DeSoto County student at MSU receives ‘free’ semester of tuition
Contact: Amy Cagle
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State’s Alumni Delegates organization is continuing its program to give a university student the opportunity to win a semester of in-state tuition.
Junior Olivia N. Romito of Olive Branch, a kinesiology/clinical exercise physiology major, will attend MSU “free” for the spring 2016 semester. Her name recently was drawn for the amount of $3,751, following the October sale of tickets to parents of eligible students.
“I had no idea my mom even entered the drawing,” Romito said. “She didn’t really expect me to win, so I am grateful for the opportunity to benefit.”
Launched in 2013 by the delegates, in conjunction with the MSU Alumni Association, the drawing is open each fall and spring semester to all fulltime, in-state undergraduates.
Tickets mailed to parents of eligible students generate support for the awards. Proceeds received beyond the cost of one semester’s tuition go to a general student scholarship endowment.
Jeff Davis, the alumni association’s executive director, said the drawing “is a new tradition to positively influence the student experience and help build a scholarship endowment over time.
“More than $14,000 was generated with this particular mailing, and the amount beyond the ‘free’ tuition award goes toward the endowment that will eventually help even more students with tuition expenses,” he added.
Romito is a member of the MSU chapter of Alpha Epsilon Delta national health pre-professional honor society, as well as the kinesiology department’s Exercise Science Honor Society. Through both organizations, she volunteers for a number of campus and Starkville community service activities, including Service Dawg Days and, most recently, as a site leader for the Maroon Edition Habitat for Humanity construction project.
Founded in 1980, Alumni Delegates are a diverse academic group of 40 students. In addition to serving as liaisons between those currently enrolled and MSU’s 132,400 living graduates, organization members provide support at the association’s many annual events, and are active in numerous other campus service activities.
For more information about the drawing, contact Libba Andrews, associate director of the MSU Alumni Association, at landrews@alumni.msstate.edu.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.