Senior Brittany Stephenson recently accepted the Dr. H. Preston Herring Scholarship, a prestigious award that recognizes student excellence both in and out of the classroom.

Nominated by her peers through HuskySync, Stephenson was presented the honor by previous recipient Joar Dahn, who attended the award banquet to pass the torch to Stephenson along with CLE officials and the executive board of Student Affairs. 

The Voice spoke with Stephenson concerning her acceptance, and when asked about her feelings surrounding the honor, she warmly replied: “I feel very blessed. Dr. H. Preston Herring was a wonderful individual who served this university for 15 years as Vice President of student affairs. Unfortunately, he passed from cancer but left behind a kind of legacy that will forever be selfless. I am humbled that members of our community feel that I support and value them.”

Stephenson went on to report to The Voice how proud she was to represent BU, saying: “When I first received this award, I felt a sense of recognition. I was being recognized for just living my everyday life and helping the people around me, but now that we have returned for Spring semester and everyone is seeing the poster of me, it means that I have a new opportunity to connect with people I don’t know and who are looking for resources.”  

Stephenson continued, saying: “I feel honored being able to assist so many different people. It makes me feel valued in the community as a mentor, a leader, a peer and a student.”  

Stephenson hales from Wilkes-Barre, P.a., and she tackles an impressive workload on campus, working to obtain degrees in English Literature, Secondary Education: English and Communication Studies: Interpersonal Communication. 

The Voice asked Stephenson what she loved most about Bloomsburg University, to which she responded with a laugh: “I love the people who hired my favorite professors— Dr. Francis (English), Dr. Brummett (Communication Studies) and Dr. Roggenbuck (English). [They] are not just dropping tremendous amounts of insights on us, they are changing our lives. Well, at least they are changing mine.”

Aside from her intensive course work, she is the President of NCTE, Vice President of Sigma Tau Delta, member of S-PSEA, and recently joined SOL, BCS, NAACP, and the NCNWB on campus. Further, Stephenson works as a consultant for BU’s Writing and Literacy Engagement Studio, affectionately known as WALES. 

Post-graduation, Stephenson shared with The Voice that she aspires to teach inner-city students further south of Bloomsburg, and also has aspirations to pursue counseling, along with studying qualitative research focusing on the dimensions and dynamics of anger. 

Students can find Brittany all over campus, for not only is she heavily involved with organizations housed at BU but with the acceptance of the Dr. H. Preston Herring Scholarship, large posters were made displaying her photo and the name of the scholarship she received. Her signs are displayed near the English Department entry way in Bakeless as well as inside Kehr Union. 

There is no doubt that Brittany Stephenson will represent Bloomsburg University well and with grace, and hopefully Stephenson’s attitude towards kindness and helping others is something all of BU will find contagious during her reign as the Dr. H. Preston Herring Scholarship recipient.