The Southern Arkansas University Hallman Scholarship has been awarded to two inspiring young females who will be incoming science freshmen from Northeast Texas.
SAU Hallman Scholar Elizabeth Jacobs
The Hallman Scholarship is awarded through the SAU Foundation and provides two scholarships for incoming freshmen women in the SAU College of Science and Engineering. The scholarships are annual amounts of $12,000 and of $17,000 based on ACT scores and other aid. The 2016 inductees are Elizabeth Jacobs of Texarkana and Alexandria Oliver of Atlanta, Texas.
Elizabeth Jacobs has always had the dream of helping animals, and her love of science and math has helped keep her vision of becoming a veterinarian in focus despite being a first-generation college student and facing many challenges at a young age.
She soared at Libery-Eylau High School with a 4.0 GPA and a top-five ranking in her class while being active in FFA, the University Interscholastic League (UIL), on the varsity tennis team, and in the Gifted & Talented program.
She credits the opportunity to volunteer at Runnin’ WJ Ranch as one of the most rewarding experiences of her life. She said she bonded with special-needs children and helped train the ranch’s therapy horses.
“Helping those who cannot help themselves is truly my passion,” Jacobs wrote in her application essay. “After my time at SAU, I plan to pursue my Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine and specialize in large animal care, which is currently a male-dominated sector of the profession. Being successful against all odds has been the story of my life thus far, and I look forward to starting this new chapter at SAU.”
She also gives thanks to the support of her grandparents, Calvin V. and Helen O. Jacobs.
SAU Hallman Scholar Alexandria Oliver
Alexandria Oliver of Atlanta High School has also excelled in her studies with a 4.0 GPA and a 5.7641 weighted GPA, placing her 2nd in a class of 142. On top of her classwork, she has been a member of the varsity softball team for four years.
She plans to major in Biology at SAU to prepare her for a future in the medical field as a dentist.
She is fortunate to have earned the Hallman Scholarship as she hopes it will lessen her and her parent’s financial burden, allowing her to be able to focus on her studies as an undergraduate.
“I am one of four…children. My oldest sister is currently in college, and my twin and myself plan on attending next year with our younger brother following in only two years,” Oliver explained in her application essay. “With four children born so close together and some with plans of attending graduate school, there will be a time when we are all in college at the same time. This can be very expensive for my parents, so I hope winning this scholarship will lessen the burden.”
She is the daughter of Gerrod and Allison Oliver.
Jacobs and Oliver join previous Hallman Scholarship recipients – Karissa Shackelford, pre-nursing major from Waldo; Jada Fricks, chemistry major from Saratoga; Calla Bassett, engineering major from Phoenix, Arizona; Bailey Romero, nursing student from Little Rock; Taylor McNeel, National FFA President and SAU agriculture science student from Vilonia, Ark.; and Emily Snyder, a pre-pharmacy student from Cabot High School.
Dedicated to providing opportunities for women, 1966 graduate of SAU Cinda Hallman provided funds for the scholarship through her estate. Hallman was one of four women heading Fortune 500 companies at the time of her appointment as CEO of Spherion Corporation. Before joining Spherion, Hallman had a distinguished 20-year career with DuPont. As senior vice president of DuPont global systems and processes, she had full responsibility for global information technology, processes and strategy, and corporate core managing processes. She was named Chief Information Officer of the Year by Information Week Magazine for “reshaping DuPont’s information systems organization to meet the changing competitive needs of its business units.”
