SPC recognizes Jamie Miller as 2025 Vera Sue Spencer Award recipient
LEVELLAND – Jamie Miller of Athens, Georgia, has been named the 2025 recipient of South Plains College’s Vera Sue Spencer Award. Miller received the award during the Spring 2025 morning commencement ceremony on May 9 in the Texan Dome.
The award is presented to an SPC student who demonstrates the qualities of outstanding leadership and service to the college and the community. Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Spencer established the award in memory of their daughter, Vera Sue, who died while Dr. Spencer was serving as president at SPC.
The award was established by the Spencer family in 1971.
Miller, a sociology major who started at SPC in Fall 2022, said receiving the award is a huge honor.
“I’m grateful to Angelica Mendoza of the STAR Center who nominated me,” she said. “I’m grateful that SPC saw something in me they wanted to recognize.”
Miller is a non-traditional student who graduated from Gainesville High School in Gainesville, Georgia. She said SPC became a steppingstone in finishing her degree.
“SPC felt like a good place to get my feet wet and develop a foundation in my education before I move on and attend larger schools, like Texas Tech,” she said.
The size of the college was one benefit that Miller said drew her to the campus community. While at SPC, she has connected with staff members at the STAR Center and multiple professors. She said Elaina Fitzgerald, assistant
professor of sociology, is one faculty member who has been influential and always present for her students.
Miller is a former president of SPC’s SPeCtra club and a former Student Government speaker of the Senate at the college. She was also a president’s and dean’s list honoree.
In 2024, Miller was awarded an All-Texas Academic Team medallion for her outstanding academic achievement and exemplary community service. In addition to receiving the 2024 Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholarship from the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, she is a recipient of the SPC Founders Opportunity Scholarship, the W.V. and Mattie Muriel Felker Memorial Scholarship and the SPC Texan Opportunity Scholarship.
“It feels familial,” she said regarding the SPC community. “Everybody here works together to ensure students get the education and support they need.”
In the future, Miller wants to work at a non-profit that mitigates food insecurity and hopes to start a non-profit. After SPC, she plans on attending Texas Tech University to receive her bachelor’s and master’s degrees and hopes to obtain a doctoral degree someday.
