While he may be have a calm and quiet demeanor, he is able to convince hundreds of students to come to Blackburn College each year.
Without Justin Norwood, many students would have never attended the college.“Justin Norwood is an awesome person and admissions counselor,” said sophomore elementary education major Gariel Pierce. “He’s the reason I am at Blackburn.”
Although he is selflessly averse to talking about himself, Norwood, who serves as the college’s Associate Director of Admissions, plays an important role in recruiting students. Norwood recruits freshmen at high school and college fairs within a 50-mile radius of Blackburn. He said that his favorite part about recruiting is “working with students to go on to that next step and see how they change from being a freshman in college all the way to their senior year and how they become more defined people.”
“I remember when he called me to tell me I got accepted into Blackburn with a few scholarships,” said Pierce. “Not only was he informative and nice, he kept in contact with me constantly and was always looking for a way to help my transition to college be easier.”
Justin Norwood as a student with another RA, Rob Horn.
Norwood was a student at Blackburn, graduating in December of 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education – history. Aside from one semester working as a Resident Assistant and two weeks as Resident Director of Challacombe “North” Hall, Norwood spent the majority of his work program experience in food service.
Blackburn is also where Norwood met his wife of 16 years. The two met in Butler Hall, where Norwood lived for the majority of his time, and the rest is history. Norwood and his wife Stephanie have two kids who are 10 and 12 years old.
Prior to attending Blackburn, Norwood received his associate’s degree in surgical technology from Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois. When looking for a school to transfer to, he visited McKendree University in Lebanon, Illinois, which was playing Blackburn’s football team that day. Norwood decided he liked Blackburn’s offense better, and he and his family decided to visit the campus on their way home.
Thus, Norwood’s main reason for coming to Blackburn was to play football, which he looked forward to every weekend. “Students would put couches on the end zone to watch games,” he recollected. Norwood still supports Beaver athletics today. “He is one of the few people who got me to continue my basketball career, because I was 50/50 about playing in college,” said Pierce. “Now that I’m here, Justin has had my back and is always checking up on me. He comes to some of my basketball games, too. Justin is the type of person who cares genuinely.”
Norwood very much enjoyed his experience as a student at Blackburn, and he wishes students today could get a taste of what the college was like for him. “One of the things that made Blackburn such a memory for me was the fact that we wouldn’t go home on the weekends. It seems like a lot of students now are constantly going home. For us, there was a reason to stay on Saturdays, whether it was football, or ya know, we all wanted to be around each other and this was our home,” Norwood said.
“The funny thing about Blackburn is, even from when I was a student, the students make the place. You’re only going to be as happy what you allow yourself to be. Embrace how much control you guys [the students] have of what’s going on around here, and if you don’t like it, change it for the better.” Norwood hopes to stay at Blackburn for the long run, as this is his 12th year in admissions. “I probably wouldn’t be at peace anywhere else just because I’m so tied to this school.”
Outside from Blackburn, Norwood enjoys reading and playing records, as well as watching movies and playing his favorite video game, the “old Dungeons and Dragons.” He also loves to drive his red 1967 Mercury Cougar.