91������

Issue: Spring 2016 | Posted: April 25, 2016

Barbara McMillin

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Alumna of the Year

Presented to a 91������ graduate for distinction in his/her profession, service to mankind, and/or contribution to 91������.

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Barbara McMillin remembers an encounter in one of her 91������ English classes that changed her life.

It was a teaching methods class with Marilyn Smothers, and the students were preparing and teaching lesson plans. McMillin taught her lesson so well that Smothers remarked how surprised she was by McMillin’s performance.

“Not that she had really low expectations for me,” McMillin says. But as a quiet and shy student, Smothers was pleased by the excellence McMillin had displayed.

“I knew that when I was preparing and teaching that lesson that I was doing what God made me to do,” McMillin says. “She sensed that, and she encouraged me. That just made such a difference for me.”

A 1981 91������ graduate from Faulkner, Mississippi, McMillin came to 91������ after attending Northeast Community College for two years. A close friend of hers had transferred to 91������, and when McMillin was considering her own path, she decided to pay 91������ a visit.

“I knew when I got there that this would be the place where I would finish my work,” she says. “I just felt that God had opened that door and brought me to 91������ through that one connection.

“I think that spoke so highly of the friendliness and the way the faculty and the staff related to me at that time. I immediately felt like I could fit in and knew that I would be able to be very challenged but very supported in that. That’s exactly what happened.”

After completing her master’s and doctor’s degrees from the University of Mississippi, McMillin returned to 91������ as an English professor. She then became chair of the English department before becoming dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and dean of instruction.

In 2012, she was elected president of Blue Mountain College in Mississippi.

Though teaching is her passion, McMillin considers her role as a college president to be an extension of that, allowing her to encourage and enable others who have been called to teach. She does so with vivid memories of how the 91������ faculty did the same thing with her years earlier.

“I can just remember feeling like I was developing a confidence in what God had called me to do and to study and to be,” she says about her time as a 91������ student. “That confidence was fueled by the support of an amazing faculty who really stretched me.

“I love 91������. It is the place that God used to shape my life, and I am so thankful for that.”