MLK Humanitarian Awards Honor Exceptional Student Leader and Newly-Retired Chaplain

Junior Emmanuel Segbedzi from Accra, Ghana, and former chaplain The Reverend Dr. B. Tim Harrison of Lebanon, Ill. were this year’s recipients of McKendree University’s 2022 Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Awards. The annual awards celebrate the spirit and legacy of the Reverend Dr. King.

Emmanuel is the president of the Student Government Association (SGA), a UNI 101 peer mentor, a New Student Orientation (NSO) leader, a member of the Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society and a valued athlete on the Bearcat cross country and track and field teams. He has demonstrated a desire to further social justice issues at McKendree, improve communication through the McKendree App and launch an inter-college allegiance board.

Tim, who served McKendree as its chaplain for 23 years and retired in 2021, received the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Humanitarian Award, the first of its kind. At McKendree he brought meaningful spiritual enhancement to campus and supported students individually on their faith journeys. He also led dozens of immersion trips locally and abroad to give students a broader worldview, and he has exhibited great passion in furthering social justice issues and encouraging inclusion and diversity on campus. He has returned to church ministry as the minister of Friedens United Church of Christ in Troy, Ill.