Tanner Shaw wins the Orrin Swayze Award at the Mississippi Young Bankers Annual Study Conference and Convention in Mobile, Alabama.

University of Southern Mississippi senior Tanner Shaw recently received the Orrin Swayze Award at the Mississippi Young Bankers Annual Study Conference and Convention in Mobile, Alabama.

While it has been a few years since a USM student has been selected as the recipient for the Swayze Award, this year the university was well represented. The list of finalists included Southern Miss students Kent McCarty, Nic Zogaib and Tanner Shaw, who went on to receive the Swayze Award.

“I was glad to see USM so well represented in the finalist selections for the Swayze Award,” said senior banking and finance major and Swayze Award finalist Kent McCarty.

The winner of the prestigious award was Fairhope, Alabama, native Tanner Shaw, a senior accounting and finance double major at USM. Shaw said he was humbled by the award and credits much of his success to his time at USM.

“Being awarded the Orrin Swayze scholarship is a huge honor that I am truly humbled and thankful to have received,” Shaw said.

“However, the honor extends beyond me to The University of Southern Mississippi. USM has not had a Swayze scholarship winner in several years, but, this year, three of the five finalists were Southern Miss students. I would not trade the time that I have had at The University of Southern Mississippi for anything. I believe that it has prepared me well, over the course of the past three years, to be competitive not only in this type of competition, but also in the job market at large.”

“My experience of Tanner as my student was altogether positive,” said Gary Kelly, professor and chair of the Department of Finance, Real Estate and Business Law at Southern Miss. “It was a pleasure to see him take control of a relatively large body of information and make it his own.”

Each year, five finalists are nominated for the award that recognizes banking and finance students and are encouraged to pursue banking careers in Mississippi. From the five finalists, one student is chosen to receive the Swayze Scholar Medallion and a cash award of $5,000. The other four finalists are recognized as Mississippi Young Bankers Scholars and each receives or receives an award of $1,500.

Nominations are made by the department head of each Mississippi university every December. A scholarship committee then narrowed down the nominations to five finalists.

The five finalists are then invited to the MYB Annual Study Conference and Convention, where the scholarship then conducts personal interview with the finalists before recommending a winner to be approved by the MYB Executive council.