Drury University is proud to announce sophomore Lauren Coleman (Mustang, Oklahoma) as a finalist for the Delta Scholars Award. Coleman is Drury’s second Delta Scholars Award finalist since 2024.

The Delta Scholars program is a summer collaboration between Harvard University and Mississippi State University’s Shackouls Honors College and features students from the Delta Region, which includes Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee.

Finalists will spend early June at Mississippi State learning from researchers, nonprofit organizations, and community leaders in the multi-state Mississippi Delta area while traveling the region as part of a cohort. Finalists will later present their findings at a research forum in Boston.

Coleman is a Music Therapy major with a minor in Exercise Physiology. An Academic All-Conference member of Drury’s Track & Field program, Coleman is the president of Black United Independent Collegiate (BUIC) and also served  as the student discussant for the “MLK Day Conversation” at Drury.

As part of the award process, Coleman wrote two essays to demonstrate her investment in community service and the impact of this award on her campus and career trajectory.

Drury University student Nettie Benjamin (Angel Fire, New Mexico) is a recipient of the esteemed Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship. The Gilman Scholarship is granted to U.S. undergraduate students with financial need who demonstrate academic preparedness to participate in a designated program and a design service project.

Benjamin is Drury’s 10th Gilman Scholar since 2022. A Music Therapy major, she will join international students at Lincoln University in the United Kingdom this spring. In her essay, she planned a trivia night to help promote the Declaration of Independence’s ideals in this celebratory year.

Drury shotgun sports turned in a standout performance at the ACUI National Championships, earning multiple honors and top finishes across several events. Leading the way, Hayden Sanson, Andrew Herbig, and Ty Leach were each named to the All-American team, recognizing their exceptional performances throughout the competition and highlighting the strength of the program on a national stage.

In team competition, the trap squad captured first place with an impressive score of 496 out of 500, demonstrating consistency and precision throughout the event. The team followed that performance with another first-place finish in double trap, posting a score of 482 out of 500 and continuing its strong showing against top competitors.

During Drury’s annual Match Madness fundraising drive, Rosalie O’Reilly Wooten ’64; Stacey and David O’Reilly ’71; Anya and Larry O’Reilly ’68; and Lauren O’Reilly ’92 provided up to $1.8 million total in matching funds to support student success. The O’Reilly-Wooten Challenge ran until May 31, 2026, and all donations designated to the Student Success Fund were matched dollar-for-dollar.

“The O’Reilly and Wooten families are honored to provide this match as a reflection of our deep gratitude for Drury and our confidence in its future,” said Rosalie O’Reilly Wooten. “Drury has shaped our family across generations, and we are proud to help create opportunities for today’s students to thrive. We hope this challenge encourages alumni and friends to join us in investing in the people and programs that make a Drury education distinctive.”

Donors could designate their gifts to one of several targeted areas within the Student Success Fund and select endowments.

“The 2026 O’Reilly-Wooten Challenge is a powerful reflection of the O’Reilly and Wooten families’ extraordinary and enduring commitment to Drury,” said Drury President Jeff Frederick. “Through their leadership and generosity, the O’Reilly-Wooten Challenges have resulted in record years of support for student success. This year’s challenge not only advances the Student Success Fund and our endowment but also serves as an invitation — and an inspiration — for alumni and friends to join them in investing in our students’ futures. We are deeply grateful for their partnership and the example they continue to set for our community.”

It only took Tyra Pierce 35 years to go viral.

A high-energy adjunct professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Drury since 1991, Pierce ends every class with a magic trick, something he has been doing since before he arrived in Springfield.

“I do about 40 different tricks,” Pierce said. “Card tricks, silk tricks, mind-reading tricks. Sometimes it ties in directly to the lesson, but mostly it’s just for fun.”

In February, freshman Kole Esselstyn decided to record Pierce as he attempted to escape from a straitjacket at the end of class.

“He told us if he didn’t get out in under three minutes, we’d get an extra five points on the next test,” Esselstyn said. “And, of course, he made it in under two minutes.”

Esselstyn didn’t know it at the time, but his recording would soon become social media gold.

Around noon on Feb. 10, Esselstyn posted a 30-second clip of Pierce with the tag of, “My psych professor is crazy” to one of his two Instagram accounts, @kolesports2007. By 4:30 p.m., the video had 100,000 views. When he went to bed, it was up to 2 million views.

The next morning, it was at 10 million.

By the end of February, the video had been viewed more than 34.7 million times, had 3.1 million likes, and was one of the most viral videos on Instagram for the month. The video became so popular, ESPN SportsCenter reached out to Esselstyn and the video was featured by social media content factories Viral Hog, LADBible, and Overtime.

Drury University has agreed to terms with Vice President and Director of Athletics Nyla Milleson on a four-year contract extension, Drury President Dr. Jeff Frederick announced April 20.

Milleson, who was named Drury’s Vice President and Director of Athletics in February 2022, will lead the Panthers and Lady Panthers through the 2029-30 academic year under the terms of her extension.

Throughout Milleson’s four years as Drury’s lead administrator for athletics, the Panthers have experienced unprecedented growth in both student-athlete enrollment and revenue generation, while maintaining an elite standard of achievement in the competitive arena and in the classroom.

Drury’s NCAA athletic programs continue to achieve as consistent championship contenders, not only in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, but among all NCAA Division II programs nationwide. During Milleson’s tenure, the Panthers and Lady Panthers have captured eight conference titles and represented Drury in NCAA postseason competition on 32 occasions. Additionally, the Drury men’s and women’s basketball programs have led the GLVC in cumulative home attendance in each of her four years at the helm of the department, with both teams ranking among the top 15 nationally each season.

Academically, the Panthers set department records with eight student-athletes earning CSC Academic All-America recognition and 293 total Academic All-GLVC honorees last year. Furthermore, all 33 varsity sport programs posted at least a 3.0 team GPA for 2025, and Drury’s NCAA student-athletes recorded an average individual GPA of 3.49 for the 2024-25 academic year.

Milleson also piloted Drury Athletics through a department-wide restructuring that included the addition of two senior-level administrator positions and several additional full-time athletics staff members last spring.

Under her guidance, Drury enjoyed another record-setting fundraising effort, with the 2025 Champions Challenge generating $463,647 in revenue for athletics. That figure shattered the department fundraising standard for a fourth-consecutive year under Milleson’s leadership.

Most college students relish their Winter Break, the time between the end of fall semester final exams and the start of spring semester. A few weeks at home, meeting up with old friends, and relaxing with family are what most students need to recharge their batteries for the remainder of the academic year.

But that’s not the case for all students. In December, 19 Drury students from the Breech School of Business and Hammons School of Architecture joined Dr. Gehan Dhameeth, Associate Dean & Associate Professor of Marketing at Breech, on a trip to his native Sri Lanka as part of Drury’s long-standing Study Abroad program.

And while the students took in the beauty and culture of the South Asian island located just off the southeast coast of India, they were much more than tourists.

Sri Lanka is home to as many as 7,500 wild elephants, which are protected. And while those elephants are beautiful and majestic, they can also be a nuisance for the farming community. That’s where the Drury students came in.

In helping be a part of the solution, the students also learned more about global farming techniques and supply chain operations in a developing nation.

The students making the trip were: Loreli Fronabarger, Annika Gabel, Brady Horton, Jase Howard, Camden Kozikoski, Branden Lowe, Jake Lyons, Brendan Moehle, Vishanta Patterson, Riley Petrone, Ways Raasch, Elijah Roberts, Kyle Romanewicz, Thomas Shuster, Aidan Spaulding, Abby Stunja, Noah Wells, Jase White, and Danielle Buker. 

Drury’s Alvaro Zornoza captured his first individual national championship in the 200 backstroke, and Gwen Bergum won her second national title in as many days with her victory in the 200 breaststroke at the 2026 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships

The Drury men earned national runner-up distinction after narrowly missing their 23rd team title, finishing just 13.5 points behind Tampa for the top spot in the team standings following a back-and-forth battle between the two teams on the final day. Drury’s 509 points led third-place Colorado Mesa (416) by 93 points and fourth-place GLVC foe Indianapolis (399) by 110.

In the women’s competition, Bergum’s time of 2:10.78 in the 200 breast eclipsed her previous personal best and followed a sixth-place performance in the same event a year ago. She became the second Panther in as many years to capture both the 100 and 200 breaststroke titles at the NCAA meet, joining Jonette Laegreid who did so last spring. Bergum, who won the title in the 100 breast Friday, is the sixth Panther to win the 200 breast national title.

The Drury women turned in their 31st consecutive top-five finish at the NCAA Division II level, totaling 284 points to place fifth behind West Florida (298.5), Colorado Mesa (328.5), Tampa (424.5) and Nova Southeastern (486, which captured its fourth-straight team national title.

This year’s second and fifth-place finishes by each Drury program gives the Panthers 28 trips to the NCAA-II Championships with both teams placing among the top five squads nationally.