Northeast Texas Community College student William Austin Jones was recently named the winner of the 2015-2016 Chitsey Award, granted annually to the student of Honors Northeast who most exceeded expectations. Jones has impressed all four of the first-year honors seminar professors for his proactive academic work, and commitment to excellence. He was the winner of the freshman-sophomore division of the Great Plains Honors Council poster contest in the Behavioral Sciences for his poster on quasi-criminality. His essay on this topic details the way Texas differentiated vigilantes from intractable criminals in the era before mass-incarceration. It has been accepted recently for publication in†Touchstone,†a publication of the Texas State Historical Association. His invaluable work in research, script-writing, in acting as Governor Dan Moody, and cinematography was a factor behind NTCC?s Group Caldwell Award for its film on Ma and Pa Ferguson.
Honors Northeast has awarded the Chitsey Award since 2013. Previous winners, Stephen Milburn (2013), Kelli Knepp (2014), and Morgan Capps (2015) have all moved on from the Chitsey to national awards like the Jack Kent Cooke, Leaders of Promise, and the Coca Cola Scholarships.†The award also honors a former patron of Honors Northeast, Elizabeth Chitsey, who passed away in 2013. The Winnsboro†native†had children and grandchildren who have served†in the teaching profession†in Northeast Texas, on every level, from pre-school to college. Each year since 2012, her family - which includes daughter, Dr. Mary Hearron†?†and other donors, such as Don and Kathy Berthiaume, has generously supported this award and other social functions of Honors Northeast.
Jones is the son of Geri and Craig Jones of Mount Pleasant.
