Two young women who are pursuing their academic goals in nontraditional ways are the recipients of this year’s June S. Anderson Foundation Scholarships.

Foundation board members presented the full-tuition scholarships at a luncheon May 8. To be considered for the scholarships, applicants must be 23 years of age or older, maintain excellent grades, have a financial need and aspire to succeed in fields in which women traditionally are underrepresented.

Recipients of the 2012 June S. Anderson Foundation Scholarships are, from left, Merideth Allen, who is majoring in economics, and Darby Campbell, a photography major, joined by Dr. Andrienne Friedli, chemistry professor and June S. Anderson Foundation vice president, and Foundation President Mary Magada-Ward, an MTSU philosophy professor. (MTSU photo by News and Media Relations)

Darby Campbell, a Murfreesboro-based photography major minoring in psychology and art, is the head lab assistant at MTSU’s photography laboratory. She also serves as head photography editor for Collage, the student visual arts magazine, and works periodically for MTSU’s Baldwin Photographic Gallery.

Campbell plans to intern with a local professional photographer during the summer. She says her long-term goals are to work as a commercial advertising studio photographer while expanding her fine art portfolio. Eventually, Campbell says, she wants to teach at the collegiate level.

“I will be successful in my field, regardless of any gender bias,” Campbell wrote in her application essay. “I am relentless in my pursuit.”

Merideth Allen, a Fairview, Tenn., native majoring in economics and minoring in business administration and accounting, initially chose aerospace engineering as her course of study in 1986. She postponed her college education in 1989 due to financial and life circumstances.

A mother of three, Allen says it is important to her to finish what she started so she can be “an example of diligence and determination” for them. She says she hopes to work or a policy-oriented organization, a not-for-profit organization or an agency such as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Working on completing my degree has helped build my confidence and self-esteem and has helped me through some tough times in my life,” Allen wrote in her application essay.

The June S. Anderson Foundation is named for the late chemistry professor who founded Concerned Faculty and Administrative Women in 1975 to improve the status of women at MTSU. In 1977, she established the Women’s Information and Services Center, the forerunner of today’s June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students.

For more information, go to http://frank.mtsu.edu/~jsa/.

— Gina K. Logue (Gina.Logue@mtsu.edu)