Lincoln Trail College announced the winners of this year’s student awards. Chanyoung “Cy” Yun was awarded the Joseph C. Piland Excellence in Scholarship Award. Ike Book and Nicholas Brown were awarded the J. Rod Harmon Excellence in Service Award and Mallory Mundy was awarded the Bev L. Turkal Excellence in Leadership Award.
The Piland Award is given to a full-time Lincoln Trail College student who has demonstrated outstanding academic merit and sustained excellence in the classroom. The award is given to honor Joseph C. Piland who was the first President of Lincoln Trail College. His vision and passion for education were instrumental in the development of a comprehensive community college for Crawford County.
Yun came to Lincoln Trail College from Seoul, South Korea. He’s a Sport Management major at LTC and will transfer to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign upon graduation. One instructor nominating Yun for the award described him by stating, “just imagine every characteristic you would want in a model student – that is what you get with Yun.” He was also described as prepared, engaged, participatory, and dedicated.
The Harmon Award is given to a full-time Lincoln Trail College student who has demonstrated outstanding service to the college or the community. Rod Harmon served as a faculty member at Lincoln Trail College for 27 years and has been the Executive Director of the Lincoln Trail College Foundation since 2005. He is well known for his rich sense of humor, dedication to his wife Diana, and commitment to creating opportunities for all residents of Crawford County to have access to a high-quality education.
Book was described as humble, caring, giving, pure, and genuinely nice and is lauded for always doing what is right and for trying to make his community better. Book has been a volunteer for the local Big Brothers Big Sisters program and is a youth group leader at his church.
Brown was described as ambitious, calm, conscientious, dependable, humble, generous, hard-working, patient, persistent, resilient, and service-oriented. Brown has served as a student worker in Information Services at LTC and helped bridge the gap between IS Technicians. Brown will transfer to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale to study Computer Science upon graduating from LTC.
The Turkal Award is given to a full-time Lincoln Trail College student who has shown great leadership qualities and skills. This award is given to honor Bev L. Turkal, a true leader in education, whose passion was to make a difference and change the lives of children, teens, adults, and lifelong learners. Bev believed to be a strong leader one must Live Life, Care and Show Empathy, must have High Energy, and be Competitive to Accomplish the Goals set to Make Things Happen!
Mundy, who won last year’s Harmon Award, serves as the president of both Phi Theta Kappa and Student Senate at LTC and is also the Vice President for the Southern District of Illinois for Phi Theta Kappa. Additionally, she plays soccer, is a TRIO mentor, and works in LTC’s Office of Public Relations and Marketing. One employee said of Munday, “it is rare to meet a student with as much compassion and awareness and this young woman. Not only is she an excellent and hard-working student, but she has also dedicated herself to enriching the lives of students, faculty, and staff around her. She is truly special for her care and commitment to helping others.” Upon graduation, Mundy will transfer to DePauw University where she will major in Communications and play soccer.
The three awards are given annually, and students are nominated by faculty and staff members. A committee selects the recipients of the awards.
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