Clayton overcomes obstacles, receives $10,000 scholarship

Clayton?s ?stepping stones? and ?pursuit of happiness? were given a lift last month when the McMinnville resident received a $10,000 Ray Danner Scholarship during the ninth annual Neill-Sandler Strive for Excellence Banquet at MTSU.

Clayton said her goal is to become a clinical licensed counselor with an emphasis on children. She demonstrates her desire to help children through volunteer efforts with programs like the Kids of the Community project, the Structured Athletics for Challenged Children, and Bobby Ray Elementary Star program.

The young woman has been a part of many Warren County High School, community and church activities, and already enjoyed a taste of the university by being a two-year member of the MTSU Educational Talent Search Group.

Jessica Berry of DeKalb County High School in Smithville was honored with the $7,500 Elizabeth and Sidney A. McPhee Scholarship. Since the start of her freshman year, Berry has endured the divorce of her parents, her mother?s three-year struggle with brain cancer that ended in her death two weeks after Mother?s Day 2006, living alone, working and paying her bills, and rebuilding a relationship with her father.

?I am going to succeed at all of my goals, no matter what I have to do to accomplish them,? she wrote in her essay when applying for a Neill-Sandler scholarship. ?I love and miss my Mom terribly, but I know she wants me to succeed, also.?

Scholarships are provided through the Neill-Sandler Foundation and The Danner Company, a Nashville-based business led by chairman Ray Danner. When this group arrives on campus in the fall, it will mean 95 recipients have benefited since 1999, said Kippy Todd, assistant director for annual giving and donor relations in the Office of Development.