The Columbia College Alumnae Association recognizes four distinguished alumnae during the College’s annual Alumnae Weekend event, Saturday, April 18. The recipients include: Nell Williams Overton ’43, Distinguished Service Award; Betty Boozer Dalton ’56, Wil Lou Gray Outstanding Educator Award; Deidre Buice Crow ’72, Career Achievement Award; and Ciona Rouse ’01, Young Alumna Service Award.


Nell Williams Overton ’43, Distinguished Service Award
Nell Williams Overton was born in Jonesville, S.C. She has been a longtime resident of Charlotte, N.C., and was married to the late Bernard MacRae Overton.  She was valedictorian of her Jonesville High School class, and graduated from Columbia College in 1943.  After teaching in the high schools of South Carolina, she went to UNC-Chapel Hill to the School of Library Science. She was employed by the Charlotte City Schools as a librarian-media specialist for many years.  She was a member of the National Education Association and a life-member of the North Carolina Association of Educators.  She is active in the Kappa Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma honor society of educators; the North Carolina Library Association; and is a member of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Retired Educators.  
 
On a visit to the Columbia College Edens Library, Mrs. Overton became aware of a need to expand and update the media center to include new instructional resources and modern audiovisual equipment.  With her generous support, the Overton Media Center was established with the purchase of 24 computers for an electronic classroom and the Help Desk communication center.  In addition, she launched a children’s literature collection in the library, creating the Children’s Reading Center. She is also co-chair of the Friends of the Library, which has supported recent interior renovations for the facility.
 
Mrs. Overton is a recipient of the Columbia College Medallion and is a member of the College’s James Milton Ariail Society.  An active member of the Sedgefield Garden Club for over 35 years, she was awarded a life membership in the Garden Club of North Carolina.  She is also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution Jane Parks McDowell Chapter and Battle of Charlotte Chapter.  
 
Mrs. Overton is a long time member of Westminster Presbyterian Church; an active member of the Presbyterian Women, Circle 6; Circle leader; church historian and was presented a life membership in the Presbyterian Women. She and her husband organized the church library in 1956 and in 1992 it was rededicated and named the Overton Library.  She served as church librarian until June 2008.  
 
 
 
Elizabeth “Betty” Boozer Dalton ’56, Wil Lou Gray Outstanding Educator Award
A South Carolina native, Dalton majored in post secondary education at Columbia College, graduating in 1956.  In 1982 she completed a master’s degree at Clemson University. She and her husband John S. Dalton reside in Pickens, S.C. and their daughter is Dr. Mary Dalton of Columbia.
 
Dalton began her career at A.C. Moore Elementary as a sixth grade teacher. Later posts included teaching at Greenville Junior High School; Pickens Junior High; Enota Elementary in Gainesville, Ga.; Berea Elementary; and Greenville Country School District. She retired in 2006 from the Pickens County School System as the first South Carolina teacher to serve for fifty years in the classroom.

During her career, she often spent her summers in the classroom too, including trips to England and Kenya, and teaching adult education courses for local technical schools. Late in her career she often tutored students after school and still receives requests for private math tutoring.
 
Dalton served on the board of the Pickens County Library System. Her other interests include reading, traveling, and serving as a Girl Scout leader. She is also an accomplished seamstress and for years shared her sewing skills to create cheerleader outfits for the Pickens Junior and Senior High cheerleaders. She participated in the educator’s test group that critiqued the prototype for TI-81 scientific calculator developed by Texas Instruments. Once the calculator went into production, it became one of the most popular models for math instruction in schools nationwide.

Dalton says “I promised myself when I became a teacher I would schedule time to help my students.  I did not want my students to make low grades; neither did I want to be an enabler who soft-pedaled errors and poor habits.  I kept this promise and as the years passed, former students became parents who sought to enroll their children in my classes.”  Known as no-nonsense teacher, she always expected the best from her students and supported their well-being both in and out of the classroom.  “Teachers become lifelong parents to the whole community.  Teaching a child is the best insurance for happiness one can acquire.” As a retiree, Dalton is an avid quilter, enjoys working in her garden and being an active member of Grace United Methodist Church.



Deidre Buice Crow ’72, Career Achievement Award
Deidre Crow has been a member of the City of Columbia’s economic development team for fifteen years.  As deputy director and international trade liaison in the Office of Economic Development, Ms. Crow works with existing industry, new business start-ups, and economic development partner agencies to increase the tax base and promote economic growth and viability in the Columbia region.  Her duties include managing the Columbia Industrial Park as well as representing the City as liaison with the University of South Carolina’s Center for Manufacturing and Technology, and the Military Affairs Committee of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce.


After graduation from Columbia College, Ms. Crow taught third grade for five years in Richland County School District One. Additionally, she is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute. Among her professional affiliations are memberships in the South Carolina Economic Developers’ Association, the International Economic Development Council, Committee of 100, Midlands International Trade Association, Leadership Columbia Alumni Association, the Columbia World Affairs Council and the Columbia Technology Entrepreneurs’ Council.  She is currently serving a second term on the South Carolina District Export Council which is appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and is Chair of the S.C. International Trade Coalition. In 2007, Ms. Crow was honored by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and the U.S. Commercial Service with the Certificate of Appreciation for Achievement in Trade.
 
Ms. Crow is an active member of Kilbourne Park Baptist Church where she sings in the Sanctuary Choir, serves on the Publicity Committee and is chair of the Personnel Committee.  Ms. Crow has been a volunteer with the S.C. Commission for the Blind for 10 years. She has three sons and five grandchildren.  
 

Ciona Rouse ‘01, Young Alumna Service Award
Ciona D. Rouse was born in Atlanta, Ga., and spent most of her youth in South Carolina where her father served as a United Methodist pastor at several congregations in the state. She was an active member of the United Methodist South Carolina Conference’s youth and young adult ministries.
 
She majored in English at Columbia College with a communications emphasis, and received the Judith Weidman Racial Ethnic Minority Fellowship in religious communications. She moved to Columbia, Md., following graduation in 2001 to work and study with the communications office of the United Methodist Baltimore-Washington Conferences.
 
In 2002, Ciona moved to Nashville to work with the Shared Mission Focus on Young People (SMFYP), a global initiative of The United Methodist Church, While serving the SMFYP, Ciona helped administer more than $2 million in grants to cutting-edge ministries with youth and young adults around the globe.
 
Ciona has written on many humanitarian issues such as HIV/AIDS, child soldiering in Congo, displaced people in Uganda and homelessness in the United States for several religious magazines and news services. Immediately following Hurricane Katrina, she went down to the gulf to write stories on hurricane recovery in 2005.  Ciona has written scripts for two award-winning video projects, as well: The Way of Pilgrimage Videos and In Search of the Youth Service Fund. She recently completed a book about called Every Prayer, A Story: A Pilgrimage through Africa, to be released in late 2009. The book chronicles stories and photographs from Ciona’s pilgrimage to six African countries last year.
 
When she is not writing, Ciona likes to dance, read and volunteer for causes such as breast cancer awareness, needy children and social justice.