Goodnight, Parkison receive Hunt Service Awards
October 5, 2005
KOKOMO, Ind.—Indiana University Kokomo honored Diana Goodnight and Kathy Parkison, Ph.D., as the 2005 recipients of Virgil Hunt Service Awards. The administrative secretary to the Vice Chancellor for Student Services Jack Tharp, Goodnight resides in Kokomo. Parkison of Rensselaer, Ind. is an associate professor of economics in IU Kokomo's School of Business.
Named for the first director of the Kokomo campus, the awards recognize a staff member and faculty member for volunteer contributions to the campus and their communities.
Helping others in need was something her whole family did while Goodnight was growing up in Ohio. “As far back as I remember, we participated in community and church service projects,” Goodnight said. “I enjoyed being a part of all that . . . [and] knowing I played a small part in making a difference in someone's life or my community.”
Locally, she is an active member of the International Association of Administrative Professionals, Howard County Election Board, Howard County Historical Society, Huntington's Disease Society, Shiloh United Methodist Church, and Kokomo Sunrisers Kiwanis. Kiwanis International honored Goodnight in 2002 with its Distinguished Club President Award.
She has been a member of IU Kokomo's Staff Council since starting full-time employment on campus in 1979. She has also served on numerous IU Kokomo committees, including those concerned with the annual Scholarship Galas, the campus' 50th and 60th anniversary celebrations, United Way campaigns, staff training and development, and general education.
Parkison is particularly proud of her service as a director of IU Kokomo's Center for Economic Education (with Margo Sorgman) and as a faculty mentor of the campus' award-winning Students In Free Enterprise chapter (with Joan Hoch). Since opening in 1997, the center has offered a wide variety of innovative economic education programming for north central Indiana teachers, she said. “SIFE students have been involved in thousands of hours of community service projects under my supervision,” Parkison said. SIFE counters the “entitlement mentality” that some students bring with them to college, Parkison contends. “SIFE gives them an opportunity to both experience service as well as learning to lead themselves and others in completing service projects.”
Parkison has held offices and served on committees for several Rensselaer area civic and service organizations, including the Jasper Community Foundation Board, Jasper County Fair Board and 4-H Council, Psi Iota Xi, and Trinity United Methodist. As a member of the Jasper County Historical Preservation Society's Grants Committee, she helped secure $875,000 in grants to refurbish a local historic landmark, Drexel Hall.
This fall, Parkison is teaching in the eastern European country of Georgia, under a U.S. Department of State Fulbright Scholar grant, 1 of only 800 such grants approved nationwide for the semester.
