Seventy-One Mississippi College Students Win Who’s Who Honors
December 2, 2011
Mississippi College senior Sarah Elizabeth Sable has spent time giving out flu shots, hitting the books as a nursing major and taking part in student government.
On Thursday, Sable was among 71 MC undergraduates named to the Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges in 2011-2012.
“It really is humbling,” Sable said after the luncheon at Anderson Hall honoring some of MC’s best and brightest students. “I was not expecting this – it is a great privilege.”
A resident of Carriere in Pearl River County, Sable was among a half-dozen students from the School of Nursing to join the Who’s Who organization, one of the most highly regarded honors programs in the nation.
“This is quite a select group of students,” said Jim Turcotte, MC’s vice president for enrollment management and student affairs. “You should be quite proud to be in this group.”
The process began with a pool of 1,212 students with the potential to be selected, and a list of 669 students was later narrowed by a university committee to just 71.
Many parents attended the luncheon to applaud the accomplishments of the students. The group included Baptist Student Union President Leslie Anne Wilson of Laurel, Mortar Board President Katie Rene Boles of Pineville, La., soccer team captain Benjamin Joseph Cross of Van Buren, Ark., 2011 Homecoming Queen Martha Marianna Fountain of Forest, and accounting major Zhicheng “Johnson” Liang, a member of the university’s nationally ranked table tennis team.
As MC President Lee Royce and other leaders looked on, Jerry Rankin, the president emeritus of the International Mission Board, delivered an inspiring message that touched on his busy days as a Mississippi College undergraduate.
Rankin was active in student government, served on the yearbook staff, and was an interim pastor in Simpson County during his senior year at MC. In addition, he also worked his way through Mississippi College as a “Clarion-Ledger” sports writer.
He recalls changing his major six times during his freshman year at the Baptist-affiliated university in Clinton. But he finally made the decision to serve God and “take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.”
In his address, Rankin noted that “once you are committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, a lot of decisions are made for you.”
A graduate of Clinton High and Mississippi College, Rankin earned his master of divinity at Southwestern Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. For the last 17 years, Rankin served as president of the International Mission Board, an organization supporting more than 5,000 missionaries serving in 190 countries around the globe.
But it was at Mississippi College where Rankin learned such things as discipline, Christian values and working hard to earn good grades.
As an MC undergraduate, Rankin was “very involved. He was a good role model for other students on campus,” said retired administrator Doc Quick, the former dean of men. “He was active, but a fine academic student.”
Rankin also told his audience that he met his future wife, Bobbye, at Mississippi College. He first encountered the former MC Homecoming Queen on the steps of the school library when she was a freshman and he was a junior. He and his wife have two children, Lori and Russell, both missionaries in Asia, and six grandchildren.
In two years, Rankin plans to return to MC’s Homecoming to celebrate his 50th anniversary. “In 2060, you will be where I am today,” Rankin told the “Who’s Who” students. “It’s good to think in terms of long-range planning.”
Rankin recently retired after 40 years of missionary service with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. He’s now working as a consultant to mission agencies and as an adjunct professor of missions at Mississippi College.
Photo: Jerry Rankin
