State Honors 2 VGCC Students With Academic Achievement Awards
A mother of two who sold her part of a business to concentrate on her studies and a 4.0 student who volunteers at a hospital in his spare time have been named as Vance-Granville Community College’s Academic Achievement Award winners for 2003.
Marcy Snow Wright of Franklinton and Phillip Morris Riggan of Henderson joined two top students from each of the other 58 schools in the N.C. Community College System at a lunch honoring them in Raleigh.
Marcy Wright is majoring in Criminal Justice Technology and maintains a 3.9 grade-point-average. She is president of the Criminal Justice Club, and is a member of the Student Government Association, as well as Phi Theta Kappa. She and her husband, Ron, have two children, Stephen, age 13, and Casey, 11.
Realizing how difficult it was to attend college full-time, care for her family and run a business, she recently sold her partnership in a plant nursery to devote her time to her studies and family. Wright still finds time to get involved in several civic organizations, including the Franklinton Lions Club, the Franklinton Tree Committee and three chambers of commerce.
She will receive an Associate in Applied Science degree in Criminal Justice from VGCC on May 13.
Phillip Riggan, a College Transfer student, maintains a perfect 4.0 grade-point-average. Also a member of the VGCC Student Government Association, he additionally serves as a student Ambassador, representing the college at campus activities and community events. He is president of Vance-Granville’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society of two-year colleges that award degrees. He has been named to the National Dean’s List and was selected as a College Transfer Scholar at VGCC.
Phillip was recently one of only a few hundred students nationwide nominated for USA-Today’s All U-S-A Academic Team. In his spare time, Phillip tutors chemistry and biology students at the college and also volunteers by transporting patients at Maria Parham Hospital on weekends.
He will graduate from VGCC May 13 with an Associate in Science degree, and he has been accepted to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this fall.
Each department at Vance-Granville nominated a student for the Academic Excellence Award, and nominees were awarded points for their grade-point-averages, school activities, community/volunteer activities, and for working at jobs while attending school.
VGCC President Robert A. Miller, several deans and program heads accompanied the award winners to the luncheon in Raleigh. Miller said of the selectees, “We are extremely proud of Marcy Wright and Phillip Riggan for their accomplishments. They are representative of the many Vance-Granville students who excel in their studies, as well as in campus, community and home lives.”
