Sydney Nicholson Earns Nelson Award

MC graduate Sydney Nicholson of Texas

A talented Mississippi College Writing Center tutor, Sydney Nicholson also excelled as an English literature and Spanish major.

The Cedar Creek, Texas resident established a tremendous rapport with the students she tutored. The university’s peer tutor and online tutoring coordinator since 2018, her achievements are getting noticed.

A May 2020 graduate, Sydney recently received the Christian university’s Nelson Award. The honor is named for D.M. Nelson, the Mississippi College president from 1932-57. The award goes to the student achieving the highest grade point average over a four-year period.

Her education won’t stop at Mississippi College. This fall, Sydney Nicholson, 22, will attend graduate school at Baylor University in Waco to work on a master’s degree in English. Over the next seven years, she hopes to earn a doctorate and pursue her dreams of becoming a college English professor.

Outstanding Mississippi College English professors like Steve Price, David Miller and Jonathan Randle serve as excellent role models. They encouraged her career path.

Sydney didn’t do all of her studies on the Clinton campus. The Texan was a standout student at MC’s London Semester Program in 2018. She also tutored with the Think Together Discovery Center program that assists Clinton students at a nearby apartment complex.

Other achievements include her service as the Sigma Tau Delta president (English international honor society) and as an Alpha Mu Gamma member.

Her hometown of Cedar Creek sits 25 miles from Austin. It’s a nice 515-mile drive from her hometown in the Lone Star State to the Clinton campus.

Sydney certainly discovered the right place to build her faith, make new friends and pursue academic interests. “I love MC and love Mississippi,” she says. “MC pushes you to grow academically and spiritually.”

MC Writing Center leaders applaud her accomplishments during four years as an undergraduate. It included the last few months of her senior year as MC Writing Center tutoring programs went totally online amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Sydney is the best student a professor can ask for in a class,” says Lingshan Song, assistant director of the Writing Center. “She is intelligent, diligent, active in class participation, humble and always exceeding expectations.”

She shined in the university’s practicum in writing consulting class. “I found myself challenged and inspired by her questions and thoughts shared in class,” said Song, the class instructor.

Her tutoring skills are off the charts. “She is smart and quick in analyzing strengths and weaknesses of students’ papers and she always has empathy.”

Away from classrooms, Sydney knows how to work fast on her feet while serving others.  In the summer of 2018, she worked at the giant interstate shopping outlet Buc-ee’s in Bastrop, Texas as a customer service associate.

Homeschooled growing up in Texas, Sydney Nicholson would strongly recommend a Mississippi College to prospective students. It’s a special place where one can “grow in all aspects of your life.”