Students awarded scholarships for Christmas card designs

HANCEVILLE, Ala. — A few Wallace State Community College students were gifted with scholarships this year for their designs for the college’s Christmas card. The design of one student was chosen to grace the front of the card, while two other students’ design concepts were chosen as alternate winners.
Brent McDonald, a student currently in the Emergency Medical Service program, won a one-semester scholarship for up to 12 credit hours for his winning design. The digitally generated design encompasses a list of the college’s programs into the shape of Christmas tree. Images of the James C. Bailey Building and the Burrow Center for the Fine and Performing Arts are in the background. McDonald is a graduate of the college’s Visual Communications program of the Art Department.
Two other Visual Communication students, Cody Stricklin and Kristen Miller, each received a 3-credit hour scholarship for their design concepts. Stricklin’s was a snowy scene of the WSCC campus, while Miller’s expressed a child’s wish for his mother to earn a degree from Wallace State.
“The talent and creativity of our student body never ceases to amaze me,” said Dr. Vicki Hawsey Karolewics, president of Wallace State Community College. “I’m honored to send out a Christmas card bearing an image created by a Wallace State student, and pleased to be able to provide scholarships as reward for a job well done.”
McDonald said he was glad to learn about the design contest and how it encouraged students to get involved in the process. The Dodge City native said he couldn’t express enough thanks for the scholarship and for the college as a whole.
“If it wasn’t for this college I don’t know where I’d be right now,” McDonald said. After dropping out of high school, McDonald said he came to Wallace State to obtain his GED — earning his high school diploma before his former classmates — and then started taking college courses. “I’ve been going ever since,” he said.
Now working on a degree in Emergency Medical Services, McDonald said he loves to help people and will be able to do so in many ways as a first responder in the medical field, complementing his work in the ministry he founded, United for Prayer Foundation.
Miller and Stricklin were also appreciative of the scholarships and will use them as they continue to work toward their degrees in Visual Communications.