Get to Know the 2022-23 Hall of Fame Inductees

Ten University of Mississippi seniors have been inducted into the university’s 2022-23 Hall of Fame, one of the highest honors given to Ole Miss students.

Inductees were selected by a committee in accordance with policy developed by the Associated Student Body. Selections are based on outstanding contributions in all aspects of campus life.

Inductees were recognized during an April 14 ceremony at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for Performing Arts.

Preston Antes, an economics and public policy leadership major from Frontenac, Missouri, has been an active member of the Mississippi Alpha Chapter of Phi Delta Theta, where he has served as chaplain, homecoming committee chair and vice president of philanthropy, raising more than $80,000 for the Live Like Lou Foundation. He also held leadership positions in Interfraternity Council, The Big Event and Associated Student Body.

Both a Lambda Sigma honoree and Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College scholar, Antes has appeared on both the UM Chancellor’s and Dean’s Honor Rolls.

“Of all my accomplishments, I am most proud of the ways that I’ve prepared others to lead effectively and with integrity,” Antes said.

A public health and health sciences major from Macon, Jilkiah Bryant is pursuing minors in both math and African American studies. She is in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, a Truman Scholar, Mortar Board member, Luckyday peer mentor and Luckyday Success Scholarship awardee.

During her time at Ole Miss, she incorporated and served as the executive director of Project Powerful Inc.

“I enriched my collegiate experience through summer internships in Brooklyn and New York, but my greatest accomplishment was working to organize the first annual Pontotoc bilingual health fair,” Bryant said. “Through my efforts, I hope to leave a legacy of devotion, resilience, community and love through serving.”

Andy Flores, a public policy leadership and philosophy major from Ocean Springs, is the first-ever Latino Truman Scholar from Mississippi. A member of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, his on-campus involvement has included ASB, Ole Miss Debate Team and the UM First-Generation Student Network.

Flores’ accomplishments include being named a law and public policy fellow at the University of California at Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, a Leadership and the American Presidency Scholar at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, and conducting federal-level education advocacy as a fellow with UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization.

“Founding HelpSaveHELP, a movement to defend critical financial aid for working-class students across Mississippi, is my greatest accomplishment,” he said. “The group forged a coalition that transcended the boundaries of race, socioeconomic background and even our own campus. That has made all the difference in the fight for Mississippi’s educational future.”

A public policy leadership and integrated marketing communications major from Hattiesburg, Kelly Li is a Stamps Scholar, Lott Scholar and member of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. She received the 2022 Diversity Innovator Award and Dean’s Award for Outstanding Service and Scholarship and nominations for the Taylor Medal and James Meredith Changemaker Award.

Li held leadership positions with the Associated Student Body, Mortar Board, School of Journalism and New Media Ambassadors, Leadership and Engagement Ambassadors, and the Honors College Minority Engagement Council.

“I hope to leave a legacy of inclusivity, possibility, and authenticity for students of color that come behind me,” Li said.

Preston McWilliams, a biomedical engineering major with a pre-med emphasis from Ridgeland, is a Brevard Scholar, Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College member and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society member. He has served as president of the Columns Society and been active in Kappa Alpha Order, Ole Miss Ambassadors and as a disciple group leader for a cadre of Oxford High School boys.

McWilliams received the Interfraternity Council’s Emerging Leaders Scholarship and the Taylor Medal.

“My greatest accomplishment is receiving the Larry D. Ridgeway Award named after Vice Chancellor Emeritus Larry Ridgeway, who lives a life of humble service and integrity and inspired the founding principles of the Columns Society,” he said. “I am honored to receive the award because it was voted on by my peers and is an appraisal of constant commitment to service and consistent integrity through many situations.”

A journalism and political science major from Durant, Rabria Moore served as editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian. She is a member of the Ole Miss Columns Society, National Society for Leadership and Success, Phi Kappa Phi, MPower, Association of Black Journalists and the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College.

A Taylor Medal honoree, Moore has also served as both an Ole Miss Ambassador and Orientation leader. A Luckyday Scholar, she has been placed on the Chancellor’s Honor Roll and received the Excellence in Journalism Award, Gilman Scholarship and Phi Kappa Phi Study Abroad Scholarship.

“Becoming editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian is my greatest accomplishment,” Moore said. “My dream has always been to tell people’s stories. The stories we’re telling are important to people and that they’re helping people feel more seen and heard.

“In the end, I hope to leave a legacy of joy to the people I’ve encountered on the Ole Miss campus.”

Sepp Cecil, a banking and finance major from Southaven, is a member of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, where he has served as a peer mentor, Honors College senator and Honors College senate director.

He has also served as president of the Ole Miss Society for Human Resource Management, co-coordinator of new member training and selection for the Ole Miss Ambassadors, where he received the 2022 Ole Miss Ambassadors Rebel Heart Award, and has been an active member of Mortar Board and the Columns Society.

“Through my work as an ambassador, I hope to have helped prospective students see the importance in building strong community and find their ‘Why Ole Miss?'” Cecil said. “I believe my greatest impact at the University of Mississippi will be a crumb trail of discovery tracked through generations of its people and one that will continue growing evermore.”

A biological sciences major from Ridgeland and member of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, Logan Thomas is a member of the American Medical Student Association and the founder and president of The Epilepsy Connection, a nonprofit organization that is the only one of its kind on a Mississippi college campus.

The organization provided an avenue of support and a community that allows students with disabilities to be proud of who they are, regardless of the burdens they carry.

“I hope my legacy will be marked by support and encouragement so that individuals with disabilities will be able to embrace their true self and reach out to others to help them do the same,” Thomas said.

A public policy leadership and integrated marketing communications major from Suwanee, Georgia, Margaret Walker is a Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College Scholar, Lott Scholar and Stamps Scholar. She founded and serves as president of Period@UM, and received the Capstone Medal for Demographic/Economic Collegiate Research and the Taylor Medal.

Walker studied abroad in Paris, Australia and South Africa, and also performed research in Southeast Asia and Northern Ireland for her Honors College thesis on conflict tourism.

“Founding Period@UM is my greatest accomplishment because I developed a student coalition combating gender inequity, distributed over 20,000 menstrual products across campus and encouraged uncomfortable conversations,” she said. “I hope to have created a legacy of purpose-driven change.”

Morgan Whited, senior class president and a Stamps Scholar from Marion, Arkansas, is a biochemistry major and a member of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, where she has served as an ambassador, peer mentor and a senator.

She has served as a UM Voting Ambassador, vice chair for the University Judicial Council, president of Gamma Beta Phi, programming director for the Jackson Free Clinic Health Ambassadors, project leader for the Big Event and a member of the RebelTHON Miracle Family Committee. Whited also co-founded Hearts for Homeless UM and received the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry’s 2021 Outstanding Organic Chemistry Student award, as well as the Department of Writing and Rhetoric’s 2020 JoAnn Edwards Speech Award and the Taylor Medal.

“As an Honors ambassador, I strive to convince a student to make what may well be the greatest decision of their life in matriculating here at UM,” Whited said.