Whitney Browning of Seymour, Texas Receives Scholarship at Hardin-Simmons University

ABILENE, TX (03/12/2012)(readMedia)-- Whitney Browning of Seymour, Texas, was awarded the Hardin-Simmons University Round Table Scholarship.

Browning, a junior, is also one of the 80 students selected for the HSU Honors Program. She was accompanied by her mom, Shawn, at the luncheon where she received the $2,000 scholarship. The Browning family has another daughter who is also in the HSU Honors Program and another at Seymour High School who recently interviewed for the program.

Whitney is an exercise science/pre-physical therapy student. She is active on campus as a member of Gamma Beta Phi and the cross country track and field program. She is an active member of the South Side Baptist church college group; and she volunteers at Mesa Springs Nursing Home, and at Love and Care Ministries.

Browning was selected by a committee of the Round Table, explains president and one of about 50 organizers, Nancy Jones. Browning was selected based on her commitment to her studies, her commitment to the university, and her involvement in the community. "She also displays the attributes of the purple iris, the flower selected to represent the group. Those attributes are wisdom, knowledge, honor and dignity," says Jones.

The Round Table Scholarship Luncheon comes more than 100 years after the organization was founded. Campus beautification was, in part, the original intent of the Round Table, founded by the Lucile Sandefer, the wife of HSU President Jefferson Davis Sandefer, who ran the campus from 1909 to 1940.

About Hardin-Simmons:

HSU has an enrollment of approximately 2,300 undergrad and graduate students from 29 states and 19 countries.

HSU has a 13:1 student faculty ratio with a campus that sits on 209 acres. Seventy-nine percent of HSU's faculty members hold the highest degree in their field.

The university is named by U.S. News and World Report as one of the best universities in the western region of the United States and is listed by The Princeton Review as a Top Ten Best in the West University. It is a member of the Colleges of Distinction, and the Chronicle of Higher Education named HSU to its honor roll as a "Great College to Work For."

Seven undergraduate degrees encompass 70 major fields including: athletic training, criminal justice, social work, counseling, psychology, molecular biology, biochemistry, environmental science, religion, music, art, teaching, history, communications, English, and sociology.

Ten graduate degrees include the Doctor of Ministry and the Doctor of Physical Therapy.

International study programs include England, Austria, Hong Kong, Spain, and Australia.

Hardin-Simmons University, founded in 1891, is a private Christian institution, and has been affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas (Texas Baptists) since 1941.