2019 Distinguished Award Winner: Jon Mark Horton
This week, we will be recognizing each of the 2019 Distinguished Service Award recipients.
The Distinguished Service Award winners are the institution’s most outstanding graduates because of their leadership, scholarship and citizenship. Faculty, staff, advisers to student organizations, and other members of the campus community submit nominations for the prestigious awards.
All of the recipients have achieved excellent academic records and provided countless hours of service to the community, their classmates, campus organizations, their departments and colleges, and to Arkansas State University. A committee comprised of students, faculty, staff and previous Wilson Award recipients makes the final selections.
Today's featured recipient is Jon Mark Horton of Jonesboro.
Horton will graduate in May with a Bachelor of Science degree in exercise science. He is the current president of the SGA and was the vice president a year ago. As president, he not only leads student government, but helped create participation in the Jonesboro City Council Collegiate Coalition, which includes SGA members visiting meetings to show the city that Arkansas State students need a voice in regard to the direction of the community.
In 2016-17, Horton was voted into office as the president pro-tempore and served as speaker of the senate when the vice president was absent. The student body elected him as a senator representing the College of Education and Behavioral Science after spending a year as a freshman senator.
Horton is president of the Chancellor’s Ambassadors who aid in student recruitment, and is founder of Global Pack Tracks that help international students connect with a domestic student to help ease transition. He is active in additional organizations, including the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Howlathon as events director, the Physical Therapy Student Association, vice president of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society, and founder and president of Pack Professionals Network..
As a member of the Shared Governance Oversight Committee, Horton works on the academic task force, the executive cabinet, the campus climate committee to help ensure that A-State is a welcoming environment for all students, the intercollegiate athletics committee, faculty achievement awards committee, university diversity and affirmative action committee, and international students and scholars group.
Other campus memberships are the student culinary council, the Black Students Association, A-State United Way, Volunteer A-State, the Student Activities Board and Baptist College Ministries. Academically, Horton has made the Chancellor’s List since his freshman year and has been awarded numerous scholarships. In the spring of 2018, he was selected as the recipient of the Excellence in Student Diversity award.
