Each year McPherson College recognizes the accomplishments of young alumni during the Honors Convocation at Homecoming. This year three alumni – Jason Pendleton ‘92, Jessica Everton ‘96, and Rana Salman ‘01 –received Young Alumni Awards on October 11.
The purpose of the Young Alumni Award is to recognize the achievement and potential for accomplishment of the college’s young alumni. The award is given to alumni who are meeting significant challenges in pursuit of professional goals as well as involved in service to others and church, and who participate in alumni activities.
Jason Pendleton, Overland Park, Kansas, graduated in 1992 with a degree in history. His career as a teacher began after he received his degree at McPherson College. He later received a master’s degree in history at Emporia State. He is currently a teacher at Blue Valley Southwest High School where he has been a teacher of U.S. history, sociology, AP U.S. history, and U.S. government since 2010. He’s taken on leadership roles as a co-chair for the history department and led professional development on blended learning and diversity. In 2008, he received the Dayton Rothrock Alumni Fellow from McPherson College.
Along with his teaching responsibilities, he has also coached 50 high school seasons–mostly soccer, but also football and track. At Blue Valley Southwest, his teams have won state championships in soccer two times for girls and once for boys. In 2017-18, both teams were undefeated and finished the season ranked fourth in the U.S. for boys and sixth for the girls. That season earned him the Girls United Soccer Coaches National Coach of the Year award along with the National Federation of High School Boys National Coach of the Year award. He has been named Kansas Coach of the Year for girls soccer five times and twice for boys.
Jessica (Boothe) Everton, Phoenix, Arizona, graduated in 1996 with a degree in English and later received a master’s degree in communication from Wichita State University. Everton is a senior director of product development at the NROC Project, a California-based technology firm that works with educators to build technologies and content that improve student success. She creates courses and tools that prepare secondary, post-secondary and adult learners for college and career success. Prior to her work at NROC, she worked in content and technology development for several ed-tech companies from start-ups to larger publishers.
Everton served on the McPherson College Board of Trustees from 2006-2011. She currently serves as the volunteer director of the Archway Scottsdale Parent Services Organization and is a Girl Scout leader.
Rana (El-Halabi) Salman, Austin, Texas, graduated in 2001 with a degree in public relations. Salman established Salman Consulting in 2016 collaborating with sales leaders, marketing, and enablement to improve sales effectiveness. She started her career with an interest in research and earned an MBA and Ph.D., along with several certificates. Salman has more than 18 years of experience in marketing and sales, spending a significant amount of her career as a sales consultant, working with top-tier organizations, conducting qualitative and quantitative analysis, developing sales strategies aligned to outcomes, and working closely on sales training programs.
She is the co-founder of WiSE, Women in Sales Enablement, an organization that brings women in sales enablement together to network and learn from another. She is also the previous board president of TMF Foundation, a charitable giving foundation that supports health care providers in multiple settings. She is a speaker at national conferences including Texas Conference for Women, Sales Enablement Society, and Competitive Marketing Summit, as well as a guest lecturer at Texas A&M Reynolds & Reynolds Sales Leadership Institute.