The 2015 Ambassador Award, the Young Alumni Award, the Alumni Recognition Award, and Servant Leadership Award will be presented Friday, Oct. 16, at the Southwestern College Homecoming dinner in the Roy L. Smith dining hall.  The honorees are Scott Schoon, Warren Berquist, Scott Hecht, and Donna DeMint.  Randy Juden, a 1980 SC graduate, will be the master of ceremonies. 

The SC Ambassador Award will be presented to Scott Schoon, superintendent of the Winfield Recreation Commission (WRC).  This award recognizes non-graduates of the college who have captured the Builder spirit and have served as ambassadors of goodwill for the college and the community.  

The WRC and Southwestern College are partners in offering fitness and recreation opportunities to the community, with this partnership escalating in the past few years. In existence since 1955, the WRC has operated as a tax-supported government entity for 60 years with a goal of offering quality programs and services at an affordable price. In the spring of 2003, the recreation commission, USD 465, and Southwestern College agreed to have the WRC manage, schedule, program, and hire staff at Southwestern’s indoor pool. Since then the pool has offered open swim time, lap swim, youth and adult classes, private swim parties, and special events, with average attendance each year exceeding 9,000. The pool continues to be open free of charge to all SC students. A decade later, the WRC, Southwestern, and the school district were joined by the City of Winfield in 2013 to partner in expansion of the tennis courts at the T.H. Vaughan Tennis Complex. The project included doubling the number of courts from 7 to 14, new parking, sidewalks, shade structures, a hitting wall, and other renovations. A fund raising campaign resulted in private donations totaling $700,000, along with $50,000 contributions from each of the four partners. The Lucien Barbour Addition to the T.H. Vaughan Tennis Complex was officially dedicated in April of 2014. Schoon, who has been recreation superintendent since 1988, has been instrumental in the establishment of the warm working relationship between SC and the WRC.  

Warren Berquist ’05 will receive the Young Alumni Award.  This honor is presented to a recent graduate (or graduates) who have made an outstanding commitment to the college through support, including attendance at college functions and recruitment of new students. 
Bergquist combined his years as a physics major at Southwestern College with courses at Washington University in St. Louis as part of a dual degree engineering program for civil engineering, completing both his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and his master’s degree in structural engineering in May 2006. A two-time All-American (once in track and once in cross-country) at Southwestern, he competed all four years in cross country nationals and three years each at indoor and outdoor track. 
He was given a full tuition scholarship to Washington University, one conferred on only two students each year. After graduation Berquist began working at Alper Audi, Inc., in St. Louis as a project engineer and this year became a partner of the 20-employee group. He has designed many buildings around the U.S., working directly with architects, contractors and developers/owners.  The single-discipline engineering firm designs commercial, research, institutional, and industrial buildings.  His recent projects include design of a 26-story apartment building, expansion to the St. Louis County Courthouse, five and seven-story corporate headquarters for several Fortune 500 Companies, educational buildings at Lindenwood University and the University of Missouri, and manufacturing facilities for Caterpillar and Dow Chemical. Warren and his wife, Theresa, have a two-year-old daughter, and are active in supporting the St. Louis Zoo.

Scott Hecht, a 1990 graduate, will receive the Outstanding Alumni Award in honor of his significant contributions to the college and community.  

Hecht graduated from Southwestern with a degree in economics, and went on to earn a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1993. He has worked for the same firm in downtown Kansas City since then and is now a partner in the firm known as Stinson Leonard Street LLP, which has about 600 lawyers nationwide. Hecht is in charge of the firm’s insurance litigation practice group, representing corporate clients with respect to insurance issues. He has been listed in “Best Lawyers in America for Insurance” for several years, and is a member of the American College of Coverage and Extracontractual Counsel.  Scott has served Southwestern as a member of the board of trustees since 2006, and is chair of the institutional advancement committee. He also is one of the founders and a former director of CIJ Foundation, which provides life skills and job skills training in a community-oriented environment to developmentally disabled adults in Wyandotte County. 
He’s also on the board of directors of the Lansing Education Foundation.

Scott and his wife, Shelley, have three children—Hannah, 22, Jake, 19, and Ally, 17. 

One additional award will be given out, the Servant Leadership Award, which is given to recognize a person who has exhibited a willingness to lead in the style of a servant within God’s community of the world, one’s society, or the local community in which one resides.  Donna (Homan) DeMint ’80 is the recipient.  The award will be accepted by Todd DeMint. 

DeMint was one of Southwestern’s most passionate supporters and volunteers from the time she graduated until she died on June 10, at age 57. She had been a class host for 15 years, provided the floral arrangements for such events as Homecoming and Commencement, and even decorated the college’s Christmas tree in the Christy Administration Building lobby. This service to Southwestern was only one way DeMint served her community. As owner and operator of Donna’s Designs, a local floral and gift shop, DeMint was not only a leading Winfield businesswoman; she was constantly looking for opportunities to improve her community. One of her most notable contributions was as founder of the Isle of Lights at Island Park. These lights were first lit in 1993, and she continued as president of the group for more than 21 years.

DeMint was a wonderful cook, and a talented quilter.  For many years, she was active in the local quilt guild and as a tribute to her, several of her quilting friends created a quilt exhibit in the President’s Gallery in Darbeth Fine Arts Center as a part of the Homecoming festivities. 
DeMint was also active in the Winfield Chamber of Commerce and various other groups, receiving many civic and floral industry awards and recognitions. She always found time to care for other people and encourage those with illnesses, including her involvement with breast cancer awareness through Relay for Life and the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.