After a childhood on its campus, Jewell West ’25 is named Maryville College’s Outstanding Senior
April 10, 2025
Maryville College has been an integral part of Jewell West ’25’s past, and now the soon-to-graduate Environmental Studies major will be a permanent part of the College’s history … as the winner of the 2025 Carl ’63 and Jean McDonald Outstanding Senior Award, the most prestigious honor given out at last week’s Celebration of Student Achievement.
Known as the Alumni Association-sponsored “Outstanding Senior Award” from 1974 until 2021, the award was renamed in 2022 to honor MC alumnus Carl McDonald ’63 and his late wife, Jean, who funded it for nearly 30 years before establishing an endowment for it. The award recognizes a senior who has been active in a broad range of activities; who most exemplifies the “ideal” Maryville College graduate; and who has the potential to be an outstanding alum. According to Dr. Mark O’Gorman, political science professor and coordinator of the Environmental Studies major at the College, West meets all of those criteria and then some.
“She has been a campus environmental leader, as the long-time president of the student environmental group, Environmental Action Team (a.k.a. EAT),” O’Gorman told the audience of faculty, staff, other students and family members — including West’s mother, Maggie West ’13, and her grandmother, Bonnie West ’13, who spent almost two decades as an administrative assistant in the College’s Division of Education.
“Jewell has been a resident assistant (RA) for MC Student Services, and a Maryville College Ambassador with MC Admissions Office, meeting with new students and providing tours to prospective students and their families,” O’Gorman continued.
As part of an EPA grant educational outreach initiative, O’Gorman added, West “provided countless hours of help, many times after hours, to put together the instructional materials for the ‘classrooms in a box’ that the team delivered to over 4,000 local elementary school students and community members. Jewell’s graceful energy will be missed at MC in the days ahead.”
After Commencement, West will truly find herself on the cusp of a new journey, given how enmeshed her childhood was with Maryville College and the time she spent here while her grandmother worked or her mom attended classes.
“It felt more like an extension of my grandmother’s house, to be honest,” she said. “I’ve performed ballet and vocal recitals here, and I played hide and seek around Fayerweather Hall before I even knew that the building had a name. Sometimes I look at different spots around campus and remember what it used to look like 15 or so years ago. It’s an odd feeling, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world!”
When it came time to determine her higher educational path, however, Maryville College was almost an afterthought. After switching to an online high school during her senior year because of COVID, she cast about randomly for scholarships and wound up with a full ride to a different school, where she planned to study civil engineering. Her grandmother, she said, pointed her in what turned out to be the right direction.
“I sat down with my grandmother in July of 2021 and we decided that, even if I couldn’t get a full ride to Maryville that late in the academic cycle, it was absolutely worth switching schools and programs,” she said. “I credit my success entirely to my grandmother and all of Jordan McCullough ’18’s (former Admissions counselor, now the chief of staff to the president of the College) hard work getting me here on such short notice!”
Once enrolled, however, she made the most of the experience. As a former student in a school system that emphasized rigorous academics and high test scores, she wanted something different, she said, and she found it in the classes that opened her eyes to the wonders and culture of Southern Appalachia.
“Though my major is Environmental Studies, I feel like I’ve leaned far more into my minor of Appalachian Studies through my coursework,” she said. “I got the opportunity to actually go out and see places I hadn’t seen before, and do things I didn’t even know could be done. I learned that it’s okay to fail sometimes, as well as how to grow and change from that failure. You can ask my family — I’m a completely different person now! I’ve rediscovered a love for collecting rocks, I’ve gotten into hiking, I’ve designed and carried out educational programming, I’ve brewed beer, I’ve seined in the Little River, all sorts of things I never would have done before!”
The enthusiasm she has for the passions she’s discovered was reflected last Friday when Maryville College President Dr. Bryan Coker called her name as the winner of the Outstanding Senior Award. From the outset, she considered the competition too stiff, and she doesn’t hold back when asked for her thoughts on their qualifications.
“Everyone is so amazingly talented, and I’m sure they’ve all got huge accomplishments in their future,” she said. “They’ve all got huge accomplishments even now! I have no doubt that Mayville College has irreversibly changed for the better from all the work they’ve done.”
Only those seniors with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 are considered for nomination for the Carl ’63 & Jean McDonald Outstanding Senior Award. A committee that includes student, faculty and staff representation is given the responsibility of choosing five finalists. Those finalists are invited to respond in writing to questions about their views of their future roles as alumni of Maryville College, their goals for their own futures, and their understanding of how the College has influenced them and helped shape those goals.
Other finalists for the award include Kaylee Savell ’25, a Criminal Justice major; Hannah Phillips ’25, a Biology major from Maryville; Michael Bailey ’25, a Neuroscience major from Jamaica; and Abby Diggs ’25, a Design major from Knoxville.
The Outstanding Senior Award wasn’t the only honor West claimed at the April 4 celebration: She was also the co-recipient of the Outstanding Student in Environmental Studies Award, given to the students who demonstrate outstanding work in the Environmental Studies major, have strong character, and a commitment to environmental sustainability.
After graduation, West will work as a seasonal employee at Cumberland Mountain State Park, and she plans to pursue a master’s in Appalachian Studies in the near future, after she saves enough to do so. It’ll be a process that takes time, but she’s got plenty of it, and a world awaiting her exploration while she does so, she pointed out.
“I won’t tell anyone what they should or should not do with their life or college experience, as different things benefit different people,” she said. “I will, however, thank you all for the incredible outpouring of support you have given me my four years here. To future Scots, I tell you to explore all the opportunities here as much as possible! I also encourage you to take a class for no other purpose than to have fun, at least once. Go with the flow; everyday unexpected!”
