In a ceremony last week, Melissa Williams Moore, of Greenwood, received Lander University's Thayer Award in recognition of her achievement of graduating in December with the highest scholastic average of any student in her class.
Dr. David Mash, Lander provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, presented Moore, an elementary education major, with a gift and check in honor of her accomplishment.
Associate Professor of Education Dr. Cynthia Gardner, who serves as chair of Lander's Department of Teacher Education, said that Moore's determination to be a teacher was evident from the first day she walked into her office to be advised as a Lander student. "You have pursued that goal with passion throughout all of your coursework," Gardner said.
Gardner said that Moore, a kindergarten assistant at Springfield Elementary, was an inspiration to the younger students with whom she attended class. "Your classmates saw someone in a different phase of life who was not afraid to take a different path," she said.
Moore called it "an honor and a pleasure to be a student at Lander." She said that the relationships she enjoyed with faculty members and fellow students were especially rewarding. "I am very pleased, honored, humbled so much for that," she said.