HSU Round Table Hosts Annual Scholarship Luncheon to Honor Award Recipients

(ABILENE, Texas)–HSU Round Table hosted its annual scholarship luncheon at the Abilene Country Club on Thursday, March 21. The luncheon stands as a celebration for HSU Round Table, where members can share a meal and recognize the accomplishments of the recipients of both the Lucile Sandefer Memorial Round Table Scholarship and the HSU Round Table Virtue Award. This year’s recipients were HSU sophomore Whitney Boyd and HSU Alumna Mickey Cassle.

Whitney Boyd, this year’s scholarship recipient, poses after recieving her award.

The HSU Round Table Lucile Sandefer Memorial Round Table Scholarship is awarded each spring to a young woman who will enter her junior year at HSU during the following fall semester. The recipient must have maintained a minimum 3.0 GPA since attending Hardin-Simmons University as a freshman, as well as having shown leadership skills that exemplify Christian faith and servanthood through various extracurricular opportunities. The organization selected Whitney Boyd to receive this prestigious award for her outstanding academic effort as a business administration student and her work as a Residence Assistant at HSU.

The scholarship banquet also allows the HSU Round Table to recognize a woman who has “exhibited fiscal, emotional or physical support to the ongoing of Hardin-Simmons University, and who represents Christian values and beliefs foundational to Hardin-Simmons University,” and “who has exhibited exemplary leadership within her sphere of influence.”

Mickey Cassle poses after recieving the HSU Round Table Virtue Award.

This year, HSU Alumna Mickey Cassle received the Round Table Virtue Award for her many efforts throughout Abilene, including Pioneer Drive Baptist Church and the HSU Board of Trustees, where she acted as both a secretary and as a member of the Executive Committee.

Renowned gospel artist Janet Paschal and her sister, Kay, provided entertainment for attendees. Paschal received many song requests and made sure to leave no one disappointed. Paschal has accumulated many nominations for her music, including seven Dove Award nominations and two Grammy Award nominations. The Gospel Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee, will induct Paschal this May.  

HSU Round Table, initially founded as Simmons Round Table, began in 1910, as Simmons College First Lady, Lucile Sandefer, sought to create an organization that would cultivate friendships among faculty wives. The initial meeting was held around Sandefer’s dining room table and was restricted to faculty wives, only. The invitation to join HSU Round Table has since been extended to wives of administrators and staff members, as well. Some notable initiatives of the organization include planting 100 pecan trees on campus and constructing a new irrigation system in 1915 and working with the Abilene City Council to bring lights to campus when electricity first became available to the surrounding community in 1919.