By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
President Dwyatt Bell, Chairman of the Board, John Bryan, and Senior Vice President, Brenda Howard formally have represented Texas Heritage National Bank in honoring Mercedes Collins with a full-tuition, fees and books scholarship. Collins will be a sophomore Presidential Scholar this year at Northeast Texas Community College. Collins, who graduated third at Daingerfield High School in 2018, will inherit this prestigious designation from other former members of NTCC’s award-winning honors program: Leaders of Promise winner, Jordan Whelchel, Cassidy Watkins, now at Texas State, and Emmalea Shaw, who is currently working toward her doctorate in Physical Therapy at the North Texas State medical campus in Fort Worth.
Collins attained an excellent record in one year at NTCC. She won a $100 poetry award, has enrolled in all three honors seminars, played important roles in two Texas-themed honors films, has presented work on the tumultuous story of the University of Texas President, Homer Rainey at the Great Plains Honors Council, and is a Five-Star member of Phi Theta Kappa in Texas. She will also present her work on Rainey this October at a professional conference, the meeting of the East Texas Historical Association in Nacogdoches.
Texas Heritage National Bank traces a lineage back to 1889 when it was called the Bank of Daingerfield. THNB has branches in Daingerfield, Omaha, Ore City, and Sulphur Springs.
Mercedes is the daughter of Brian and Kimberly Collins. NTCC Honors Director, Dr. Andrew Yox notes that Collins presents “a rare case of a persevering young scholar who also always has her hand up to volunteer for a public service. We are thrilled that Texas Heritage National Bank could grant this special honor to her.”
