Front row from left are award winners Lilly, Mayberry, and Riley, and back row from left are Lee University administrators, Assistant V.P. for Student Life Dr. Mike Hayes, V.P. for Student Life Dr. Walt Mauldin and President Dr. Paul Conn.
Two students and a faculty member at Lee University were recently named recipients of the Servant Leadership Awards, named in honor of former Lee University president and Church of God General Overseer Dr. Charles W. Conn.
By Hope Goad
CLEVELAND, TENN.–Lee University recently announced Irwin “J.R.” Lilly, Rochelle Mayberry and Dr. Milton Riley as the 2009 winners of the Charles W. Conn Servant Leadership Awards.
The Charles W. Conn Servant Leadership Award was established in 2003 to honor the late President Emeritus Charles W. Conn. The awards are given to two rising seniors and a faculty member who have shown exemplary dedication to service and outstanding leadership on the Lee University campus. Students who receive this also receive a scholarship and a chance to donate money to a charity of their choice.
Riley is the first faculty member to be awarded the Charles W. Conn Servant Leadership Award. Lilly and Mayberry are the sixth pair of students to receive these awards. The awards were presented at the final chapel service of the spring semester.
J.R. Lilly is a business administration and pastoral ministry major from Window Rock, Ariz. One of his most recognizable leadership and service efforts has been through his work on the Diversity Council and its C.I.D. (Consider It Done) Committee, which helps facilitate diversity initiatives for our campus and community. He was a key proponent of opening the new Cultural Diversity Office in the Mayfield Annex and has worked with other students to plan the Diversity Retreat during the past two spring semesters.
While at Lee, Lilly has been involved in numerous service projects including hurricane relief trips, Service Saturday initiatives, the Crossover Ministries and various local school projects. He also traveled to Peru, where he helped lay a concrete floor for an outdoor church meeting area, and to Native American areas in Oklahoma and North Carolina.
Recently, Lilly assisted in recruiting student volunteers to clear the land at Rattlesnake Creek for the Joint Council meetings of the Eastern Band of Cherokee from North Carolina and the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. Lilly has also served as a Travel Guide for the Global Perspectives program and as a student preceptor for Lee’s REL200 benevolence course.
Rochelle Mayberry is an interdisciplinary studies major with minors in Spanish and Biblical Languages from Cincinnati, Ohio. Mayberry is currently finishing her term as the secretary for social service in the Student Leadership Council. As part of her position responsibilities, Mayberry worked with the organization’s cabinet, oversaw a committee of students and planned numerous service projects for the campus. She and her committee successfully planned two Urban Outreach events, overnight service projects, in the surrounding areas of Nashville, Atlanta and Knoxville. Both trips broke attendance records and included almost 400 student volunteers.
Mayberry has also been working with the Crossover Ministries since her freshman year. She has often taken leadership positions within the program to better serve the community and her peers. Next year, Mayberry will serve in the leadership position of co-coordinator in the program.
Mayberry also served as Peer Leader for the freshman gateway course and through that program facilitated the engagement of new students into the Lee community.
For the first time since the inception of the awards, Lee University has also chosen a faculty member who has demonstrated excellence in service and leadership. Dr. Milton Riley, a professor of biology, is the first faculty recipient of this award. Riley teaches a wide range of biology classes, including principles of biology, parasitology, histology, and human physiology. Riley was the recipient of Lee’s Excellence in Scholarship Award in 1996 and served as chair of the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics from 1994 to 1996. Riley was also awarded the honor of System Educator of the Year by the Tennessee Science Teachers Association in 1999.
Since coming to Lee to teach in 1978, Riley founded the Summer of Studies in Medical Missions in 1994 and has been active in leading medical mission trips to Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Ecuador and Cuba. After traveling to these countries to help people with their medical needs, Riley noticed the need for vision correction in the villages. With help from the Kendall Optometry Ministry, Riley uses equipment to diagnose critical vision needs and also helps by donating reading glasses. This year, Riley will be taking a Lee student to Louisville, Ky., to train with the optometry equipment.
Riley is also involved with Habitat for Humanity and local ministries in East Cleveland.
(Source: Lee University)