society. The society is composed of “students who will be graduated in the top 10 percent of the class based on institutional grade point average and a minimum of 60 credit hours at William Jewell College.”

Members of the class of 2018 in the Phi Epsilon Honor Society are:

Kristen Agar, George Barth, Caris Boegl, Sara Clarke, Madison Giles, Cassidy Hensen, Emma Jones, Katherine Jones, Aubrey Kent, Jesse Lundervold, Shea Marcinski, Nichole Marquis, Marco Lopez, Elizabeth McQueen, Erin Melton, Grace Miller, Kelly O’Hare-Baxley, Lauren Pope, Jason Rideout, Matthew Samsel, Madelyn Stantorf, Brianna Steiert, William Tupino and Megan Wilt.

Dr. Brendon Benz, assistant professor of religion, presented the seniors who will be graduating with honors. These seniors undertook an additional “challenge of academic excellence… by completing a project within the declared major.”

This year, nine seniors are graduating with honors: Seki Anderson, Rebecca Santiago, Jameson O’Connor, Matthew Samsel, Madelyn Cox-Guerra, Andrew Novak, Tiffany Eldridge, Grace Miller and Elizabeth Tucker.

Throughout the program, Dr. David McCune, assistant professor of mathematics and the 2018 Faculty Award Committee chair, presented the finalists for the Faculty Award. The Faculty Award is given to the senior who most exemplifies the ideals of a liberal arts education.

This year’s finalists for the awards were Seki Anderson, biochemistry and Applied Critical Thought and Inquiry major; Caris Boegl, Oxbridge Institutions and Policy and international relations major; Jesse Lundervold, chemistry and studio art major; Erin Melton, Oxbridge Literature and Theory major; and Grace Miller, psychology and Spanish major.

As outlined in a previous Hilltop Monitor article about the finalists, Dr. McCune described the qualities the Committee considers when evaluating applicants.

“First, academic excellence … Past recipients have done things like present their work at conferences, receive significant scholarships based on academic achievement, be a co-author on a publication, etc. Second, as part of the application process an applicant must write an essay stating what she thinks the selection criteria for the Award should be and how she fulfills those criteria. Since the Award goes to the senior who ‘most exemplifies the ideals of a liberal arts education,’ we are interested in seeing an applicant think through what that means,” McCune said.

Erin Melton accepting the Faculty Award

The winner of the 2018 Faculty Award is Erin Melton. In his presentation of Melton, McCune described Melton’s scholarship, dedication to service and awareness of social issues. Her balance of passion, responsibility and talent inspire both her peers and faculty member. Melton commented on receiving the Award.

“I was so impressed and humbled at Honors Convocation to learn about the great things all my peers have been doing. It was great to learn about the high performance going on in departments far from my own. Not least of this were the academic accomplishments, faculty recommendations and service activities of my fellow finalists. Those four women absolutely blow me away. These are people I’ve looked up to in different ways during my four years at Jewell, and I’m even lucky enough to call some of them my close friends. I am unbelievably humbled and honored to have won, and I’m so very grateful to all the faculty and fellow students who have helped pull me through college,” Melton said.

Photos by Cassie Hayes. 

Kristen Agar, senior accounting major, has been on the Monitor for the past four years and served as Editor-in-Chief this year.

“The Monitor has taught me so much over the past four years,” Agar said. “I started out my freshman year wanting to be just a photographer. I thought my writing was awful. I owe so much to the staff members before me who encouraged me to push myself and helped cultivate my writing. They gave me the chance and helped me find my potential. I attribute all my success to them.”

For Agar, she will miss the people she has met at Jewell.  

“The thing I will miss the most about Jewell is absolutely the people,” Agar said. “The friends I’ve made are incredible. There truly is a special community of achievers at Jewell, and I will miss being challenged and inspired by these people.”

Agar will use her accounting major after graduation in a position at the KPMG office in Kansas City.

“I will be working as a tax associate in their [KPMG] Global Mobility Services department to provide tax services and consulting to companies who operate internationally,” Agar said.

Erin Melton, senior Oxbridge Literature and Theory major, served as the Monitor’s Chief Copy Editor for the past year.

Melton spoke about the inspiration the Monitor provided her over the years.

“The Monitor has always been a place for me that was really inspiring,” Melton said. “This has always been a place of a lot of really powerful, strong women in leadership positions. I’ve always felt a lot of camaraderie with the other ed staff members. It’s just always been a fun place to come together with people.”

Melton plans to work and then start a masters program in London.

“I will be moving to La Crosse, Wisconsin, to do a year with their Habitat for Humanity,” Melton said. “And then in September of 2019 I’ll start at a masters program at the London School of Economics and Political Science.”

Brianna Steiert, senior Oxbridge Molecular Biology major, spent the past year serving as the Monitor’s Features Editor and Managing Editor.

“If you had asked me in high school if I would join a newspaper staff in college, I would have said no,” Steiert said. “I joined Monitor with no newspaper experience, yet it became one of my favorite activities in college. I became more confident in my writing and learned to have a stronger appreciation for news both local and international.”

Steiert will miss the people at Jewell she gets to see every day when she graduates.

“It will be weird to not sit down at a table of ten people for dinner or to walk into a building and not see anyone I know,” Steiert said.

Steiert has no definite plans for after graduation, but has applied for jobs in her field and looks to pursue a masters or doctorate in either microbiology or immunology.   

Jesse Lundervold, senior chemistry and studio art major, served as Lifestyle (now Arts and Culture) Editor this year.

“I’ve been on the Monitor since first semester of freshman year,” Lundervold said. “It was a wild ride. It was the first year we had went digital and I just remember as a first year being incredibly intimidated by the ed [editorial] staff.”

Lundervold will miss the atmosphere of the Monitor, specifically, and Jewell, in general.

“Getting to know the ed staff more and having the Monitor being a very integral and incredibly positive part of my time on campus will be definitely something that I will miss,” Lundervold said. “I’ve met incredible peers and colleagues at Jewell and have such a great support system of current students, former students that I met and have since graduated, as well as outstanding and incredibly supportive faculty.”

Lundervold will attend a chemistry doctoral program at the University of California, Davis in the fall.  

Drew Novak, senior political science major, served as the Monitor’s Perspectives Editor this year.

“The Monitor has helped me refine my writing skills and has taught me the virtue of writing concisely. Beyond that academic influence it has had on me, I have also learned how to give Kristen a hard time,” Novak said.

Novak will miss the professors he has had at Jewell and the close friendships he has gained.

“I will miss the professors the most at Jewell,” said Novak. “I owe them a great deal of credit for molding me into the student and individual I am today. They have instilled within me a life-long passion for learning. Furthermore, I will also [miss] my dear friends Rylan, Trey and Conner and all the wonderful memories I have made and shared with them.”

Novak plans to travel after graduation and pursue graduate work next year.

“Following graduation, I will be traveling to Oxford, England, and the Amalfi Coast in Italy,” Novak said. “After returning to the United States, I intend to take a year off to substitute teach and then I intend pursue graduate work in security studies or international relations.”

Jake Marlay, senior biology major, served as Sports Editor this year.

Marlay said he learned that, “if you attack anything with a passion and a positive attitude you can motivate not only yourself but others to accomplish their goals.”

Similar to his fellow seniors, Marlay will miss the people he has met at Jewell the most.

“I’ve met so many great people in every nook and cranny of this little school on the hill that I will remember and forever cherish my time with them,” Marlay said. “I’ve met some of my best and lifelong friends, mentors, future leaders and innovators, and inspiring people right here on this campus.”

After graduation, Marly will begin coaching football at Fort Scott Community College.

“My plans after graduation are to begin coaching football at Fort Scott Community College in Fort Scott, Kansas,” Marlay said. “I start in the summer and will be special teams assistant coach there. From there I hope to just climb the coaching ladder and follow my dream, be the next Bill Snyder.”

They were demanding more funding for things like text-books, elective courses, heating and air costs and the ability for some schools to return to a five-day school week from the four-day weeks necessitated by a lack of funding. The protest was also for more substantial raises for themselves, a $10,000 increase rather than the $6,000 approved in Oklahoma Republican Gov. Mary Fallin’s school funding bill, as well as other school staff. This protest followed a similar walkout teachers held in West Virginia in March. That nine-day strike ended with a five percent raise, which made Oklahoma teachers hopeful that their demands may be met as well.

The bill Fallin signed allocates $50 million for schools and raising teacher and staff pay. This number is much lower than education professionals had asked for, so many districts effectively shut down as the statewide walkout began. The teachers used the walkout as a platform to promote two pieces of legislation to move their conditions closer to what they have demanded.

On Friday, April 6, the state Senate approved a bill amendment that would require third-party retailers using platforms like Amazon to collect sales tax or to inform buyers of their owed sales tax. This could mean an additional $20 million each year for education funding. However, teachers claim Oklahoma schools need $200 million over the next three years. The Senate also approved a gambling tax that would be effective long term, though it would not add to education funding this year. Teachers are urging Fallin to sign these into law.

These Senate actions are steps toward the teachers’ goals. However, the Senate also repealed a hotel and motel tax, effectively cutting $43 million from the education funding bill.  

Fallin equated the striking teachers to a “teenage kid that wants a better car.” She expressed frustration throughout the duration of the protests, blaming the teachers for not accepting the pared down version of their requests she had passed initially.  

In the Oklahoma walkout’s second day, it became a march, with over 100 teachers, parents, students and supporters beginning a 110-mile march from Tulsa to join those protesting at the capital in Oklahoma City. Teachers across the state have been posting photos on social media with the hashtag “#okleg” at the capital with fellow teachers, parents, students and other supporters.

Melinda Parks teaches Advanced Placement World History and Advanced Placement European History and is the senior class staff sponsor at Westmoore High School in Oklahoma City, where she has worked for 17 years. She is currently attending courses at the University of Oklahoma in pursuit of her doctorate in education.

Parks noted that since the first funding crisis for Oklahoma’s public education system about 15 years ago, the cuts have “just never stopped.”

“Some years, the cuts have been tougher than others,” said Parks. “Around 2008, we experienced a particularly bad round of cuts and then again when we had revenue failures the past couple of years. The past 12-18 months, the state’s revenue has increased, so education, as well as other core services, could feasibly benefit. There were several failed plans that were proposed that, while not perfect, would at least have gotten things moving in the right direction again.”

Because those proposed solutions were not ultimately implemented, the cuts continued, having a “terrible impact on morale” and driving many education professionals to leave the state or even to switch careers. Parks explained that Fallin’s $50 million bill is completely insufficient to fix this situation.

“A couple of weeks ago, a bill was passed, but it’s full of longterm problems and doesn’t even get us back to 2008 funding levels,” said Parks. “The inadequacies of this bill led to the walkout.”

Parks’ experience as part of this protest has been encouraging. She has joined other teachers, students and parents engaged in the democratic process in order to have their voices heard and promote a “productive dialogue.”

Parks cited her students and their educational experiences as her ultimate motivations for joining the walkout.

“My reason for walking is that my own students have never been in a fully funded classroom,” she said. “And when I say ‘fully funded,’ I mean by Oklahoma standards and not national standards. There are so many amazing things that we would like to be able to do as a district, but we can only afford absolute necessities—we deal in needs instead of wants. There are fabulous lessons that I would love to present to my students, but I cannot afford the materials to put an activity together. I have great students, and they deserve a better education than they are receiving.”

Photo Credits to Chris Landsberger, The Oklahoman.