Ten students were inducted into the University of Mississippi’s Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the Gertrude C. Ford center on Friday, April 5.
Each year, students are selected from the pool of Who’s Who Among Students honorees by a committee in accordance with Associated Student Body policy. Selection is based on campus involvement, leadership, academic achievements and community service.
This year’s honorees are Zynub Al-Sherri, Clark Etzel, Caleb Bohannon, Emmie Burgess, Madeleine Ryan, Daneel Konnar, Azurrea Curry, Bailey Beaird, Caitlyn Horton and Genevieve Wilson.
Zynub Al-Sherri
Zynub Al-Sherri is a public health and health sciences and Arabic double major from Oxford who hopes to pursue a career in the global health sector working alongside refugees. Awarded a Taylor Medal, the U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship and Hattie Burke Jackson Scholarship, Al-Sherri serves as webmaster for the Muslim Student Association and president and founder of the Palestinian Arts and Culture Club. In addition, she has been a supplemental instruction leader for general biology and organic chemistry, a teaching assistant for the Arabic Language Flagship and an ambassador for the Health Professions Advising Office.
“I’m grateful beyond words, but this honor isn’t just my own,” Al-Sherri said. “Each and every one of my accomplishments, involvements and successes is evidence of the amazing community I’m in and the wonderful individuals and mentors I’ve been blessed with along the way. I would be nowhere without them.”
Clark Etzel
Clark Etzel is a public policy leadership major from Russellville, Ark. In his time at UM, he has been awarded the 2023 Barksdale Award and named a young Southern changemaker by Bitter Southerner Magazine. Etzel is a cofounder of undergraduate research journal Venture and chairman of the Trent Lott Leadership Institute Student Advisory Board and a traveling debater through the Ty Warren Debate Union. Outside of campus, Etzel studied in India, Israel and Italy.
“It’s an honor and a privilege to be selected to the University of Mississippi Hall of Fame,” Etzel said. “I appreciate having these things celebrated and hope other students take risks and further their interests on campus.”
Caleb Bohannon
Caleb Bohannon is a public policy leadership and economics double major from Clinton, Miss. In collaboration with Period@UM and classmates, Bohannon successfully advocated for the availability of menstrual products in main campus facilities. In spring 2023, he also began a prison literacy initiative in which books were collected to be distributed to incarcerated individuals across the state. Bohannon holds the title of Mr. University and is a member of Mortar Board, the Black Student Union and Blacks in Political Studies and served on the Associated Student Body Executive Board. He is a recipient of the Ole Miss Circle Award and UM’s 1848 Scholarship.
Caleb says he is grateful to have the opportunity to help broaden diversity efforts and “positively impact the perception of how others view this university nationally.”
Emmie Burgess
Emmie Burgess is a public policy leadership major from Fort Smith, Ark. Her proudest accomplishment has been advocating for menstrual equity by participating in Period@UM’s successful campaign for the university to sponsor menstrual products on campus. Burgess also worked as an impact producer on “Below the Belt,” promoting the UM screening of the film that focuses on closing the gender health gap. She serves as senior class vice president, president of the Columns Society and is a member of the Ole Miss Women’s Council, Delta Delta Delta sorority and Ole Miss Ambassadors.
Burgess hopes to have left a legacy of joy. “My unwavering commitment to the university is continuously exhibited in the joy I have for this campus,” she said.
Madeleine Ryan
Madeleine Ryan is an international studies major from Memphis. Throughout her time at the university, she has served as ASB attorney general in the 2022-2023 school year and SEC Exchange commissioner. She also founded the ASB Future Leaders Scholarship, which raises money for candidates of campus-wide leadership positions. She is a member of Delta Gamma sorority. Ryan also studies Chinese and was one of the first students to study abroad in Shanghai, China, following the pandemic. Ryan was a Truman Scholarship Nominee, earned the Lynda Mead Shea Scholarship for her thesis research abroad and has spent summers teaching Mandarin to middle and high school students through the National Security Agency’s Chinese STARTALK Program.
Daneel Konnar
Daneel Konnar is a public policy leadership major from Meridian, Miss. As executive director of the Student Activities Association, he sought to expand student activities to underserved communities and organizations on campus. As vice president of philanthropy for Phi Delta Theta fraternity, he helped to raise more than $95,000 for pediatric cancer and ALS research. He also served as vice president of the Columns Society, an Ole Miss ambassador and orientation leader, is an Ole Miss Women’s Council scholar and was voted Mr. Ole Miss in 2023.
“With family, friends and faculty pouring into me since the beginning of freshman year, I am indebted to the Ole Miss community for guiding me and pushing me and my peers to become the best version of ourselves,” Konnar said. “I hope I can continue to encourage my peers and younger students to pour into each other to make our university community a stronger and better place for all.”
Azurrea Curry
Azurrea Jeanna-Dale Curry is a secondary English education major from Gulfport, Miss. Curry served as a reading teaching fellow in Providence, R.I., and as a tutor to children in the Oxford-Lafayette area through JumpStart and Mission Acceleration. She has also served as president of the Honors College Minority Engagement Council and co-director of Miracle Family Relations for RebelTHON. She is a Stamps Scholar and a member of Delta Gamma sorority, UM’s chapter of the NAACP, Rebels for Christ Campus Ministry and the Mississippi Excellence in Teaching Program.
When reflecting on her time at Ole Miss, she said having the chance to love and be loved by this community is “immensely rewarding” and she hopes to inspire youth to engage fully “where their hearts lie.”
Bailey Beaird
Bailey Beaird is an allied health studies major from Dallas. Beaird served as the student representative for the Chancellor’s Standing Committee on Accessibility and is president of the UM Special Olympics Club. Beaird received the Associated Student Body’s “Making a Difference” Award last year for her efforts made within the intellectual and developmental disability communities. Beaird is also an executive for the Ole Miss Big Event, a fourth-year Ole Miss ambassador, a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority and was voted campus favorite in fall 2023.
“I hope my legacy at UM is marked by my advocacy for accessible education for individuals with intellectual and developmental disability,” Beaird said. “At the core of this passion is the belief that all people are created with innate values and rights, independent of differences. It is my dream that my advocacy work eventually leads to this community joining the Ole Miss family through the establishment of an inclusive higher education program.”
Caitlyn Horton
Caitlyn Horton is an accounting and finance major from Water Valley, Miss. Horton serves as the longest-sitting president of the National Association of Black Accountants, as well as the 2023 president of UM’s National Pan-Hellenic Council. Under her leadership, UM NPHC hosted the first Miss Black University Pageant and also became a nationally recognized council. Horton is a first-generation college student and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and the Ole Miss Women’s Council. She received the Collins Scholarships through the Patterson School of Accountancy and has been a two-time national scholarship recipient through NABA.
Horton hopes to “leave a legacy that matters” and to make a difference for other Black and female students pursuing opportunities in fields with less representation.
Genevieve Wilson
Genevieve Elise Wilson is an international studies and public policy leadership major with a French minor from Birmingham, Ala.
Throughout her time at the university, she has served Southern communities as an intern for U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, the Mississippi Delta-based nonprofit the Delta Health Alliance and the U.S. Department of State’s diplomat-in-residence for the Central South Region. She is a Stamps Scholar and is a member of the Columns Society. She also served as volunteer recruitment and retention chair for the Ole Miss Big Event and the vice president of community relations for her sorority, Delta Delta Delta.
