Northwest Mississippi Community College Announces HEADWAE Honorees

Renee Young O’Neill, left and Keenan Lane Arntson, right, both of Oxford, were recently honored as Northwest Mississippi Community College’s HEADWAE teacher and student for 2015. HEADWAE (Higher Education Appreciation Day-Working for Academic Excellence) was established by the Mississippi Legislative Resolution #88 in 1987 to annually honor academically talented students and faculty members of Mississippi’s higher education institutions who have made outstanding contributions in promoting academic excellence. O’Neill teaches English at the Lafayette-Yalobusha Technical Center where Arntson is a student.
Photo by Sarah Sapp

Northwest Mississippi Community College recently announced its 2015 HEADWAE honorees. The HEADWAE student is sophomore Keenan Lane Arntson, and HEADWAE faculty member Renee Young O’Neill is an English instructor at the Lafayette-Yalobusha Technical Center in Oxford, where Arntson is also a student.

HEADWAE stands for “Higher Education Appreciation Day-Working for Academic Excellence.” The award was established by the Mississippi Legislative Resolution #88 in 1987 to annually honor academically talented students and faculty members of Mississippi’s higher education institutions who have made outstanding contributions in promoting academic excellence. Arntson and O’Neill were honored at the 28th annual HEADWAE program in Jackson on Feb. 17.

Arntson is the daughter of Janel and Bryan Arntson of Oxford and graduated from Oxford High School. She is studying psychology and exercise science at Northwest. She is president of Phi Theta Kappa and of Gamma Beta Phi. Arntson plans to become a sports psychologist and physical trainer.

O’Neill has been teaching at Northwest for 11 years. She graduated cum laude with her Bachelor of Arts in English and History from The University of Mississippi in 1988, and earned her Master of Education in English from Delta State University in 1989. She is a member of the Two Year College English Association of Mississippi (TYCAM). She and her husband Mike and their children Lucas and Griffin live in Oxford.

With convenient online classes and locations in Senatobia, Southaven and Oxford, Northwest offers the pre-requisites you need to get ready for an exciting four-year degree at any of Mississippi’s colleges or universities or career and technical programs that gets students in the workforce in as little as nine months for less than half the price of any Mississippi public college or university.

For more information, call 662-562-3200 or visit the college’s website.