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Ms. Terri Mill is a well-known Residence Life Coordinator at Benedict College. She is a highly regarded and exceptional leader of a 400-bed freshman girl’s dormitory. As a graduate of Benedict College, it is with pride, great pride, that serves the college community. She was especially engaged during the beginning months of the pandemic.

During the evacuation, she served as a taxi driver, suitcase packer, and chef to her students; she affectionately calls her “babies.” After all the students returned home to finish their semester online, Ms. Mills used her creative skills to make scented hand sanitizer and BC masks from discontinued t-shirts. She donated all of her many items to her coworkers and homeless people in the community. Ms. Mills is also known as Coach Mills and is a certified cheerleading coach, dance instructor and has two SIAC championships, four second-place finishes, and three third-place finishes. With Tiger Pride, we nominate Teri Mills as an HBCU Staff Member of the Year!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wXxAbnem1vnA4FIciWEX5bbt0kwKxQJb/view

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As the new Director of Residential Life, Mr. Jacob Koon immediately became an essential worker. In March of 2020, Mr. Koon devised and executed a housing preparedness plan to evacuate campus students safely. During the Re-Opening of Tiger Nation, Mr. Koon implemented a safe and secure plan for students moving into campus housing.

He created a proximity plan that allowed students to of different residence halls and floors to populate at the same time without passing each other. Mr. Koon also created the directional concept within the residence halls that kept social distancing and one-way traffic flow. Mr. Koon was responsible for preparing the CDC required quarantine space. Because of on-going testing and a well-executed plan, Benedict College had record low COVID-19 rates on campus.

As an alumnus of Benedict College, Mr. Koon brings to his position a passion for his Alma Mater, a strong background in counseling, and work experience with the disabled.

Benedict College proudly nominates Mr. Jacob Koon for HBCU Staff of the Year Nominee!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rhieyT8RqIVxDmhdeXO-aTuVxGzQZIVM/view

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Ms. Daphane New is the Director of the Student Health Center at Benedict College. As a registered nurse, she communicated with the medical community before the United States experienced its first case. As a valued member of the College’s Risk Management Team, Nurse New provided critical information about the virus and what the college community should do to protect itself. After the students evacuated the campus, Nurse New and Dr. Taylor created

“Let’s Talk Tuesday.” An open Zoom Meeting to share tips for staying healthy while coping with COVID 19.

When the Benedict College students returned to campus, Nurse New transformed into a frontline worker and organized the testing of over 700 students, faculty, and staff for COVID-19. Nurse Daphane New is essential to Benedict College, and we nominated her as an HBCU Staff Member of the Year!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SXEzWu_d-e5clcgM3zL8cHA4K-1OPxDj/view

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As the Chief of Staff for Benedict College, Dr. Ceeon Quiet Smith wears many hats, but the role she played as the mastermind behind the COVID-19 awareness campaign and the Re-Opening Tiger Nation plan was lifesaving. Under Dr. Smith’s leadership, the Benedict College Risk Management Team obtained and managed personal protection equipment for the entire campus. She established daily check-in zones and measured each campus space for appropriate social distancing. Dr. Smith also teamed up with the medical community to offer FREE COVID-19 Drive-thru Testing at the College’s football stadium for everyone in Richland County.

Dr. Linda Bell, South Carolina’s top epidemiologist for the Department of Health and Environmental Control, called Dr. Smith’s Re-Opening Tiger Nation, “a model plan for Higher Education!”

Benedict College proudly nominates Dr. Ceeon Quiet Smith for HBCU Staff Member of the Year!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JmqV3CTZ1DcoTCQSPzEshz4fDdtfhyDl/view

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Benedict College proudly nominates our BEST of BC student, Makayla Alston. A description for Makayla's nomination has already been submitted by Kymm Hunter. Here is the requested 90 second video to complete her nomination. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NyV_fBbHHZjBURze0YCLfcBqI3uzCQtb/view?usp=sharing

Leandra Hayes-Burgess

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Benedict College nominates Makayla Alston, who bravely told her story of becoming homeless when the campus shut down due to COVID 19. Makayla told a CBS This Morning reporter how she slept in her car in abandon parking lots at night to avoid going home to an abusive situation. Makayla was on a full academic scholarship and worked two jobs but moved from place to place for internet service to do her homework. When Makayla reach out to one of her teachers for help, it brought out the issue that many students are facing housing and food insecurity issues. By sharing her story, Makayla encouraged other students to seek the help they need to survive.

Link: https://www.benedict.edu/how-one-southern-college-is-helping-students-with-nowhere-to-go-during-campus-shutdown/

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Dillard University nominates Taylor Gentry for the 2020 HBCU Honors. Taylor is a junior urban studies and public policy major who battled COVID-19 with her father Howard Gentry during the summer. She decided to publicly tell her story as a way of warning her college peers not to let their guards down. Taylor told her story to WSMV-TV in her hometown Nashville, Tennessee. She later appeared at Mayor John Cooper's coronavirus task force press conference to extend her warning to college students and other young people in her age group. Taylor was even more candid and appealed directly to her fellow Bleu Devils when she appeared on the inaugural episode of Dillard's "Conversations on the Oaks" podcast. As of October 14, Dillard's infection rate is under 1%.

Video: https://youtu.be/OXaXPcpsqM8.

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