Jasmin Enriquez Martinez
Features Editor
Far away from her Arkansas home, a shy Trevecca freshman, Lena Hegi, sat in the Tennessee Hall lobby, nervous for her first day of college, praying for someone to befriend her.
Four decades later, Lena Hegi Welch helps students find their sense of belonging on campus.
“I knew one person on campus. I was terrified, very introverted,” said Welch, dean of the school of arts and social sciences.
After 37 years as a professor and administrator at Trevecca, Welch received this year’s TNU Generation Impact Award. Current or former Trevecca employees who worked for more than three decades qualify for the award, according to the Treveccan.
On Nov. 8, the department of communication studies hosted a celebration in Wakefield Auditorium to honor Welch. More than a dozen former students from each decade of her tenure gave tributes to Welch. Some were in person and some sent videos. And though each student told stories from their own experiences, the overall theme was that Welch saw potential in her students and encouraged them to live up to it.
For Welch, time’s flown by.
“I remember being a ‘young faculty member’ and yet I’m not anymore,” said Welch.
Welch earned her bachelor’s in communication studies at Trevecca in 1981, completed a master’s at Auburn in 1983, and later returned to complete her doctorate at Trevecca in 2005.
In her junior year, a professor who taught the history of public speaking inspired Welch to pursue teaching.
When a job opened up with the Trevecca forensic team, a competitive public speaking team, Welch took the opportunity.
“It is a unique privilege to be able to teach in your alma mater,” said Welch.
Welch remembers those early days of driving to speech tournaments fondly. Students would climb into the van, and the van would immediately fill with chatter as she drove.
Some of the best conversations came from these drives, said Welch.
“Trevecca’s students are really good people. I mean, you all are. You’re good people, and you’re sweet people,” said Welch.
Jeffrey Wells, professor of communication studies, competed on Welch’s forensic team as a student.
Welch served as a mentor to Wells as a student, encouraging him to pursue graduate school.
“She said, ‘You have the potential to teach if you want to, and to become a communication scholar,” said Wells. “She really helped to set the trajectory of my career.”
Welch’s influence extends past the classroom.
During COVID, Welch welcomed Wells to her home for two and a half months to protect him from COVID, said Wells.
A couple of years later, Wells contracted a disease and considered taking a leave of absence.
However, Welch found a solution. She worked with Wells to put courses online so he could continue teaching.
“I was teaching online classes from the hospital from this disease that I contracted because of COVID,” said Wells.
Summer Kemp, a 1999 Trevecca alum and a former communication studies student of Welch’s, remembers her guidance.
“Lena has always been someone who values every person,” said Kemp.
Even after graduating, Welch continued to check in.
After a traumatic pregnancy left her newborn in the NICU, Welch drove from Nashville to Louisville to sit with Kemp and offer support.
Sitting in the hospital’s lobby, Welch listened as Kemp shared her struggles and story.
“Someone sacrificing their time like that to encourage me was truly impactful,” said Kemp.
Just as Welch impacts students and faculty, they, in turn, impact her.
During her mother’s death and her mother-in-law’s illness, students and faculty wrote encouraging notes and comments for Welch, she said.
“I am at a point where there’s going to come a day when I’m ready to retire, and I already realize I’ll miss that,” said Welch.
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