Lake Hamilton grad honored with award
A 2013 graduate of Lake Hamilton High School was recognized Thursday evening as one of Arkansas State University’s most outstanding graduates in this year’s class.
Monica Norman was one of eight graduating seniors presented the 2017 Distinguished Service Award during a recognition dinner at the Cooper Alumni Center. She is the daughter of Kevin and Vicki Norman. She said she was in shock when she learned she was officially nominated.
“When you are involved on campus and doing everything you’re doing over four years, you do not realize how much it adds up and how much of an impact you have actually made until someone else points it out,” Norman said. “It was really humbling, to be honest.”
Distinguished Service Award winners are recognized as the institution’s most outstanding graduates because of their leadership, scholarship and citizenship. Faculty, staff, advisers to student organizations and other members of the campus community submit nominations for the awards. All of the nominees provided countless hours of service to the community, their classmates, their departments, colleges and to the university.
The other award winners were Arnelle Jones, of Osceola; Blaise Taylor, of Jonesboro; Emilee Taylor, of Jonesboro; Erin
Langley, of Beebe; Jared Gowen, of Garner; Kelly Mendes, of Jonesboro; and Patrick Dietz, of Searcy.
The recognition dinner was held during Arkansas State’s Convocation of Scholars, an annual celebration of academic achievement, which includes college and departmental awards, as well as other recognition events. Norman was accompanied by her parents and other family and friends Thursday evening.
The eight award winners are nominated for the university’s highest honor, the R.E. Wilson Award. A committee comprised of students, faculty, staff and past Wilson Award recipients makes the final selections.
“It is exciting and nerve-wracking,” Norman said. “Obviously, it would be an honor to receive such an award, but from the time I was a little kid, I said I need to do something every single day for someone else and love others more than you love yourself. If awards come along the way, that’s great and everything, but just to have been recognized as Distinguished Service is a big enough deal for me.”
Norman said she explored many schools before choosing Arkansas State and learned it was one of only three universities in the state accredited for graphic design programs, along with the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. She received the university’s A-State Pride Scholarship and an Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship.
“A-State gave me really, really good scholarships,” Norman said. “So, it was really a no-brainer. Then, I ended up being a nursing major and I changed my major about eight to 10 more times. Finally, I ended up back as a graphic design major.”
Nikki Arnell, associate professor of graphic design, nominated Norman.
“She has been a mentor to me throughout and pushed me with nonprofits, because that is something a lot of people don’t think about,” Norman said. “She is the one that encouraged me and said, ‘Monica, you are going to change the world someday, so just do it.’”
Nominees must obtain other letters of recommendation after they are formally nominated for the Distinguished Service Awards. Each nominee must also submit their own personal statement.
“I was just surprised and honored,” Norman said. “The College of Fine Arts is not usually a group that is well represented for this award.”
Norman served as a freshman senator in the Student Government Association before she represented the College of Fine Arts as a senator for the past three years. She is a member of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and served as the organization’s publications coordinator in 2014 and vice president of finance in 2015. She credited the sorority with pushing her to be involved on campus.
“In high school, I was involved, but not in leadership roles,” Norman said. “Whenever I got here, people were saying, ‘Hey, you should run for student government.’ This is a big university. It is kind of hard to get onto. They really pushed me and once I got involved with student government, everything else fell into place and I got more involved after that.”
Norman was president of the Rotaract International registered student organization, founding officer of the Student Philanthropy Council and three-year member of the Professional Association of Design at A-State, for which she also served as publicist and was then a cabinet member in 2015-16. She volunteered with the American Advertisement Awards for Northeast Arkansas and visited Rome in the summer of 2015 through the Study Abroad program.
She worked as a companion and staff member for the Camp Quality summer camp for children with cancer in the summer of 2014 and became involved in St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Up ‘Til Dawn college student-led philanthropic fundraising program. Norman has been a volunteer with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation 5k run since 2013 and was selected this spring to be a part of the competitive internship program at St. Jude.
One of her friends interned with St. Jude and encouraged her to apply. The hospital offers a variety of internships, including opportunities in graphic design.
“Anything that is sent to your mailbox and telling the story about the mission of St. Jude is what I got to do,” Norman said.
Norman worked as a graphic designer for Pink Ink Screen print and a freelance designer for the United Way of Northeast Arkansas. Her internship ended Friday, but she said St. Jude has already hired her as a freelance designer.
Norman is a four-year member of the Honors College, has been listed on the dean’s and chancellor’s list every semester since 2013 and will graduate in May with a 3.7 grade-point average. Her minor is international business.
“I did a lot of presentations and a lot of defending my work,” Norman said. “You have to do so in a way that you are portraying what you wanted, as well as what your client wanted, and making sure you do that in a respectful and polite manner while still standing for what you believe in.”
Norman has enrolled in the University of Central Florida School of Public Administration’s two-year Master of Nonprofit Management program.
“In a perfect, ideal world, I will come back and work for St. Jude, preferably in a management or leadership role, but we will see where it takes me,” Norman said. “I know I do not want to work in a for-profit world. Interning at St. Jude just further instilled that in me.
“I want to know that what I am doing is making a difference in someone else’s life and not so much just how well am I being paid. As long as can live comfortably, I don’t really care about the money.”
Hot Springs native Bethany Gallimore was one of seven nominees for the 2016 Wilson Award. Gallimore graduated with a degree in Communication Studies and English and enrolled in graduate school at Arkansas State.