When the NDSU Women’s Club convenes to launch a busy academic year, generations and communities of women will meet to salute three outstanding NDSU women scholarship winners. They’ll also learn the behind-the-scenes story of the National Book Awards’ close relationship with Concordia College from NDSU alumna Tracey Moorhead.
The event is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m. at Concordia’s Knutson Center, Suite A-B. Each year the Women’s Club sponsors a rigorous scholarship competition for NDSU women who have attained junior status. This past year, a revamped marketing program for the competition, working through department chairs, led to a significant increase in applications, and, with additional private support, the Women’s Club increased its scholarships from one to three. Scholarship awardees will be announced at the fall event.
NDSU alumni follow a wide range of roads after graduation. For Moorhead, her path led across the river to Concordia College, where she is executive assistant to the president. Her presentation, “The National Book Awards on Campus – Concordia’s Unique Seven-year Partnership with the National Book Foundation,” will present the story of the opportunities that role has given her to step behind the scenes of the National Book Awards.
One of the nation’s most prestigious awards for authors of fiction and nonfiction for adults and younger readers, the National Book Awards share close ties with Concordia and National Public Radio that Moorhead has helped nurture.
During her years at Concordia, she also has worked on development and grant writing for Concordia’s Language Villages. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from NDSU.
The event also gives members and prospective members the opportunity to learn about the interest groups that are a mainstay of the organization. The organization hosts three seasonal events, but interest groups meet each month. Among the groups currently offered are International Women, Book Readers Group, Midday Meetup, Poetry Writing Group, Sewing Group and Valley Gardeners. New interest groups are developed in response to member feedback.
In recent years, the club has added an ACTion Team, volunteers who participate in community-based service. This has included United Way’s school backpack project, A Woman’s Perspective at the Hjemkomst and Habitat for Humanity. A Habitat for Humanity volunteer opportunity will take place Wednesday, Sept. 12.
The NDSU Women’s Club is open to any woman who supports the mission of NDSU. Half of the annual membership fee – $20 for general members, $10 for students – is used for scholarships. For more information, contact womensclub.ndsu@gmail.com or visit www.ndsu.edu/diversity/resources_for_women/wwwndsuedudiversitynsuwomensclub.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.
