The Student Team and Academic Recognition System (STARS) award ceremony, honoring outstanding student and group achievements, was held Thursday, March 20, 2014. Presenters Giles Lee, Director of Co-Curricular Education; Kerry Hagerty, Student Affairs Coordinator; Kathleen Temple-Miller, Biological Sciences faculty; Julie Cohara, Sociology faculty; Hocking College President, Dr. Ron Erickson; and, Hocking College Provost, Dr. Carl Bridges, honored the recipients.
Hagerty presented the first award for "Most Outstanding Contribution to Campus" to students involved in Hocking College Proud sprit club for their work in the "Paint the Plow" project. Ohio Department of Transportation District 10 invited area schools to express their creativity and paint a plow blade. Hocking Proud members Kiara Ivory, Jenna Ferguson, Katelyn Croghan and Alexis Nixon spent time over three days, including more than four hours on the third day, to finish their Hocking College inspired design on the 4 foot by 11 foot plow blade.
The second award was presented to the Geology Club with the "Green Award," for the Friends of the Hocking River Fall River Sweep. Last fall, several club members spent a day on the Hocking to collect debris and trash. Members retrieved 14 tires, miscellaneous debris and at least 10 bags of trash in and along the Hocking River.
The Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society (PTK) received the "Most Outstanding Contribution to Community" award for their Honors-In-Action Project. The Honors in Action Project encourages students to work together on a research project and develop a program to benefit the community beyond the campus grounds with a different topic each year. The topic last year was, "The Culture of Competition" and led Hocking College PTK students to focus on ways for small agricultural businesses to be competitive with corporate agricultural industries. They spent numerous hours conducting research and collecting data to reach a conclusion.
Dr. Erickson presented the "We Are One Hocking Award" to the English as a Second Language (ESL) 1143 Composition class for their incredibly successful fall book drive. The students worked to collect a variety of books to support the ongoing literacy efforts of Better World Books, an organization that has raised over $12 million towards literacy programs and libraries in the USA and Africa. The students collected 1,176 books, filling 41 boxes and weighing 2,050 pounds.
Students who were named to the Autumn 2013 Dean's List were also honored at the ceremony for their achievement.
