Murphysboro's Gabriel Smith Wins State Award

Gabriel Smith of Murphysboro, recipient of the 2007 John A. Logan College Pacesetter Award, was named the State Pacesetter by the Illinois Community College Trustees Association (ICCTA) at an awards banquet held in Chicago on June 8. The pacesetter award recognizes a recent community college graduate who has achieved success and distinction in his or her education and career or provided humanitarian service that has greatly benefited society.

"We had 13 nominations for the state award this year, and all of the nominees were very deserving," said Kim Villanueva, director of communication for the ICCTA. "The Awards Committee thought Gabriel's story was inspiring and showed what a positive impact a community college can have on a person's life."

Since Smith graduated from Logan in 2003, he has earned two degrees from SIU and been the embodiment of the Pacesetter Award. But he's the first to admit that wasn't always the case.

"I was on the wrestling team in high school, and that's all I was really serious about," Smith said. "I didn't pay much attention to academics, and I wasn't the best student. No one in my family had a college degree, and I was scared about going to college."

When Smith graduated from Murphysboro High School in May 2000, he wasn't sure what he wanted to do, but he decided to enroll in classes at John A. Logan College. Then he met Jane Minton, a counselor at the Student Success Center at Logan.

"The summer after I graduated, I was working at a restaurant with Jane's son, and he introduced us," Smith recalled. "I expressed to her my fears about attending college, and she took me under her wing. She told me about the TRiO Program and said she would be my mentor. Whenever I had problems, I went to the Student Success Center and talked to Jane, and she always gave me guidance. She was a lot of help."

At Logan, Smith no longer had athletics to focus on and channeled his energy into his studies. After taking developmental classes for a semester, he found a major that he wanted to pursue.

"I've always been interested in troubleshooting and fixing things," he said. "In the electronics program you do a lot of hands-on work, and I really enjoyed that."

Smith flourished in electronics. He accumulated a grade-point average of 4.94 (5.0 scale) and earned his associate degree with honors in electronics technology. He then transferred to SIU where he completed his bachelor's degree - summa cum laude - in industrial technology in December 2005. This spring he graduated with an SIU master's degree in manufacturing systems, maintaining a perfect 4.0 GPA.

"It took me three years to get my associate degree at Logan," Smith said. "Then it took two and a half years to finish my bachelor's degree at SIU, and then only a year and a half to complete my master's. After taking so many classes, I developed a lot of good habits, and classes just seemed to go faster."

With multiple degrees in hand, Smith and his wife, Kelly, who he met at Logan, are now headed to Dubuque, Iowa, where he will begin his career as a quality engineer at John Deere.

"John Deere is the company I really wanted to work for," Smith said. "I'm very excited about this opportunity."