Photo Caption: Nashville resident, Colleen Conway is also an advocate of animal rights, fostering pets through Now I'm Home Animal Rescue, a non-profit organization that helps special needs animals.

(COLUMBIA, Tenn. - July 10, 2014) - - - Recent Columbia State Community College graduate, Colleen Conway received the Jo L. Hutton Outstanding Student Award at the 2014 Student Honors Convocation. The award is the highest honor given to a student of the college.

Nominees for the award are selected and voted on by the faculty based on their grade point average and their service to the school and the community, and Conway's record in and out of the classroom more than qualifies her for the award. The Jo L. Hutton award also includes a monetary award made possible by the Columbia State Foundation.

In addition to earning an Associate of Applied Science degree through the college's nursing program, Conway was president of the Beta Kappa Theta chapter of Phi Theta Kappa - a national honors society - and vice-president of the Student Government Association. She was also active in the President's Leadership Society, the Student Nursing Association, and was a founding member of Columbia State's Gay Straight Alliance.

This fall, Conway will enter Vanderbilt University's Adult Geriatric Nurse Practitioner program. Upon completion, she will have earned a master's degree as a nurse practitioner whose focus is the primary care of adults. The Vanderbilt program educates these students to assess and manage common acute and chronic adult primary care health problems.

Since graduating from Columbia State, Conway has received a scholarship from the Nashville ATHENA Award Program, which honors business and professional women for their career successes, service to community, and encouragement of women. The scholarship sponsors are the ATHENA Alumni Society, First Tennessee Bank, UPS, Emdeon, Women in Technology of Tennessee, Saint Thomas Health Services, State Farm Insurance, and Caregivers by WholeCare.

"Columbia State has prepared me well for my career in nursing as well as my transition into a Master's level program at Vanderbilt," Conway reflected. "I have made lifelong friendships at Columbia State, and feel incredibly supported. I know that Columbia State helped me build a solid foundation of learning from which I will be able to grow as a student."

Columbia State is a two-year college, serving a nine-county area in southern Middle Tennessee with locations in Columbia, Franklin, Lawrenceburg, Lewisburg and Clifton. As Tennessee's first community college, Columbia State is committed to increasing access and enhancing diversity at all five campuses. Columbia State is a member of the Tennessee Board of Regents, one of the largest higher education systems in the nation. For more information, please visit www.columbiastate.edu.

Tennessee's Community Colleges is a system of 13 colleges offering a high-quality, affordable, convenient and personal education to prepare students to achieve their educational and career goals in two years or less. We offer associate degree and certificate programs, workforce development programs and transfer pathways to four-year degrees. For more information, please visit us online at tncommunitycolleges.org.

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