DUBLIN – Bladen Community College employee Tiina Mundy believes in making a difference.
“In 2012, I wanted to do something meaningful for my 50th birthday,” she explained. “A friend of mine challenged me to swim 50 miles. Instead, I swam 100 miles.”
Because of her Finnish ancestry, the quest to swim 100 miles was dubbed the Finn Swiim Challenge, and a scholarship fund raising effort was born. Now, as the annual challenge reaches its fifth year milestone, the first Finn Swiim scholarship will be awarded to a student enrolled in summer classes at BCC.
“This is a rewarding moment,” remarked Mundy. “It has taken five years of fund raising and miles of swimming to create an endowed scholarship that can now be awarded every year.”
Mundy developed a love of swimming at an early age when she swam with the YMCA swim team in Dubuque, Iowa. “We were called the peanut squad,” she reminisced. “At ten years old, we were rocking it!”
Throughout high school, Mundy was swimming and diving competitively. But her talent for competition diving was upstaging her swimming. While an undergraduate at the United States Air Force Academy, she was recognized as An All-American Diver.
Mundy has served the college for 10 years as the human resources director. “My undergraduate degree is in engineering. My master’s degree is in business. But I really enjoy people,” she remarked. “Moving into the human resources aspect of business was a great fit for me.”
BCC Foundation Director, Linda Burney, praised Mundy. “Tiina is one of those rare persons who is always looking for ways to enrich the life of someone else. The Foundation welcomes efforts such as this from individuals who really want to be the change.”
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