BUIES CREEK, North Carolina — Imagination. That’s what John Edward Askew, who taught at what is now Campbell University from 1926 to the 1950s, said when he was asked what he thought was the most valuable trait a classroom teacher should possess.
Why imagination? “You must not only see the student as he is, you must see the student as he may become,” Askew once said, as quoted in J. Winston Pearce’s “Campbell College: The Big Miracle in Little Buies Creek.”
Kathy Creed, the first lady of Campbell University, repeated those words Friday in her keynote address for the School of Education’s Commissioning Ceremony. The event celebrated and recognized 71 seniors in professional education, social work and psychology who will soon begin their field placements.
“May we all have that kind of imagination [Askew spoke of] as we serve our communities and our God using the gifts he has given us,” she said.
Her two gifts, she said, are faith and teaching. She worked for many years in public and private school education, including serving as a speech and hearing therapist, an elementary school teacher, a school-wide testing coordinator, a career ladder liaison, a middle school assistant principal, an elementary school principal, a high school counselor, a student teacher supervisor at a university, and a teacher in an adult leadership academy.
She also has been an adult literacy volunteer and an adult GED volunteer teacher.
“My experience of service in my community began with a nudging within myself that I should be giving back to God, to my community and to others through my gift of teaching,” she said. “I felt called to use my gifts.”
She encouraged the students to do the same – to seek to serve and to give.
“There is a world of people out there in every community wanting and needing something that only you can give,” she said. “In God’s perfect timing and in God’s perfect will, the needs of those in your communities will meet the need in you to serve God by using the gifts he has so generously given you.
“So keep preparing yourself, striving to be the best you can be for God and for those around you.”
Before Creed delivered her keynote address, the School of Education recognized three students and three alumni with awards.
Student Awards
Moriah Green | Outstanding Student Award, Social Work
A Peru, Illinois, native, Green began her education at Illinois Valley Community College, where graduated summa cum laude with an associate’s degree in 2014. At IVCC, she was a 21st Century Scholar, president of the Psychology Club and Sigma Kappa Delta, and a member of Phi Theta Kappa and the IVCC Honors Program.
At Campbell, she is a member of the Psi Chi and Phi Alpha honor societies. She works part time with the Harnett County Juvenile Restitution and Community Service Program and completed pre-field placement with the Harnett County Child Protective Services. Her senior field placement is with the Guardian ad Litem Program of Cumberland County.
She plans to pursue a master’s degree and a career in family counseling. Her husband, SPCC Lucas Green, is an infantryman in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Liberty.
Monica Fields | Outstanding Student Award, Psychology
In addition to being a psychology major, Fields is pursuing a minor in biology. She has represented Campbell at several psychology conferences, including the Carolina Psychology Conference, South Eastern Psychology Association and N.C. Psychological Association. She was certified in EEG Biofeedback through the Institute for Applied Neuroscience in October 2015.
She has also been involved in numerous service activities and organizations at Campbell and around the community. That includes Adopt-A-Highway, N.C. Science Olympiad, Sexual Assault Awareness Week, Martin Luther King Jr. Week of Service, 5K for the Autism Society, Community Christmas Store, and local food drives. In addition, she is active with Campus Worship, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Walker Biology Club, and Psychology Club; plays flute and piccolo in the university’s pep band; sings with the University Choir; and is a member of three honor societies.
She plans to eventually pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, specializing in neuropsychology, and work in pediatrics or conduct research on neurodegenerative diseases.
Shannon Wilson | Outstanding Student Award, Professional Education
Wilson is an elementary education major who is also pursuing two middle grades extensions: in English/Language Arts and in social studies. She will student teach at Highland Middle School this spring.
Her service activities include serving as the service coordinator for the Baptist Student Union, planning Operation Christmas Child and a thank-you letter campaign to the Buies Creek Fire Department, and working with Campus Ministry to plan Spring Fling, an annual festival for developmentally disabled adults in surrounding communities.
She has also served as a student ambassador with Campbell’s Admissions Office and as president of the Student North Carolina Association of Educators. Under her leadership, Campbell’s chapter of SNCAE was awarded the Outstanding Chapter Award for exceptional achievement. She was elected as a delegate to the NAE Representative Assembly and Student Leadership Conference, as well, and wrote a proposal for the NEA’s CREATE Grant. Because of that, Campbell’s NEA chapter was awarded a $500 grant to support an informational series of lectures on educational policies.
Alumni Awards
Lauren Bajorek | Graduate of the Last Decade Alumna Award
Bajorek is a 2011 summa cum laude graduate of Campbell with a degree in Spanish with a teaching licensure. She teaches Spanish at Fuquay-Varina High School in Wake County. She was named Fuquay-Varina’s Beginning Teacher of the Year in 2013 and its Teacher of the Year in 2015.
Now in her fifth year of teaching, she is the chair of the World Language Department, a member of the School Improvement and Leadership teams, and the sponsor of the Student Government Association. She would eventually like to add a certification in English as a Second Language instruction and work with recent immigrants from Latin America.
When she was a student at Campbell, she was part of the N.C. Teaching Fellows program, served on the Teaching Fellows Leadership Council, studied abroad in Costa Rica, interned with Cross Cultural Solutions, and received the Foreign Language Department Spotlight on Student Award.
Julie Lee-Jacobs | Outstanding Alumna Award
Lee-Jacobs graduated from Campbell in 2000 with a degree in psychology. She earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology from Wheaton College in 2002 and 2005. She went on to serve as an adjunct faculty member at Wheaton and, most recently, at Campbell.
She works as a primary care psychologist serving military families at Fayetteville Medical Home/Womack Army Medical Center Primary Care Clinic.
While pursuing her graduate degrees, she worked and interned at several agencies in evaluating, educating, counseling, and providing supportive psychotherapy for people in a variety of life situations.
She has worked with adolescents and adults in substance abuse programs; individuals, couples and families in psychotherapy counseling settings; veterans in psychiatric, medical, and group meetings; patients and their families facing chronic and terminal illnesses; children and adolescents with learning disabilities, depression, or other psychological disorders; new mothers in postpartum depression groups or treatment; and individuals in tobacco cessation programs. She also was a member of Chicago’s Urban Partnership Initiative research team as they assessed the impact of intentional leisure activities on family cohesion and satisfaction.
Elsa Sears Clayton | Lifetime Achievement Award
Clayton’s relationship to Campbell began in 1980 when she began working there. While working as the payroll supervisor, she earned a Bachelor of Social Work and gradued magna cum laude in 1994. She completed the Master of Arts in Community Counseling in 1999.
She began her social work career as the director of SAFE of Harnett County, working with families experiencing domestic violence. She also has worked for the N.C. Council for Women as the Eastern North Carolina director of the domestic violence program, as an investigative/child protective services social worker for the Harnett County Department of Social Services, a counselor with the Harnett County Re-Entry Program, and a facilitator of Healthy Choices groups, which helps teens learn accountability and basic life skills, as well as parent counseling groups.
She has been a social worker with the Harnett County Schools since 2007. She works with at-risk students and their parents, teachers and community. She has also served as a field instructor for Campbell’s Department of Social Work and has supervised students completing their senior field practicum.
In addition, she has served on several community boards, including the Child Protection/Child Fatality Team of Harnett County, the Adam Kemps Foundation, CareNet, Teens as Parents, and Harnett County Council for Women.