STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS Blessing Eben, B.S. Information Science, Data Science Concentration, Fall 2022 Blessing has always had a passion for children and ensuring success for all learning types in the classroom. Her dream is to help children with their mental health and those who are neurodivergent. Blessing plans to combine her knowledge of Data Science and her love for Psychology to develop a program structure for classrooms that ensures all students are taught in the best way according to their learning style. Blessing knows how to overcome obstacles as she showed resilience in battling health conditions but was able to achieve her goals. She is also a UNT Great Grad for fall 2022.
Jacob Harris, B.S. Data Science, Fall 2022 After putting his education on hold to serve three years in the Army, followed by a yearlong battle with PTSD, Jake returned to UNT in 2020 and has graduated fall 2022, a 16-year journey that’s taught him the value of perseverance and overcoming adversity, because even in his darkest moments, Jake never quit. Jake has worked to finish his degree, including an internship with Ericsson working in Project Management. That internship will be extended through the spring of 2023 as Jake works toward his Master’s in Data Engineering at UNT. Jake is also a UNT Great Grad for fall 2022.
Dillon Shumaker, B.A. Linguistics, Fall 2022 Dillon has a passion for languages. As a linguistics student, Dillon prepared an Honors College senior thesis which explored English as a lingua franca with a specific emphasis on pronunciation models. Last year, he earned a Cambridge Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA), and was recently accepted to the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program and begins teaching in Hyogo Prefecture this fall. Dillon knows that he’ll spend the next few years traveling and teaching English as a second language, followed by graduate studies in applied linguistics. He is also a UNT Great Grad, for fall 2022.
Jenna Conan Simpson, Ph.D. Learning Technologies, Fall 2022 As a lifelong learner, Jenna enjoys school, loves learning new things, and is no stranger to scholarly excellence or managing multiple responsibilities. She has earned a Doctorate in Learning Technologies and finished with a 4.0 GPA. She received two merit scholarships from UNT’s College of Information while in the program, facilitated over 20 presentations at conferences, including the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA), and published six articles and chapters in journals and eBooks in the past two and a half years. She is also a UNT Great Grad for fall 2022.
