CONWAY, Ark. (Oct. 21, 2010) – Six Hendrix alumni received Odyssey Medals for life and career achievements exemplifying the liberal arts and hands-on learning during a special Founders Day ceremony Thursday, Oct. 21 in Staples Auditorium.
Songwriter Randy Goodrum, a 1969 graduate, accepted the Odyssey Medal for Artistic Creativity on the very stage where his first original song, which he had written for a school production, was performed.
Goodrum, a piano major, said he appreciated Hendrix for the encouragement he received from faculty to pursue music. He said he also was grateful for the opportunity to have met his wife, Gail, at a school dance the first week of their freshman year.
Andrea Anderson Gluckman, Class of 1996, received the Odyssey Medal for Global Awareness. She told the crowd of students and faculty that her interest in activism, research and volunteerism began before she came to Hendrix and flourished as a result of the opportunities she received as a student. At Hendrix, she designed her own major out of courses available in international relations, religion and sociology, calling herself “a true child of the liberal arts.”
Gluckman, who heads a consulting firm devoted to Middle Eastern economic, educational and political issues, said she encounters the same issues of inequity throughout the world that she encountered as a young student, it’s “simply an issue of scale.”
“You don’t have to travel to the ends of the earth to change it,” she said.
Chris Newlin, a 1986 alumnus, received the Odyssey Medal for Service to the World for his work in child advocacy and child abuse prevention. He is the Executive Director of the National Children’s Advocacy Center, which was the first Child Advocacy Center in the U.S. and a model that has “revolutionized the nation’s response to child sex abuse.”
Max McCalman received the Odyssey Medal for Special Projects. He graduated from Hendrix in 1975 and took “a fairly circuitous route” to become the world’s most renowned scholar of cheese, which he calls “a near-perfect food.”
“Our food is our medicine …and I spread the curd,” he said. After the ceremony, McCalman offered a cheese tasting and lecture to students and members of the college culinary club.
Dr. Steven Barger, Class of 1986, received the Odyssey Medal for Research for his accomplishments in Alzheimer’s disease research. An internal medicine and anatomy professor at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Dr. Barger’s work focuses on the processes underlying the initiation and progression of Alzheimer's.
At Hendrix, Barger said he “came to terms” with his passion not just to know science but “what we can learn through science and the discovery of new knowledge.”
“What I learned here has really given me a great career and a great life,” he said.
Bank of the Ozarks Chairman and Chief Executive Officer George Gleason received the Odyssey Medal for Professional and Leadership Development. Gleason, a 1974 alumnus, completed Hendrix in two years.
Prior to the awards ceremony, Gleason visited with a group of business students.
“Their energy, creativity and passion reminded me of what an extraordinary institution this is,” Gleason said, thanking faculty for “nurturing, continuing and enhancing the tradition that is Hendrix.”
The Odyssey Medals were awarded in the six Your Hendrix Odyssey project categories – Artistic Creativity, Global Awareness, Professional & Leadership Development, Service to the World, Special Projects and Undergraduate Research.
Hendrix, founded in 1876, is a selective, residential, undergraduate liberal arts college emphasizing experiential learning in a demanding yet supportive environment. The college is featured in the 2010 edition of the Princeton Review as one of the country’s best 371 colleges, was identified as the nation’s top “Up and Coming” liberal arts college for 2011 by U.S. News and World Report, and is ranked among 45 “Best Buy” colleges by the 2011 Fiske Guide to Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit
www.hendrix.edu.