{"id":24159,"date":"2026-01-14T08:39:53","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/?p=24159"},"modified":"2026-01-15T22:27:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T03:27:27","slug":"two-students-receive-this-years-adia-j-palmer-memorial-scholarship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/2026\/01\/14\/two-students-receive-this-years-adia-j-palmer-memorial-scholarship\/","title":{"rendered":"Two students receive this year\u2019s Adia J. Palmer Memorial Scholarship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-24161\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/01\/Adia-recipients.png?resize=300%2C217&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Headshots of Jeniffer Rodriguez Garcia and Kenyon Lofton\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/01\/Adia-recipients.png?resize=300%2C217&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/01\/Adia-recipients.png?resize=768%2C557&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/01\/Adia-recipients.png?resize=759%2C550&amp;ssl=1 759w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/01\/Adia-recipients.png?w=825&amp;ssl=1 825w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/>The <a href=\"https:\/\/libraries.udmercy.edu\/\">Detroit Mercy Libraries<\/a>, along with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.udmercy.edu\/about\/mission-vision\/lead-serve\/tenn.php\">Titan Equity Nourish Network (TENN)<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevarsitynews.net\/\"><em>The Varsity News<\/em><\/a>, are pleased to announce the recipients of the third annual Adia J. Palmer Memorial Scholarship:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong> Kenyon Lofton<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Jeniffer Rodriguez Garcia<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The scholarship was made possible through donations from UDM students, faculty and staff, as well as the friends and family of Adia J. Palmer. Palmer was a Detroit Mercy senior majoring in Communication Studies, who also worked as a library student assistant, TENN volunteer and as a <em>Varsity News<\/em> writer and photographer. She passed away unexpectedly in March 2022.<\/p>\n<p>The scholarship honors Palmer&#8217;s legacy of creativity, inspiration and elevation, and her desire to make the world a better place through joy, peace and love. Both Lofton and Garcia exemplify this spirit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kenyon Lofton<\/strong>, an Economics major minoring in English and earning a Legal Studies Certificate, credits a lecture on redlining and the Black Codes given by Charles Cross, senior landscape designer and adjunct professor in the School of Architecture, with sparking his interest in how \u201cthe development of&#8230; neighborhoods has a direct impact on the overall quality of life of the people in that community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Volunteering at TENN reinforced his understanding of the importance of walkability and transportation to neighborhoods, especially when it comes to accessing nutritious food, and inspired him further. \u201cThis is&#8230; something I\u2019ve noticed&#8230; when delivering food to the families in the surrounding neighborhood and the Teresa Maxis Senior Living Apartments&#8230; After acquiring my Juris Doctor degree, I hope to combat malicious regional planning and its negative effects on economic development and quality of life for underrepresented and underserved communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jeniffer Rodriguez Garcia<\/strong>, a first-year Dental Hygiene student, chose her path with the intention to \u201chelp people gain confidence and comfort through improving the appearance of their teeth,\u201d and says she \u201cfell in love with the field after shadowing a hygienist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since starting at the University, Garcia has been involved with the National Society of Leadership and Success and TENN. Additionally, she has worked as a student library assistant for the last three years, something she continues today. Upon graduating, Garcia plans to obtain her license to practice in Michigan. When she isn\u2019t studying, she enjoys creative writing, reading, drawing, photography and crocheting.<\/p>\n<p>Whether these recipients plan to use their scholarships for books, course materials or to otherwise ease financial constraints on their educational journeys, we can\u2019t wait to see the difference they make in our communities and the world! Congratulations to these inspirational Titans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Detroit Mercy Libraries, along with the Titan Equity Nourish Network and Varsity News, are happy to announce the recipients of the third annual Adia J. Palmer Memorial Scholarship for the 2025-26 school year: Kenyon Lofton and Jeniffer Rodriguez Garcia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":677,"featured_media":24161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4083],"tags":[5799,5800,3174,4264,33,157,4828,314,4223,3815,6764,3817],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/01\/Adia-recipients.png?fit=825%2C598&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbwnTV-6hF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24159"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24163,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24159\/revisions\/24163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}