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WEEK OF ~~_:_~--::--~~~- DUCAT10N www.merldlanstar.com

Armstrong, Boatner to Represent ECCC at Natchez Literary Festival

Special to The Star

DECATUR- English instructor Jason Armstrong of Meridian and sophomore Jessie Boatner of Philadel– phia will represent East Central Community College at the 25th annual Natchez Literary and Cinema Cele– bration. The conference, which has been called by official evaluators "Mississippi's most significant annual con– fere nce devoted to litera– ture. history, film and cul– ture, will be held Feb. 26-28 w Natchez. This year's theme is "BiggerThan Life: Extraor– dinary Mississippians." The upcoming celebra– tion recognizes outstanding faculty members and stu– dents representing the humanities division of Mis– ~L sippi's < mmunity c 1- leg f - ear co· eges and e~Mi I i'P*CM– ernor. who has been the Cel– ebration's dir ector of pro– ceedings since it began in 1990. The event has won numerous awards for its out– standing programming, including a Cultural Olympiad Award, Best Event of the Year Award at the Governor's Conference on Tourism, Mississippi Tourism Award, Mississippi Historical Society's Award of Merit, Mississippi Humanities Council Human– ities Achievement Award and 2011 Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. Prior to joining the East Central family in August 2009, Arm~trong served as an adjunct profe<:sor of man-

Mt s1ss1pp1 _tate t:mvers t) in 1997. was awarded a master's in business admin– istration in 1998, and a master of arts degree in teaching (Community Col– lege Education with English emphasis) in 2009. The son of Meridian natives Charlotte and Richard Armstrong, a retired colonel in the United States Marine Corps, Arm· strong currently splits time between Meridian and New Orleans, where his girl– friend, Danielle. a former • East Central student, is pur– suing a master's degree in nursing and certification as a family nurse practitioner at Nicholls State University. He has recently published

agement at M1ssb 1pp1;:,tate llniversity in Meridian. as well as a commercial rela– tionship banker in Meridian, Tupelo and Jackson. Armstrong is a 2010 grad– uate of the Mississippi Com– munity College Leadership Academy, and he was chosen as the HEADWAE Outstanding Faculty Hon– oree in 2011. In addition to these honors, he has attended the Southeastern School of Commercial Lending at Vanderbilt Uni– versity and the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University. Armstrong graduated with a bachelor's degree from the College of Agricul– ture (Poultry Science) at

etrt1c e m Amenca "C War magazine a~ well a~ LEGE:\DS magazine, in which he interviewed East Central alumnus, Randy Houser. Boatner is a sophomore English major and the daughter of Chris and Angela Boatner of Philadel– phia. She is a member of Phi Theta Kappa, the interna– tional honor society of the two-year college, was selected for Who's Who Among American Commu– nity/Junior College Stu– dents and the Phi Beta Lambda Hall of Fame. She is also the recipient of the Sara Carr Deaton Business Tech– nology Award.