Memphis, Tennessee— For distinguished personal, career, and service accomplishments with exemplary contributions to society, Summer Owens will be honored with the 2013 Young Alumna Award at the University of Memphis. This highest Alumni Association Award is given to publicly recognize alumni forty years or younger. The 2013 Distinguished Alumni Enshrinement of 1912 will be presented at multiple events at the University of Memphis Homecoming Weekend Friday, November 8 and Saturday, November 9th.
Owens is a 2001 magna cum laude graduate of the University of Memphis Fogelman College of Business and Economics and was named Miss University of Memphis. She received the 2012 Fogelman College of Business and Economics Outstanding Young Alumna award, Memphis Business Journal Top 40 Under 40 award, McDonald’s Community Hero award, and many other awards for her personal and professional accomplishments and contributions.
A former teen mother, Owens is the author of Life After Birth: A Memoir of Survival and Success as a Teenage Mother, the president and founder of S.O. What! LLC, and founder and executive director of The S.O. What! Foundation. She has delivered hundreds of motivational speeches and workshops in schools, churches and other organizations across the county inspiring and educating girls, women, and audiences of all types to eliminate excuses and live life to their greatest potential.
For more information about the Enshrinement Ceremony, visit: http://www.memphis.edu/alumni/memphismatters/october13ens....
About Summer Owens, S.O. What! LLC and The S.O. What! Foundation
With her son by her side, Owens earned an MBA from Belhaven College in 2005 and a BBA from the University of Memphis in 2001. Owens has enjoyed a great career with prestigious companies including the Memphis Grizzlies, ServiceMaster and FedEx. She recently left Corporate America to manage her own business, S.O. What!, and non-profit, The S.O. What! Foundation, which encourage and teach people to live no excuses lives by embracing the Serenity Prayer—accepting what they can’t change but changing everything they can to live life to their greatest potential.
An active community speaker and mentor, Owens is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and a mentor with the Memphis Adolescent Parenting Program. She serves on the board of directors for the Memphis Exchange Club, the advisory board for A Step Ahead Foundation, and the leadership team for Memphis Teen Vision. She is also an adjunct professor of marketing at The University of Memphis and graduate of New Memphis Institute. For more information: visit www.SummerOwens.com
Media Contact
Summer Owens
901-299-9749
