{"id":11795,"date":"2025-03-14T09:37:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T14:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/?p=11795"},"modified":"2025-03-14T09:39:55","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T14:39:55","slug":"missouri-westerns-mlk-drum-major-for-justice-awards-recipients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/2025\/03\/14\/missouri-westerns-mlk-drum-major-for-justice-awards-recipients\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri Western\u2019s MLK Drum Major for Justice Awards recipients"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_11796\" style=\"width: 320px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11796\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11796\" src=\"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/03\/IMG_6198-Enhanced-NR-Edit-310x207.jpg\" alt=\"award winner poses with dean of students\" width=\"310\" height=\"207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/03\/IMG_6198-Enhanced-NR-Edit-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/03\/IMG_6198-Enhanced-NR-Edit-310x207.jpg 310w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/03\/IMG_6198-Enhanced-NR-Edit-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/03\/IMG_6198-Enhanced-NR-Edit-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/03\/IMG_6198-Enhanced-NR-Edit-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/03\/IMG_6198-Enhanced-NR-Edit-800x533.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/03\/IMG_6198-Enhanced-NR-Edit-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/03\/IMG_6198-Enhanced-NR-Edit-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/03\/IMG_6198-Enhanced-NR-Edit-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 310px) 100vw, 310px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-11796\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Senior social work major Corina Merritt receives the MLK Drum Major for Justice Award, presented by MWSU Vice President and Dean of Students Dr. Robert Goltra III on Feb. 26, 2025.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">March 14, 2025&#8211;The Division of Student Affairs and the Black Student Union at Missouri Western State University held its Black Student Excellence and Drum Major Award Gala on Feb. 26 in the Fulkerson Center.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This annual event recognizes individuals who embody service and excellence. The MLK Drum Major for Justice Awards recognize citizens who do extraordinary acts of service with reliability and commitment. The awards are presented to members of the Missouri Western State University and St. Joseph communities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Recipients of the MLK Drum Major for Justice Award for each category:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">St. Joseph Community: Britani Manthe \u201908 &amp; Peyton Santana Castro<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">MWSU Faculty\/Staff: Dr. Benedict Adams &amp; Dr. Michael Birmingham Sr.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">MWSU Student: Corina Merritt, senior social work major from St. Joseph<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Black Students of Excellence Awards:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Young Entrepreneur Award: Abakhaye Anetekhai, senior engineering technology major from Bolingbrook, Illinois\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Most Athletic Award: Deiondre Williams, senior recreation sport management major from Homestead, Florida\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Best Black Fraternity: Iota Phi Theta fraternity Inc.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Best Black Sorority: Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Best President Award: Unyque Mallett, junior engineering technology major from Justice, Illinois\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Best Event: Black Excellence Gala 2024\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Best Advisor: Jackie McGuire, counselor<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Best Photographer: Daniel Ingram, junior graphic design major from St. Louis, Missouri\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Neighborhood Hero Award: Miya Grover, sophomore nursing major from Florissant, Missouri<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Photos from the event are located in Missouri Western&#8217;s SmugMug gallery at <a href=\"https:\/\/missouriwestern.smugmug.com\/2024-2025\/MLK-Drum-Major-for-Justice-Spring-2025\">missouriwestern.smugmug.com\/2024-2025\/MLK-Drum-Major-for-Justice-Spring-2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Missouri Western State University is a student-centered learning community preparing individuals for lives of excellence through applied learning. Missouri Western is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit <\/span><\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">missouriwestern.edu<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 14, 2025&#8211;The Division of Student Affairs and the Black Student Union at Missouri Western State University held its Black Student Excellence and Drum Major Award Gala on Feb. 26 in the Fulkerson Center. This annual event recognizes individuals who embody service and excellence. The MLK Drum Major for Justice Awards recognize citizens who do [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":11796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48,56],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11795"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11795"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11799,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11795\/revisions\/11799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}