[494] Three MTSU students receive June Anderson Foundation scholarships

MURFREESBORO — Three women who juggle family and academic responsibilities while pursuing their collegiate goals will receive full tuition for one semester from MTSU’s June S. Anderson Foundation.

Organizers awarded the scholarships to the trio, all seniors at MTSU, at a May 11 luncheon at B. McNeel’s restaurant in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Rebecca Craighead, a Murfreesboro resident, is majoring in biochemistry with an emphasis on nutrition and dietetics. She aspires to be an endocrinologist and perform research on autoimmune diseases.

“To have a group of intelligent women select me to represent this foundation motivates me to want to do my best, and I intend to make everyone proud,” Craighead said.

Andrea Madison of Nashville is majoring in Spanish at MTSU with a minor in business administration. Married with five children, Madison and her husband operate a small barber shop in Nashville.

“By removing financial barriers, this gives me the ability to focus on academics instead of how I’m going to repay my student loans,” said Madison.

Lori Grimes, an organizational communication major from Shelbyville, Tennessee, is a two-time Anderson Foundation scholarship recipient and a first-generation college student. Her husband, Billy, retired after 25 years with the Los Angeles Police Department following an on-the-job injury that has caused recurring health issues.

The Grimeses’ daughter is an MTSU graduate who is pursuing a second degree in nursing, and their son is on track to graduate with his mother in December 2016.

“To be able to do this and finish this college degree … has allowed us to extend some help to our children,” said Lori Grimes.

Applicants for a June S. Anderson Foundation scholarship must be women enrolled at MTSU who are age 23 or older. Academic majors in fields that are nontraditional for women are encouraged, and financial need and personal challenges also are considered by the foundation.

“All of these great scholars exemplify what we’ve been looking for and what Dr. Anderson certainly would have been looking for in her time,” said Andrienne Friedli, a chemistry professor and vice president of the foundation’s board of directors.

June S. Anderson, a chemistry professor at MTSU for more than 25 years, advanced the causes of women on campus until her death in 1984. The Ripley, Tennessee, native founded Concerned Faculty and Administrative Women in 1975 at MTSU as an academic support service for women and in 1977 established the Women’s Information Service for Education, which now is the June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students.

In the early 1980s, Anderson founded the university’s first day care center, established MTSU’s women’s studies program and created the June S. Anderson Foundation. At the state level, she was the founder and first president of Women in Higher Education in Tennessee.

“I am really excited to work for a school that recognizes women, that recognizes a woman who was phenomenal, who paved the way like no other, and now she’s leaving a legacy of women to empower them to do the same,” said Barbara Scales, director of the June Anderson Center.

For more information about the Anderson Foundation scholarships, visit http://capone.mtsu.edu/jsa or contact Friedli at andrienne.friedli@mtsu.edu or foundation president Mary Magada-Ward at mary.magada-ward@mtsu.edu.