Student Athlete Derica Pitters Honored by HEADWAE

Jackson, MS.- Outstanding students and faculty members from 34 Mississippi public and private universities and colleges were recently honored Monday, March 2, at the state capitol during the annual Higher Education Appreciation Day—Working for Academic Excellence (HEADWAE) program.

Among the honorees were Mississippi Valley State University 's English department chair and professor, Dr. John Zheng and student Derica Pitters, an English major.

"I was honored to be one of the Mississippi Association of Colleges and Universities student honoree. I'm thankful that mu university has seen the hard work and dedication that I have put in as a student and an athlete," Pitters said.

HEADWAE was established by legislative resolution to honor individual academic achievement and the overall contribution of the state's public and private
institutions of higher learning.

Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann, the program's chair, spoke during the event along with Senator Rita Parks, chair of the senate's Universities and Colleges Committee; Representative Mac Huddleston, chair of the House of Representatives' Universities and Colleges Committee; Holly Spivey, education policy advisor for Governor Tate Reeves; Dr. Alfred Rankins, Jr., commissioner of higher education; and Dr. Andrea Mayfield, executive director of the Mississippi Community College Board.

"We are so pleased that our state elected officials addressed the honorees and their guests at the State Capitol," said Rankins. "The Legislature established this program in recognition of the difference that post-secondary institutions, their students and faculty, make for our state. It is wonderful to have their contributions recognized through this program each year."

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