Troy University has honored two students and a member of the University’s staff with the 2025 Algernon Sydney Sullivan Awards.
Maggie Chapman, a senior Social Work major from Chelsea, Derrick Nobles, a senior Accounting major from Mobile, and Juliana Bolivar, Director of the Small Business Development Center at TROY, received the Sullivan Awards during a luncheon in their honor on Monday at the Troy Campus. The recipients were also honored during the University’s annual Honors Convocation Monday afternoon.
The Sullivan Award, which is presented at select colleges and universities throughout the United States, recognizes recipients for their excellence of character, humanitarian service and spiritual qualities. The award has been presented annually to a male student, a female student and one non-student at TROY since 1981. Students, faculty and staff nominate candidates for the award.
“We believe that it is appropriate that we present the Sullivan Awards at Troy University,” said Dr. Jack Hawkins, Jr., Chancellor. “Our mission is to develop students into leaders with well-defined values who will go out into the world and make a huge difference. We believe that these values are more important today than ever in our history.”
Chapman is president of Sigma Alpha Sigma, a service organization dedicated to community involvement. She is a member of The ’87, Phi Alpha and Tau Upsilon Alpha and serves as a student ambassador for the School of Social Work and Human Services. She is currently completing an internship with the East Central Mental Health Center and will graduate from TROY in May.
Nobles is president of the Dean’s Student Advisory Council in the Sorrell College of Business and past president of the University Activities Council and the 101 Elite Men. He is a Trojan Ambassador and a member of the National Panhellenic Council, the Student Government Association, the Welcome Week Committee, the Accounting Society and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. He was the 2023 winner of Mr. Trojan Pride and is the University’s reigning Homecoming King. Nobles is also the recipient of the Lamar P. Higgins Leadership Award and a member of Beta Alpha Psi Accounting Honor Society, The ’87, Mortar Board, Omicron Delta Kappa National Honor Society and the National Society of Leadership and Success.
Bolivar has served as director of the Small Business Development Center at TROY since 2021 and earned her Master of Public Administration Degree from TROY in 2024. She was named to the 2024 class of the Alabama Leadership Initiative and was recognized at the Wiregrass Region’s 2024 Remarkable Woman of the Year by Dothan’s WTVY Television and Nexstar Media. She also was named a Prelude of the Tri-State by the Tri-State Expo Juneteenth Affairs organization, based in Dothan. In 2023, Bolivar was named to the national Top 40 Under 40 list by America’s Small Business Development Center and was selected as Alabama’s 2023 State Star, the highest recognition for individual achievement, acknowledging exemplary performance that has a significant and positive impact on advancing small business efforts. Bolivar was raised by small business owners and started her own business at the age of 16.
