Newberry Professor, Student Receive Service Award

Newbery College student Steven Joseph Arango and Dr Susan Shurden, assistant professor of Accounting, were nominated for the 2015 South Carolina Student Servic e Achievement Award and Faculty Award for Service Learning, respectively. The student award is presented to a student or a student organization that has exhibited outstanding leadership and innovative approaches in their community service or service learning endeavors both on their campus and within their community that addresses public issues, effective community building and integration of civic engagement into the college experience. The faculty award is presented to a faculty member who has demonstrated a commitment to the integration of service learning into their curriculum using innovative ways to connect students’ service with academics. Shurden and Arango were recognized for their community service during spring semester at an awards ceremony hosted at Benedict College.  

South Carolina Student Service Achievement Award
Steven Joseph Arango Arango is a rising senior from Clearwater, Fla. A catcher for the Newberry Wolves baseball team, he is president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and vice-president of the College's chapter of Student Athlete Advisory Committee.

Arango has coordinated a variety of community and campus events at Newberry College, including organizing a sport camp involving local youth. College athletes supervised games and activities that involved physical activity and rudimentary sports skills as a means of giving young school children access to outdoor activities while also giving them exposure to the College campus. Agango also has organized and participated in numerous charitable events in his hometown.

Under Arango’s guidance and through multiple fundraising efforts and activities, the Student Athletic Advisory Committee was able to raise $5,000 for the Make-A-Wish© Foundation. Arango aided in the design of two T-shirts sold by SAAC to raise $1,500 for Operation Homefront, a nonprofit that provides emergency assistance for members of the armed services, their families and wounded service people once they return home. 

Most recently, Arango played a major role in organizing the College's first ever FCA mission trip to the Dominican Republic. He was instrumental in organizing fundraising efforts and coordinating travel and communication with SCORE International, the organization through which FCA traveled. 

As FCA president, Arango often speaks at the group's meetings and delivers a message of servant-hood, humility and compassion for others that serve to encourage and guide other students as they encounter difficult situations in their personal and college life. 

Arango is currently completing an independent research study involving student spending that is geared toward improving both student awareness and participation in charitable giving.During the summer break he will complete an internship at Kalu Yala, an innovative new approach to sustainable living on multiple levels. Located in Panama City, Panama, interns spend several months on location refining and testing products and ideas that can be duplicated to the larger population. Part of his goal is to refine his current plan for student involvement to bring back to Newberry College in the fall.

Faculty Award for Service Learning

When a need was identified for income tax assistance for individuals in Newberry County, Susan Shurden took a leadership role in launching an internship class at Newberry College that would provide students with Tax Wise training through Cooperative Ministry in Columbia, S.C., to assist individuals through the Newberry Literacy Council. 

Twelve student participated in the class with a 92 percent pass rate on the Tax  Wise Certification test. The Literacy Council program director estimated that more than 200 individuals in the county had their taxes prepared by Newberry College Business students who had linked their academic learning to community service. 

Shurden was instrumental in giving the students this opportunity and providing the guidance and instruction to make it possible. With more than 25 years of teaching experience, Shurden has taught at Newberry College since fall 2013.  Her area of expertise is financial accounting.  She holds a PhD in Educational Leadership from Clemson University and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Accounting from Louisiana Tech University. 

Shurden academic scholarship includes published articles in a number of refereed journals. Her major publishing interest has been the area of ethics, particularly in the accounting profession.  She has 23 refereed publications since 2006, is a regular conference presenter and has been the co-editor of the Academy of Educational Leadership Journal since 2012. Shurden is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma Honorary Business Society, Beta Alpha Psi Honorary Accounting Fraternity, South Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants, National Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and National Scholars Honor Society.