Georgia Highlands College Highlander

HigHlander

GHC named “best return on investment” in the state

Enrollment and retention on the rise

Nursing degree cited as second most affordable in the nation “We are GHC” campaign brings real stories to life

The official magazine of Georgia Highlands College Fall/Winter 2015

Highlights from the President’s Inauguration and Highlands Gala

reaching higher

2 | Fall/Winter 2015

The Highlander is published twice a year by the Office of Advancement at

Georgia Highlands College3175 Cedartown Highway

Rome, Georgia 30161706-295-6366highlands.edu

Editor and Designer

Sheila Jones

PhotographersJeff Brown

Nick Godfrey

WriterNick Godfrey

Donald J. Green, Ed.D, President

The Advancement Officeencompasses development, public relations,

marketing, digital media, graphic design,and alumni relations.

Vice President of AdvancementExecutive Director of the GHC Foundation

Mary Transue

Assistant to the Vice PresidentMary Ann Steiner

Director of Public Relations & MarketingSheila Jones

Content CoordinatorNick Godfrey

Director of Digital Media ServicesJeff Brown

Digital Media SpecialistJustin Sucre

Design and Print ServicesKen Davis

Alumni Development SpecialistAlison Lampkin

Tabl

e of

Con

tent

s ...in this issue3 Message from the President

4 Campus News

22 Faculty Spotlight

24 Staff Spotlight

25 Student Spotlight

27 Alumni Spotlight

30 Inauguration Highlights

34 The Highlands Inauguration Gala

36 Foundation & Alumni News

38 Charger News

44 Retiree News

Georgia Highlands College is a multi-campus, state college of the University System of Georgia. Founded in 1970 as Floyd Junior College, it now serves more than 5,700 students in Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama across its five campus locations in Rome, Cartersville, Marietta, Dallas, and Douglasville. Georgia Highlands currently offers associate degrees in over 40 areas of study, as well as a Bachelor of Science in nursing for registered nurses and a Bachelor of Science in dental hygiene.

KeeP uP wITH GeoRGIA HIGHlANdS oN SoCIAl MedIA/GeorgiaHighlandsCollege/GHCAthletics/GHCAlumni

@GaHighlands@GHC_Athletics@ChargerInCharge

ABOUT THE COVER: GHC electrician John Rogers had the idea to illuminate the Floyd campus tower over 10 years ago. It’s something he has always wanted to do. And in August, he was finally able to bring his idea to life. “I wanted to put my mark on the college, so one day when I retire and come back or if people I know come, I can say I helped do that,” he said. The tower features brand new RGB LED lights at the base and top that can change color. It shines the traditional GHC blue and orange most days, but has the ability to alter color for holidays or special events. Speakers have also been mounted to the tower to play music during the afternoons in the Floyd campus courtyard or to chime at the top of every hour. A camera with a bird’s eye view of the campus will eventually go live on GHC’s website in the coming months, giving anyone the chance to catch a glimpse of the beautiful Floyd campus 24/7.

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From the President

CHARGe! Georgia Highlands College is focused on a future of economic growth. We stand ready to be an industry and trade catalyst in Northwest Georgia with increased enrollment, higher retention rates, new degree programs, and greater community outreach. A key strategy to economic development is access to higher education. Specifically, do people in our com-munity recognize the value of higher education? Can everyone in our community afford to pursue a college degree? At GHC, our commitment to quality and afford-ability has created an amazing value for the citizens of Northwest Georgia. As evidence of that, a federal report recently recognized Georgia Highlands College as the “best return on investment” out of all state colleges in Georgia. That means we have main-tained a low price, while graduating people to higher salaries. A second strategy for economic development is retention. If students do not complete their degree, they cannot provide their talents in the labor market. GHC continues to pursue yearly increases in student retention, and we are employing many strategies to achieve that goal. One outstanding example of this work is the nearly 200 GHC employees who are cur-rently volunteering as student success coaches for over 900 first-time, full-time students. The bond we can create with our students by implementing this type of program allows us to aid our students in two ways. First, we can help them overcome any circumstance that may create barriers to their success. Second, it gives us the opportunity to continuously improve our services by removing as many of those barriers as we move forward. This work shows the commitment GHC faculty and staff have to our students.

THANK you! Thank you to everyone who participated in the GHC Presidential Inauguration and the Highlands Inauguration Gala! If you did not get the chance to attend, please check out our YouTube channel for Holly Chaney’s speech in the inauguration video. Holly is the GHC Student Government Association President. She expresses what GHC and all its faculty and staff mean to her. It is heartwarming and reminds me why we are here and the importance of the service that we provide. The Highlands Inauguration Gala was a wonderful opportunity to generate donations that will be used to help students complete their education. We could not provide that ser-vice without the assistance of the Northwest Georgia community. I will close by thanking everyone for their support, their hospitality to my family, and the assistance provided to our students.

PARTNeR wITH uS! If you wish to be more involved in higher education and economic development, please contact us at GHC. Every day we transform lives and impact the future of our students and our communities. Together, we can provide the resources necessary to hasten the economic expansion coming to our region.

Message from the President


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Georgia Highlands College nabbed second on a list of the 30 most affordable online Bachelor of Science in nursing degree programs in the nation.The list was recently published by Great Value Colleges.

GHC joins several colleges from across the nation, including the University of Texas, Indiana State University, and the University of Arkansas. California State University took the top spot.

Dean of Health Sciences Janet Alexander said there are many reasons why GHC’s RN-BSN degree would be considered one of the most affordable nursing programs in the nation. She noted that the cost is significantly lower in comparison to other colleges providing the same degree. Students can also complete the entire degree online and in 3 full-time semesters, she went on.

“Being affordable is great for registered nurses trying to pay for classes themselves,” Alexander said, “but it’s also very helpful for hospitals that reimburse nurses returning to school.”

“With the national push for 80 percent of RNs to have a Bachelor of Science in nursing by 2020, an affordable online program is important,” she added.

A full comprehensive list can be found on Great Value Colleges’ website (greatvaluecollege.net).

Great Value Colleges explained that its ranking system was developed by “consulting a number of well-researched rankings of online RN-BSN degree

programs. From among the more than 60 highly regarded programs […] found in these robust rank-ings […], [Great Value Colleges] selected the 30 most affordable according to the average net price of undergraduate tuition, as reported by College Navigator.”

It’s no secret...Georgia Highlands College is the best investment in town!

GHC was named as one of the 45 two-year public colleges in the country with the best ratio of tuition costs to graduates’ earnings by the new federal College Scorecard website (collegescorecard.ed.gov).

The database was built to help students bet-ter understand which colleges will provide the best return on investment. The site aims to provide stu-dents with “the clearest, most accessible, and most reliable national data on college cost, graduation, debt and post-college earnings.”

Only two colleges were highlighted in Georgia. GHC was highlighted in the two-year category and Georgia Institute of Technology in the four-year category.

GHC President Don Green said he’s been busy talking about how GHC is a great return on invest-ment.

“We offer our students several highly lucra-tive fields – everything from our business pathways to our math and science programs and our nursing program,” he said, “but what GHC is able to offer beyond that is a low tuition cost. That gives our stu-dents a huge opportunity to succeed here and do well beyond graduation.”

Currently, students at GHC can earn an associate degree for less than $7,300. Additionally, since GHC is part of the University System of Georgia (USG), course credits and degree programs can transfer to other USG colleges in the state.

GHC listed as ‘best value’ for a two-year degree in the state by federal report

Nursing program listed as second most affordable in the nation

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The enrollment numbers at Georgia Highlands College have been on a steady rise in 2015, when compared to 2014. Following an enrollment increase in the summer, fall semester enrollment rose 7.1 per-cent.

GHC President Don Green attributes these increases to a number of efforts by all faculty and staff in the areas of recruitment, retention, and increased marketing.

Fall 2015 enrollment in the University System of Georgia’s 30 colleges and universities totaled 318,164 students, an increase of 1.7 percent (or 5,228 more students) over fall 2014.

“We are encouraged by the year over year increase in our fall enrollment, but this is just the beginning and we still have work ahead of us to con-tinually increase the number of Georgians with col-lege degrees,” said USG Chancellor Hank Huckaby. “We are staying focused on our Complete College Georgia initiative, and will continue our efforts to recruit and retain students, and fully support them through their completion of college.”

According to the “Fall 2015 Semester Enrollment Report,” GHC had the third highest enrollment increase in the state.

GHC’s 7.1 percent enrollment increase includes a 21 percent increase in Latino enrollment numbers, as well. A significant rise that resulted from the efforts of the Latino Outreach Team, a group comprised of both faculty and staff who are focused on volunteer-ing to organize greater Latino participation in higher education.

“Not only have we seen increases in enrollment,” Green said, “we have also seen our retention rate go up 3.5 percent, which is a testament to the many efforts GHC has made to keep students engaged and on a pathway to success.”

A Student Success Coach Initiative was formed to help maintain and increase retention rates, Green added.

He said the initiative is a perfect way to empha-size the “contract GHC has with its students to do all it can to help them complete their degree.”

The Student Success Coach Initiative grew out of the work of the GHC Retention Team led by Dean

Tim Floyd. Floyd and the team strategized about the type of program that would have the greatest impact on the college and its retention rates. The team identi-fied first-time, full-time students as the pilot group for the focus of this new initiative.

The concept for this initiative was then handed over to the Student Success Coach planning team led by Dean Jon Hershey and Tutorial Center Director Jennifer Hicks. The planning team modeled the ini-tiative after GHC’s Brother 2 Brother and GHAME (Georgia Highlands African American and Minority Male Excellence) programs that have created a com-panionship of coaching and accountability among its members.

The Student Success Coach Initiative gave all 2015 first-time, full-time GHC students the oppor-tunity to work with faculty or staff members who would act as their success coach for the year. Almost 200 faculty/staff members volunteered to be success coaches for over 900 students.

Success coaches meet and communicate with stu-dents several times throughout the year to make sure the student isn’t having any issues with their classes, scheduling, time management, payment, tutoring, etc.

The goal of the initiative is to provide first-time students with a smooth first year and lead them toward a successful experience at GHC.

“It’s great to see that even in a time when popu-lation and economic trends have created some chal-lenges for state colleges,” Green said, “our faculty and staff are uniting to enhance what we do, expand recruitment efforts, and implement a variety of initia-tives intended to increase student retention.”

The enrollment numbers were released in the USG’s “Fall 2015 Semester Enrollment Report,” which breaks down enrollment by institution, class, race and ethnicity, in-state, out-of-state and interna-tional students, as well as gender and age.

Enrollment and retention numbers continue to climb

Success Coach Initiative kicks off

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Georgia Highlands College has entered into an agreement with Dalton State College that will streamline the process for any stu-dent wishing to obtain a bachelor’s degree in biology, chemistry, or mathematics to do so by starting at GHC and later transfer-ring to Dalton State. A Bachelor of Business Administration is also offered in accounting, management, management information sys-tems, and marketing systems, as well.

Any student that enters into the GHC-Dalton State bachelor’s track is automatically accepted at both institutions and can move from one to the other with relative ease.

GHC will be considered the “sending institution” in the agreement and will be tasked with offering the Associate of Science or Associate of Business Administration in one of the seven areas of study, while Dalton State is considered the “receiving institution” and is charged with providing the correlating Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Business Administration in the same transferred area of study.

“I am pleased that our regional neigh-bor and our fellow USG baccalaureate degree-granting institution Dalton State College has articulated an agreement for four-year completion studies in areas that GHC does not currently offer,” Vice President for Academic Affairs Renva Watterson said.

“This just makes sense that our students have a clear path to graduation with both an associate degree and bachelor’s degree...right from the start,” she added.

Dalton State was happy to join GHC in this deal.“Georgia Highlands has an excellent reputation for producing quality graduates in this region,” Dalton

State’s Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs Andy Meyer said. “We are excited that we can work with them to offer clear options and additional pathways for their students. I really believe this partnership will benefit the students, the region, and both institutions.”

Both institution presidents signed the agreement, which is currently in effect, at Dalton State College. After the signing, GHC toured Dalton State’s campus and facilities, particularly those related to the areas of study GHC students will be transferring into.

Partnership secured with Dalton State

oFFICIAl SIGNING: GHC President Donald Green and DSC President Margaret Venable (seated) sign the GHC-DSC Articulation Agreement, while (standing from left) GHC’s Professor of Biology Mark Knauss; DSC’s Randall Griffus, dean of the School of Science, Technology, and Mathematics; Andy Meyer, interim vice president for Academic Affairs; and Larry Johnson, dean of the School of Business look on.

Students from Young Grove Elementary School in Polk County visited the Floyd campus to participate in several fun, educational courses, ranging from science dissec-tions to computer lab research. The students spent the first part of their day rotating between classes. In one area, they were able to dissect a shark. In another area, the students used digital research tools to participate in a game show-style quiz.

Science is fun!

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Each year, GHC partners with local area ele-mentary teachers and holds an educational wetland workshop. The workshop is part of a Math Science Partnership grant with Northwest Georgia RESA (Regional Educational Service Agency). The partici-pants were elementary school teachers from NWGA RESA’s service region.

GHC professors led the workshop, which includ-ed a morning walk around the lake to the wetlands, where they used collecting equipment in order to col-lect aquatic macroinvertebrates and other biota from the wetlands to be returned to the lab for further edu-cational research studies.

The workshop was led by Professor of Biology Mark Knauss with support provided by Assistant Professors of Biology Andy Dawson and Veronica Morin. Lab Coordinator Jason Christian also present-ed and aided in the workshop.

After collecting, the group returned to the lab for a quick lunch and then spent the remainder of the afternoon assessing the collected materials for aquatic macroinvertebrates, which were identified to general type (order) and genus.

The wetlands were developed during the late

1990’s by GHC biologist Leigh Callan with fund-ing and materials support from a number of sources, including Georgia Power, Temple-Inland Rome, and the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission. The wetlands were intended to serve as an outdoor laboratory and educational resource; it has been visited by hundreds of school children, who have enjoyed guided tours conducted by college fac-ulty and staff.

Georgia Highlands College has had a long his-tory of community service. Mark Knauss and Andy Dawson (both biologists) became involved with an MSP grant project with Kennesaw State University in 2008, where they became experienced in providing content support to elementary school teachers. They transferred their expertise to the NWGA RESA MSP project starting in 2011.

The improvement in educational effectiveness of STEM disciplines has been recognized as a need at the national level. Through the dedication and energy of faculty and staff like Knauss, Dawson, Morin, Christian, and others, GHC makes its impact on improving STEM educational effectiveness in our regional schools.

GHC partners with local high school teachers in wetland workshop

GHC, in collaboration with Bartow County Schools, hosted a pilot STEM camp for rising ninth grade students in the local school system this past summer.

The camp was held at GHC’s Cartersville campus and the Bartow County College and Career Academy. Students learned about robotics, infectious diseases, environmental issues, as well as participated in activi-

ties that highlight the many STEM careers available in our community.

The companies they visited were Anheuser Busch, Gerdau, Voelstalpine, Georgia Power, Innovative Chemical Technologies, Inc., Cartersville Medical Center, Phoenix Air, New Riverside Ochre, and Tellus Science Museum.

STEM camp a success in Cartersville


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Georgia Highlands College students now have the opportunity to transfer into an online completion program provided by the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.

Students are able to complete their Associate of Science in Business at GHC either online or on cam-pus, and then transition into UGA’s online Bachelor of Business Administration.

“The curriculum is designed for online students, but traditional students may take the same courses, as well,” said Leslie Terrell-Payne, senior academic advisor for eLearning and eCore liason. “Any GHC student majoring in business can transfer into this program, as long as they follow the curriculum as it is laid out.”

Terrell-Payne stated that GHC’s online programs demand excellent time management and communi-cation skills that prepare students for what they can expect from UGA’s online bachelor’s degree.

“UGA’s Terry College of Business has one of the top business programs in the country,” she said,

“so being able to transfer into it with no additional coursework (at the lower level) is a tremendous advantage.”

Dean of eLearning Diane Langston stated that eliminating the need to travel to classes in Athens may be what piques students’ interest the most.

“We’re already getting inquiries about this online completion program,” she said, “partly because it puts Terry College of Business within reach for students who cannot travel from our service area to Athens to attend.”

A minimum of a 2.8 GPA is required to enter the program, she added.

Prospective students can review program sheets showing courses needed and pathways to completion on GHC’s website under eLearning at highlands.edu/site/elearning-programs-and-courses

For more information on the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, please visit terry.uga.edu

Online bachelor of business administration transfer option with UGA now available

Georgia Highlands College has named Elijah Scott the Dean of Libraries, College Testing, and Curriculum Innovation. In addition to overseeing GHC’s libraries, Scott will additionally take charge of the college testing sites at each of the five campuses and the col-

lege’s curriculum innovation processes.Scott was previously GHC’s Director of

Libraries, a position he held since 2010. In that time, he has overseen the libraries on the Floyd, Cartersville, Paulding, and Douglasville campuses, while holding a collaborative relationship with Kennesaw State University’s library at GHC’s Marietta site.

Scott’s new duties will include the oversight of GHC’s college testing process, which includes administering COMPASS tests to nearly all incom-ing students, as well as other proctored tests for ser-

vices like eCore (the University System of Georgia’s online two-year core program).

Additionally, Scott will head the effort to make sure GHC’s curriculum meets the needs of local business and industry in Northwest Georgia, focus-ing on preparing students to find rewarding careers in the area. He will interface with local business and industry to learn what specific knowledge they need from prospective employees, and then identify areas in which GHC has the resources to quickly develop new programs and degrees to match those needs.

“Two-year colleges often have an advantage in that we can be nimbler in creating new programs and degrees in a shorter amount of time than larger uni-versities,” Scott said. “It will be critical for GHC to capitalize on this ability to ensure that we are provid-ing highly relevant educational experiences for our students.”

Early plans are to enhance the testing environ-ments and provide more types of testing opportuni-ties for students and prospective students, as well as continue to assess the needs of local business and industry to identify new degrees and programs that will open pathways to career attainment for students.

Elijah Scott named the Dean of Libraries, College Testing, and Curriculum Innovation

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Georgia Highlands College held its 2015 graduation in May and saw approximately 645 students receive their diploma. Twenty-two RNs completed GHC’s online Bachelor of Science in Nursing and were the first official baccaluarate graduates in GHC’s 45-year history.

The graduation procession was led by Assistant Professor of Mathematics Blanca Gonzalez. Ms. Ericia Ward-Williams, program man-ager of scholarships for the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, gave the commencement address, and Regent Neil Pruitt brought greetings from the Board of Regents. Special recogni-tions during the ceremony included: Dr. Kristie Kemper as the recipient of the Wesley C. Walraven Faculty Award and WellStar Health System as the recipient of the President’s Meritorious Service Award.

2015 CoMMEnCEMEnT

InCludES fIrST baCCalaurEaTE

GraduaTES Greg Ford was selected as the new

Dean of Natural Sciences and Physical Education.

Ford holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in chemis-try from Grambling State University in Grambling, LA, and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN.

He joins GHC from Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he lectured,

conducted laboratory courses, and directed research laboratory experiments for students across the terms.

Additionally, he worked in the Morehouse School of Medicine during the summers, serving as Co-Director for the Neuroscience Institute summer program, tracking data on students and yielding a 10-year plus longitudinal study on student success.

During his tenure at Morehouse, Ford served as a part-time faculty member at Georgia Highlands College.

Ford was also a post-doctoral fellow at Morehouse School of Medicine through the American Psychological Association Neuroscience Program.

Ford’s publications are extensive and may be found in Brain Research, Journal of Comparative Medicine, Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Journal of Andrology, Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, and Neurobiology of Disease.

He has several research projects to his credit, among them a study to identify molecular mecha-nisms and therapeutic targets of Traumatic Brain Injury with the Howard Huges Medical Institute and a fellowship aimed at identification and verification of Blood Biomarkers for Diagnosis and Treatment of Ischemic Stroke, while on a Henry C. McBay Research Fellowship.

He is the recipient of Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s Regenerative Medicine Pilot Award, in which he studied The Effect of Oxidative Stress Protection on Neuroinflammation and Neurogenesis following Traumatic Brain Injury.

Ford also works with science teachers in partner-ing schools to plan activities throughout the academic year. The goal of the program is to offer students opportunities to prepare for careers in science, tech-nology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Ford selected as Dean of Natural Sciences and

Physical Education


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Georgia Highlands College Associate Professor of History Bronson Long spent his time living in Paris on a dissertation fellowship—awarded to him by the French government—sifting through the French Foreign Ministry archives.

He also took his archi-val research on the road, taking several trips to

archives in Germany and Switzerland.In the year following his stay in Paris,

Long was awarded the Dr. Richard M. Hunt Fellowship by the American Council on Germany, which allowed him to stay an additional summer in Germany conducting research in the archives there.

“I very much enjoyed the archival research. But it took a lot of attention to detail and time to go through liter-ally hundreds of boxes of documents of diplomatic texts, such as memos, tele-graphs, and letters, almost all of which were in either French or German,” he said.

All this time and research went into a subject he finds to be both fascinating

and insightful: the Saar. “All of these documents helped me piece together

what I see as a complicated and fascinating story about the Saar, a small but economically and militarily stra-tegic German territory on the border with France,” he said. A place about the size of Floyd and Bartow coun-ties combined, he added.

Having spent time living in both France and Germany learning about the area, Long said that his choice to write about the Saar and the history surround-ing it allowed him to penetrate a facet of the history there that many English-speaking historians have seem-ingly ignored.

“I ended up focusing on the Saar because during the course of preliminary doctoral research, I discov-ered that the dispute over the Saar was a huge issue between France and West Germany in the 10 years after the Second World War, years that were crucial for the Cold War, Franco-German relations, and the establish-ment of European institutions,” he said.

Long’s book, which he wrote in the years following his arrival as a professor at GHC in 2007, is titled “No Easy Occupation: French Control of the German Saar, 1944 -1957.” Camden House, a peer-reviewed publisher of academic books on German literature, is including the book in its post-1945 German History series called “German History in the Context.” Additionally, GHC Art Professor Brian Barr drew the maps included in the book.

“I think people should read [the book] as a story of how difficult military occupations are, especially those such as France’s control of the Saar that seek to change a people’s national status and identity. In the long run, military occupiers are rarely seen as liberators as some alleged would be the case for the United States in Iraq. Even under the comparatively more favorable condi-tions for success that the French experienced in the Saar, occupations that try to transform other countries into something else often misread that country’s history and culture and have great difficulties accomplishing their goals or convincing the people whose territory they control that they are not meddlesome foreigners,” Long said. “[It] also shows how complicated border disputes and seeking peaceful relations between coun-tries can be.”

History professor conducts extensive research in Europe and publishes book about the Saar

latino outreachOver 60 Latino students from Rome High School visited the Floyd campus in October. GHC President Don Green presented a special program called “Next Generation Careers.” Students participated in a panel discussion with Latino students, faculty, and staff, then a campus tour, lunch, and a program by GHC’s Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Jones on how to prepare for college.

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10 years in CartersvilleThe Georgia Highlands College Cartersville campus held an event celebrating the campus’ 10th year. GHC’s Cartersville branch began in 1995 on Gilmer Street. Construction began on a new campus in 2002 on Route 20, just west of I-75, and opened for classes in 2005.

Georgia Highlands College has opened a pilot College and Career Center on the Cartersville campus that will provide students with the tools they need to take the next step toward the career they want.

“It has been well-docu-mented that obtaining a bet-ter job and improving career options are some of the main reasons students attend college,” Student Support Services Counselor Dorothy Morgan said. “The College and Career Center aims to provide a centralized location for all things career related.”

Morgan explained that the center will be staffed with support service mem-bers who are trained to help students with career assessments that can help identify lists of occupa-tions based on specific skills, abilities, and interests. Additionally, faculty will volunteer in rotations through the week to help students with advising questions and academic planning.

“The College and Career Center is a great way to help our students every step of the way,” Morgan said. “Our goal is to not only help students identify careers they would be suitable at and interested in while pursuing the degree path they need, but also to help them a step farther by connecting them to those jobs and providing them with the resources they need to obtain those jobs.”

Morgan stated that the center uses an online job

posting system through College Central Network (CCN) that connects current students and alumni with business/industry leaders throughout GHC’s service area.

Students will also have access to free career advice on resume writing, interview tips, and job search strategies.

“Student Support Services career counselors will help students engage in self-assessment, explore careers, and choose a pathway toward academic and career success,” Morgan said.

GHC’s pilot College and Career Center held a ribbon cutting ceremony in August, where students were able to get a firsthand look at the new area. The center is located in the Academic Building and is open Thursday from 8AM to 5PM and on Friday from 8AM to noon.

Pilot College and Career Center opens on the Cartersville campus

CAReeR FoCuSed - (left to right) Dean Elijah Scott, Dorothy Morgan, Kimberly Linek, Dean Leslie Johnson, Jennifer Hicks, Angela Wheelus,

Nea Martin, and GHC President Don Green


September 11th Tribute

The Student Veterans Club displayed 2,977 American flags on the Cartersville campus in the courtyard in memory of the 2,977 lives lost on September 11, 2001. The flags were placed by students and volunteers.

It was a bit more than studying rocks in a classroom for the students who participated in the Summer Field Course in Wyoming last summer.

The students flew into Denver and drove to the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains to visit Red Rocks Amphitheatre and the nearby Dinosaur Trail in the famous Morrison Formation. They stayed in Casper, WY, for a few days on the banks of the Platte River, where they studied rock and mineral identification, stratigraphy, paleontology, structure, topographic, and geologic mapping.

A day’s drive took the students northwest through the Wind River Canyon and Thermopolis to Cody, home of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center and its five world-class museums. After one night in Cody, the students drove into Yellowstone via the east entrance, the most spectacular way to arrive by vehicle.

They were then able to stay in cabins in Canyon Village, within walking distance of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. During this time, stu-dents had the chance to study hydrothermal activity, volcanism, ecology, and environmental policy.

Next, the students traveled to Colter Bay Village, on the shore of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton NP.

Seismology, glacial activity, mass wasting, stream processes, and hiking were the focus of their study while in the Tetons. The students also had a chance for some free time before turning back east for a two-day drive to Denver.

The trip ended with a stop in Kemmerer, WY, that gave students the chance to collect 45-million-year-old fish fossils.

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Students from all five campuses took their spring break time off to participate in a cultural experience in Costa Rica last semester. The students stayed at the University of Georgia’s Costa Rica campus in Monteverde, Costa Rica.

While at the UGA campus, they took a sustain-ability tour and helped with UGA’s reforestation efforts at their campus greenhouse. They took a guided tour through the Monteverde Cloud Forest, tours of a chocolate factory and an organic coffee farm and nature hikes with naturalist guides. They zip-lined through the cloud forest canopy, took dancing lessons and spent a day-and-a-half at Playa Sámara on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica.

The students concluded their visit with a total immersion experience by staying a full day and night with local Costa Rica families.

Associate Professor of Spanish Mark Greger, who went with the students, said it was not only a great cultural opportunity, but also a good chance to see a very natural part of the world.

“Costa Rica is a country that is known for

its natural beauty, including its lush cloud forests, unique ecology, and its beaches,” he said. “Costa Rica is also known for being an environmentally-friendly country.”

CoSTA RICA CoHoRT: Front row (kneeling): Reagan (UGA naturalist), JP Popham, Xinia Smith Camacho, Joey Lefurgey, Lexi Minick. 2nd row (stand-ing): Cristian (driver), Brett Cason, Karley Callaway, Jessi Lestelle, Malika Jones, Marie Rucker, Alexandra MacMurdo (faculty), Jamie Doherty, Chazmyane Griffin,Michelle Boyce (faculty), Aubreay Terrill, Gustavo Olmedo, Deidre Harp (faculty), Kelly Pereira, Mark Greger (faculty), Savanna Bordelon, Candace Whitfield, Vienna Walker.

During the brutal flooding and storm after-math in Texas and Oklahoma this past year, counselors at Georgia Highlands College worked on-call to provide American Red Cross workers and volunteers periodic opportunities to check in on their personal self-care.

“A disaster relief volunteer working in Texas’ Level 6 disaster (similar to Hurricane Sandy) serves victims experiencing extreme levels of grief and loss, as well as rapidly evolv-ing situations requiring patience and flexibility under stress,” GHC Director of Student Support Services Angie Wheelus said.

“It is not uncommon for volunteers to expe-rience vicarious trauma, or post-traumatic stress, as they serve disaster victims of this magnitude,” she went on. “Having a counselor to talk to dur-ing and after their assignment enables the volun-teer to process and debrief their experience with a mental health professional.”

Several relief workers were dispatched to the areas affected by the storms and were deployed for 2-3 weeks, Wheelus explained. The counselors at GHC provided an on-call service, which means they were contacted at any time, day or night, over the phone to help.

COUNSELOrS SUPPOrT GEOrGIA rED CrOSS VOLUNTEErS IN TExAS AND OkLAHOmA AS DISASTEr mENTAL HEALTH VOLUNTEErS

Students go way south of Florida for spring break trip of a lifetime

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Theta Kappa chapter did a lot more than just clock some beach time. The team of students earned three competitive regional schol-arships, attended a conference in New Mexico, and coordinated a camp in Atlanta to prime new PTK members for the 2015-2016 academic year.

PTK Chapter President Justin Jones, VP of Membership Mykayla Jeter and the Lead

Faculty Advisor Karen Huggin represented GHC at the PTK Honors Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in June.

Over 500 international PTK chapter representatives were also in attendance.

“Honors Institute is an inten-sive week-long exploration of the PTK Honors in Action Study Topic: Frontiers and the Spirit

of Exploration,” Huggin said. “Features of the event included small group seminars, educational trips and activities, and lectures with internationally recognized speakers such as Dr. Reza Aslan, Sonia Shah, Steve Winter, and Jeff Leiberman.

If that wasn’t enough, GHC’s PTK chapter went on to coor-dinate and lead the first annual Georgia Region Boot Camp-North held at Atlanta Metropolitan State

College in July.“Our GHC Alpha

Psi Omicron PTK chap-ter was elected again to one of four regional chapter officer posi-tions at this past Spring Regional Conference. We hold the region-al office of Chapter Relations and Justin Jones is our regional chapter representative,” Huggin said.

“This intensive all-day event featured training on the Phi Theta Kappa Hallmarks of Leadership, Scholarship, Service, and Fellowship with special emphasis on required 5-Star Chapter Development projects, such as the Honors in Action project,” she went on.

The eventful summer didn’t end there. GHC’s incoming 2015-2016 officers also participated in an intensive all-day training work-shop led by Huggin. The meeting also featured a live webinar from PTK headquarters on chapter projects and scholarship writing instructions.

And to top it off, PTK brought home more honors than any other

college in attendance at the 2015 All-Georgia Academic Team Awards luncheon in Atlanta.

GHC students Hannah Lively and Michael Vanderberg from the Cartersville campus, Gena Carter and Hillary Rowell from the Marietta site and Hali Bohannon and Lindsey Miles from the Floyd campus were honored at the Sloppy Floyd building in down-town Atlanta, overlooking the State Capitol.

All six students were named to the All-Georgia Academic Team, sponsored by the Coca- Cola Foundation and Phi Theta Kappa, and received medallions and commemorative certificates. College administrators and stu-dents from across the state were in attendance. Kaleb Wilkes, an alumnus of South Georgia State College, served as keynote speaker.

To be eligible for this honor, students must be nominated by their college to the All-Georgia Academic Team. Nominees are selected based on leadership qual-ities, community service, and out-standing academic performance. Students nominated become eli-gible for the All-USA Academic Team, the Coca-Cola New Century Scholars Scholarship, and the All-USA Community College Academic Team and Coca-Cola Community College Academic Team scholarships. These pro-grams award over $300,000 in scholarships every spring.

“The fact that we had the most students is very impressive,” Vice President for Academic Affairs Renva Watterson said. “These students are not just aca-demic scholars, they also commit to serving the institution and the community. They are very well-rounded individuals.”

Phi Theta kappa: Scholars committed to serving

PTK PoSe: (left to right/back to front) are Roy Clifton and Justin Jones, then Christin Koutavas, Mykayla Jeter, and Holly Chaney (and mascots Phil and Thea).

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The Georgia Highlands College student organization La Mano recently participated in the HoPe (Hispanic Organization Promoting Education) Leadership Conference in Marietta.

At the event, La Mano members worked with Latino high school students in several areas, utilizing educational work-shops and a college fair. Other activities included dancing, raffles, and a dance competition.

Marietta Student Life Coordinator Abraham Ortiz said it was a great way for college students to stress the importance of finishing high school, attending college, and completing a four-year degree to the Latino community.

Ortiz stated that the annual HoPe Leadership Conference is an exciting event that is held annually to help motivate Latino high school students in Georgia to graduate.

“Since Latinos have the highest high school dropout rate in the state, the HoPe Conference encourages these students to graduate by demonstrating leadership, working hard in school, and obtaining advice from past high school graduates, all while having fun,” he said.

HoPe started as a club of 20 alumni, and has grown to an organization with over 4,000 members. Its goal is to increase the graduation rate amongst all Latino students.

“Although HoPe is expanding and many Latino students are attending college, most of them become overwhelmed with the way college works and often do not become involved,” Ortiz said. Which is why La Mano was started, he added.

La Mano is a student organization at Georgia Highlands College that seeks to help Latino college stu-dents progress through school, while encouraging them to continue their education by offering an opportu-nity to participate in cultural and academic activities, all while achieving academic success.

La mano coach Latino high school students

on the importance of graduating

Georgia Highlands College now offers a pay-ment plan model that can break down a student’s tuition balance into affordable monthly payments, enabling a student who otherwise could not fully pay upfront to pay month by month.

“This is the first time GHC has offered a pay-ment plan,” GHC Bursar Stephanie Loveless said.

The idea, she explained, is to give students more options on how they can pay for their tuition, and to introduce a flexible, no-interest payment plan.

“It’s an affordable option for students to pay for college,” she said. “The payment plan is a great alternative for students who do not wish to accumu-late debt through student loans or those who do not have sufficient financial aid to cover their full bal-ance.”

Loveless stated that once students are accepted, they can set up their payment plan by either having

direct automatic bank withdrawals or by paying with their debit/credit card on the fifth of each month.

An enrollment fee and a down payment are required at a rate that depends on the number of payments the student wishes to make. For example, there is no down payment if a student wants to make four payments over four months, but there is a 50% down payment required if the student would like to make only two payments over two months.

For a full breakdown of payment options or to apply, please visit: http://www.mycollegepayment-plan.com/ghc

This new payment plan option is offered by Georgia Highlands College in conjunction with Nelnet Business Solutions. Nelnet Business Solutions provides comprehensive campus com-merce solutions to more than 750 institutions of higher education.

New payment plan model allows students to pay as they go


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To further grow its military friendly rec-ognition and to address the need for more military friendly higher education throughout the nation, Georgia Highlands College

has partnered with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to launch the college’s first ever Yellow Ribbon Program.

The Yellow Ribbon Program is designed to aid eligible students with any outstanding out-of-pocket expenses after their normal VA benefits have been applied.

“The Yellow Ribbon Program is an annual agree-ment through the Department of Veteran Affairs, and is another step in GHC creating a military friendly atmosphere,” GHC Veterans Affairs Coordinator Amy Wise said.

Wise stated that the program works through a funding cooperation between the GHC Foundation and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. Every dollar the college invests in the program is matched by the Department of Veteran Affairs.

GHC’s primary focus for its first year in the program is to aid veterans who may be paying out-of-state tuition and who are not eligible for any type of waiver.

“After consulting with other USG schools and several discussions in various departments at GHC, we feel this agreement will allow us to help the most students,” Wise said.

Additionally, Military Advanced Education’s 2015 MAE Guide to Colleges & Universities pub-lication awarded Georgia Highlands College the designation of a Top School based on its practices in military and veteran education.

GHC was also recognized by MAE in its 2012 and 2014 editions.

Institutions were evaluated on their military cul-ture, financial aid, flexibility, on-campus support, and online support services. Each school’s performance rating by category is represented by an easy-to-recog-nize dashboard. This will enable prospective students to quickly target schools that follow best practices in military education and then put these in context with other academic or career considerations.

GHC also received Military Friendly recognition from GI Jobs in 2015.

GHC’s military friendly recognition expands by

joining Yellow ribbon Program

Georgia Highlands College Director of Student Support Services Angela Wheelus recently pub-lished an article in “The Journal of Military and Government Counseling” about the influx of military veterans who are entering colleges all across the country and how colleges can support these veterans as they navigate higher education.

The article is titled “From Combat to Campus: Assessing the Needs of Student Veterans and Their Families in Higher Education.” Susan Boes, of the University of West Georgia, also co-contributed to the article.

In her abstract, Wheelus explains that many vet-erans may have recognizable physical wounds, but just as many may have unseen emotional and rela-tional wounds.

The abstract con-tinues: These invisible wounds can create chal-lenges for the veteran and campus faculty who may not understand the issues unique to veterans. Civilian and university cultures are vastly different from the military envi-ronment, and campus counselors, administrators, and educators have an obligation to understand this diverse population with their unique needs. This action research study (ARS) presents the perceived needs of student veterans at a southeastern univer-sity, discusses implications, and explores future interventions, limitations, and recommendations for future research.

Wheelus publishes article on supporting veterans in

higher education

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Georgia Highlands College Student Life Director John Spranza was elected as president of the Georgia College Personnel Association (GCPA), which is the state chapter of the American College Personnel Association (ACPA).

Spranza will serve a term of three years, moving from President-Elect in 2015 to President in 2016 to Past-President in 2017.

Spranza joined the GCPA’s growing number of members across the state in 2003. There are approxi-mately 200 members to date, including higher educa-tion professionals (staff and faculty) at USG schools, TCSG schools, and private schools.

Over the years, Spranza has been a very active member of the GCPA. He was the Two-Year College Sector Representative in 2005, and was later elected as Treasurer for 2009-2011 (for a two-year term). Additionally, he has assisted in a volunteer capacity in the past with the association’s newsletter and on

various conference-planning committees.“One of the most enjoyable things with GCPA

for me over the years has been the relationships and friendships I have made with my colleagues across the state, so I am honored that they would consider me to lead the association,” he said. “Our main goal is to provide our members with an outlet for top-notch education and professional development, plus across-the-state networking with our peers,” Spranza said.

GCPA has served the state’s higher education professionals for 45 years, and provides opportuni-ties for professional development, publication, and peer connection to faculty, staff, and administration at all institutions of higher learning in Georgia. Its parent organization ACPA has been a force in higher education administration since its founding in 1924, and continues to shape and lobby for educational advancement both home and abroad from its inter-national headquarters located in Washington DC at the National Center for Higher Education. As a state chapter of ACPA, GCPA is responsible for recruit-ing and servicing members throughout the state of Georgia to promote the association’s mission, vision, and core values.

Spranza elected president of the Georgia College Personnel Association

ASF 30TH AnniverSAry Trip A SuCCeSS Fifty-two students, employees, and guests took part in the college’s 30th annual spring trip to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery. The group saw professional performances of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” and “King Lear” and enjoyed a stage-side chat with the “As You Like It” cast. A highlight of the trip was a guided tour of the Alabama State Capitol building. The tour guide had par-ticipated in the Selma Voting Rights March

50 years ago and was also involved in the making of the movie “Selma.” An optional walking tour also took participants to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and the National Civil Rights Memorial. The annual trip is sponsored by Student Life and the Humanities Division and draws participants from all GHC locations.

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national nIrSa Slam dunk ChampionIn April, the Brother 2 Brother intramural team “B2B Diamonds” participated in the NIRSA National Basketball Tournament hosted by NC State in Raleigh, North Carolina. 96 teams participated. Christian Browder, won first place in the slam dunk contest. He competed against 12 other players from around the country. Second place went to a 6’9” player from Clemson. Christian is 6’0”. NIRSA Stands for National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association.

Oliver Robbins never thought he could make a living doing something he loved. If you had asked him dur-ing his 12 years of working at the Department of Juvenile Justice as a probation officer what he would be doing today, the answer wouldn’t have been editorial manager for the local Rome V3 Magazine.

“I decided to return to college, because I had reached a ceiling as a probation officer,” Robbins said, “and

advancement meant that I needed a degree.”Robbins, who will be promoted in the coming

months to the editor-in-chief of V3 Magazine, said his perspective changed on what a job should be, when he started at Georgia Highlands College.

“I thought a paycheck was the way to measure success, until I gathered the courage to leave the secu-rity of my job, sign up for college classes and embark on the journey of finding happiness in the workplace,” he said.

While taking classes at GHC, Robbins met several professors who he said expanded his ability to effec-tively communicate through writing, and although he didn’t start college with a career in writing in mind, he soon found that he had a passion for it.

“I had entered college with the aim of obtain-ing a degree in the medical field. I had always loved to write, and often enjoyed a good book, but I never imagined I would be able to work as a writer and earn a living,” he said.

Robbins quickly latched onto his new passion and joined one of GHC’s Service Learning projects, where he would eventually come in contact with V3 Magazine and land his future job.

“I was paired with an instructor from Georgia Highlands and our job was to work with a non-profit organization to tell the stories of people who had benefited from the services offered,” he said. “I was asked to interview the subject and write a story using their perspective.”

Robbins said that V3 Magazine was tapped to help put everything together and to help get the word out about what Robbins was writing about. And at the time, he added, the owner of V3 Magazine needed a writer.

One thing led to another for Robbins, and next thing he knew, he was doing something he loved and enjoyed—and getting paid for it.

“Adults who have never considered going to col-lege or are considering picking up where they left off can tremendously benefit from taking some classes,” Robbins said. “There are so many professions that wake you with enthusiasm and leave you feeling accomplished in the evening. Finding this passion requires one to explore subject matter that is unfamil-iar, and find a way to incorporate said subjects into a career that you have only dreamed about.”

GHC has taken note of the growing number of non-traditional students, like Robbins, in the state, and has recently introduced a new concierge service aimed at offering additional assistance to non-traditional students that traditional-aged students might not need, such as working around complicated work schedules, helping through the entire registration process, offer-ing directions and showing where to go for classes on campus, or touching base after each finished class and maintaining a clear path to completion.

A personal concierge can be found at each of GHC’s five campuses and can be contacted online by going to the GHC homepage (highlands.edu) and clicking the “Adult Learners” link.

Adult learner finds true calling after 12 years in the workforce

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We are gHC

campaign brings real

stories to life One of the best kept secrets

at Georgia Highlands College is the amount of amazing stories sur-rounding the lives of GHC’s stu-dents, faculty, and staff—and how truly interconnected they all are.

The “We Are GHC” campaign was started in order to capture just that.

For its 2015 launch, GHC employees, students, alumni, and community partners rallied togeth-er in a video to say what GHC meant to them.

Unprompted, the answers were unanimous: GHC was family. GHC was home.

The video was shown at the Fall Employee In-Service and can now be viewed by clicking the YouTube icon on the highlands.edu homepage.

Since then, the “We Are GHC” campaign has been collect-ing unique and personal accounts of how GHC has impacted lives in the areas it serves.

This has led to a growing number of stories from students, alumni, faculty, staff, community partners, donors, and many more, who all wish to express just how much GHC has made a difference in their lives.

GHC Director of Public Relations and Marketing Sheila Jones said the next push in the effort to show off this side of GHC is simple, yet impactful.

“The ‘We Are’ concept has been around for many years and in different forms,” she said, “but it gives us the opportunity to show that we are more than a collection of sites, campuses, and communi-ties. It gives us the chance to say, ‘We are one college.’”


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Well over 100 boys between the ages of 10 and 14 particpated in GHC’s 10th annual Foundation Camp thanks to the generosity of donors and the GHC Foundation. The two-week camp takes place on the Floyd campus during the summer.

Transportation within Rome’s city limits is pro-vided, including a free breakfast and lunch.

Foundation Camp is one of several partnerships between the 100 Black Men of Rome-Northwest Georgia and Georgia Highlands College. It focuses on academics, athletics, and enrichment courses intended to build self-respect and confidence, and to allow the young men to experience college.

foundation Camp celebrates 10 years of transforming young lives

Every year, GHC alumnus Corey Pitts blocks out two weeks in his calendar. Nothing interferes with those two weeks. Not his business. Not his friends. Not his family.

When he was a kid, those two weeks helped mold him into who he is today. While he was in college, those two weeks motivated him to finish. Now, those two weeks are a chance for him to be an example and mentor to hundreds of boys between the ages of 10 and 14.

Two weeks every year, Georgia Highlands College hosts the summer Foundation Camp, which is one of several partnerships between the 100 Black Men of Rome-Northwest Georgia and Georgia Highlands College and is funded by generous donors and the GHC Foundation.

The Foundation Camp grew out of the National Youth Sports Program (NYSP), which Georgia Highlands hosted for more than 30 years. When fed-eral funding for that initiative was cut, GHC faculty members who had been involved in that program and leaders at the 100 Black Men of Rome joined togeth-er to keep the camp going.

When Corey was 10 years old, he attended the NYSP camp, now Foundation Camp, and considers it one of the best experiences of his life—even the time he flipped a canoe in Paris Lake.

“It stays in my brain. We were small. I never got in a canoe before. I don’t think I’ve been in a canoe in this lake since then,” he said. “People in the canoe were messing around and rocked the canoe, and I thought we were about to flip, and I fell out.”

With no change of clothes, Corey said that he had a very unique odor the whole rest of his time at camp that day and on the bus ride home.

“I smelled like duck water,” he said, “hot duck water.”

Making it happenThe journey from camper to assistant director at GHC’s Foundation Camp

Pitts gives campers some basketball pointers.

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Corey attended the camp two years in a row. It wasn’t until later when Corey started at

Georgia Highlands College that he got a chance to see things from the other side and it helped keep him focused on his own future.

“It was a challenge at GHC,” he said. “I had a lot of ups and downs.”

He had to help get his mom from place to place. His brother became sick. He was working two jobs. He said everything in the book that could happen happened to him.

But he said Dr. Jon Hershey (camp director and GHC dean of humanities) helped him out.

“I felt like somebody had my back. He made sure I stayed on the right path,” he said. “He just came up to me and took me under his wing. It was a blessing.”

Corey said he became increasingly more active in college, joining student groups, playing intra-murals, and even mentoring at the camp during the summers.

“I stayed focused and I didn’t give up. I ended up graduating,” he said, “and when I graduated I had a story to tell about my experience. It meant a lot to me, my two-year degree.”

After graduating from GHC, Corey eventually started his own personal training business called CMP Training, where he works one-on-one with pro-fessional athletes, kids, college students, weight loss, and even a client as old as 93.

He hasn’t missed a year working at the camp since, and now serves as the assistant director.

“I was one of those kids,” he said.Corey said he knows the backgrounds that many

of the kids who go to Foundation Camp come from, having come from a hard one himself. He said he lived in a single-parent household, had to live off and on with his grandmother, lived in a tough area, and went to a rough school.

“This camp means a lot to me. I feel like I can help change those kids’ lives. They just need some guidance and inspiration,” he said. “Not all kids are going to be a NBA player. They want to be a NBA player, but there’s more out there than just sports. You can be a mentor to the next set of kids. You can be a superstar in your own field. It’s not about quick money. There’s more to life than what you see from your family. Your family may have a hard time, so you think you have to do what they do, but you don’t have to do that.”

“You don’t have to be an NBA star to make it,” he went on. “You can own your own business like me, coming from the same background. You can be somebody. You just have to make it happen.”

Corey, the campers, and all those involved celebrated Foundation Camp’s 10th year anniver-sary during the 2015 summer. Well over 100 kids attended the camp and enjoyed numerous activi-ties, including canoeing, tennis, basketball, soccer, STEM-related projects, biology and chemistry proj-ects utilizing liquid nitrogen and a hovercraft, derby car racing, storytelling with live animals like an alligator, a special visit from former NFL player Ken Irvin, and much, much more.

Mark Pergrem, associate professor of physics, demonstrates what happens to a balloon when

it is introduced to liquid nitrogen to a group of 11-year-old campers at the 2015 Foundation Camp.


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It all started in a church in Fairmount, Georgia.Russell Cook’s mom played the piano. His grand-

mother played the piano and sang.“I grew up with music,” he said. “I was singing

in church, since I was four. I grew up hearing gospel music—Southern Baptist hymnals—old timey stuff. That’s kind of where a lot of my roots are, I think, even though per-sonally I’m more liberal than that now… but that kind of music is so good to me. I like having that foun-dation.”

When Russell isn’t teaching as an assistant professor of art at Georgia Highlands College, he’s on the road with Little Country Giants.

“I started playing music at 12,” he said. “I started playing guitar. I thought it’d be a good way to meet some girls. That’s how I met my wife, so it worked.”

Russell’s wife Cameron makes up the second part of the core band.

The two met and played togeth-er for a while, before forming Little

Country Giants in 2000.Russell said that the name of the band came from

a close friend who proposed that if Russell and his wife—because neither are very tall—ever formed a band, then that’s what they should name it. So they did.

But don’t go assuming the word “country” in the band’s name links their sound to the kind of country music that’s popular these days. Russell admits they nearly dropped the word “country” from the name altogether over the years, in fear of the connotations it might draw.

“We’re not like what people might think of when they think of country music,” he said. “Especially on the radio today, which is like rap songs about trucks.”

Russell explained that the band’s sound comes from a combination of genres, mostly the ones he said he got an ear for growing up: blues, jazz, and rock.

“All that to me is Americana,” he said. “What we do is combine elements of all that. It’s just American music.”

Russell plays guitar. His wife, Cameron, plays the upright bass. They share the mic singing harmo-ny. And they write original, deceptively simple songs on purpose.

“A lot of older music does that,” Russell said. ‘“Saint Louis Blues’ is one of the most recorded songs in history. You can do it any number of ways. Those songs can go in any direction.”

He said that writing their songs the same way allows their music to be folksier and alive, something that can change and evolve.

“If we’re going to play at a blue grass festival, we can call a couple bluegrass pickers and all of a sudden it has that bluegrass band sound, and if we’re going to play a more honky tonk kind of place, we might bring in an electric guitar and some drums,” he said.

Russell said the band picks up gigs all across the United States and frequently tours.

Recently, Little Country Giants, launched a pre-release effort on Kickstarter to promote and presale their fifth CD. They met their $6,000 goal, which has allowed them to record the way they wanted to and capture more of who they really are on an album.

Little Country Giants complete discography can be found on iTunes. The band is also planning a big tour promoting its new CD this summer. For more information, please visit: genuinesouthernmusic.com

lITTlE CounTry GIanTS Not another country rap song about trucks

Russell and wife Cameron

Photo creditJustin evans

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Faculty Spotlight

When the call came in, Dad placed two concrete blocks on the ground. Then he set two-by-fours across the tops. He looked at his daughter and said, “This is going to be like ultimate limbo. Crawl under that.”

GHC Associate Professor of Geology Billy Morris (Dad) was prepping former GHC student Hannah Morris (daughter) for a 7-inch wide crawl in South Africa.

What neither of them were aware of was that this would be the tight squeeze between “business as usual” in archaeology world and the discovery of an entirely new species of hominid.

“She came in after a day’s work, got on the com-puter, and saw an unusual ad on Facebook,” Billy said. “It basically said, ‘I need you to come to South Africa and I can’t tell you why, but you need to have caving and climbing experience and you can’t be claustrophobic.”

Unbeknownst to Hannah, only five days before the Facebook ad, amateur cavers had maneuvered through the 7-inch crevice and found a large opening on the opposite side, where there were hominid bones on the floor of a chamber.

Hannah was chosen for a Skype interview a few days after applying and she was chosen. It wasn’t just her experience that won her the job, though. It was her size. The opening she would have to traverse, she was told, was only 7-inches wide.

The backyard rig simply wouldn’t do. It wasn’t close enough to the real thing for Hannah. She had experienced the real thing before with her dad—grow-ing up caving and rock climbing. And Billy knew just the place she needed to go.

“We went back to some of our old stomping grounds in Northwest Georgia on Pigeon Mountain,” Billy said. “There’s a spot in Petty John’s Cave there called the pancake squeeze. We went through the tightest, meanest, gnarliest places we could find while she was here. She cut her teeth on Petty John’s Cave.”

Once Hannah made it to the South Africa site weeks later, she saw just how big of a deal it was. Huge canvas tents spotted the area around the cave. Researchers and scientist all awaited what would emerge. Film crews were standing by, ready to docu-ment the next big discovery.

Hannah was a little apprehensive to find out she would be one of the first three to go inside.

Every night, Hannah would report what was hap-

pening at the site to Billy via Skype.“She was pretty excited,” he said. “She kept say-

ing, ‘I think I got this. I think I got this.’”Without harnesses or ropes—something the cav-

ers soon found to be too bothersome in the confined space—Hannah positioned herself for the narrow-ing descent. Slowly and steadily and at just the right angle, she squeezed through.

“There was only one way for her to fit through there,” Billy said. “Every body part had to be in just

dad TEaCHES dauGHTEr CavInG, dauGHTEr

dISCovErS nEw SPECIES… Just your average, ordinary family adventure, right?

(Above) Morris displays his favorite 3D printed model of the three (right) that the GHC Library was able to create for him and his daughter. These are exact 3D replicas of some of the bones retrieved from the African site.

MoRRIS – continued on page 26

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David Horace brings 20 years’ worth of polic-ing experience with him to his new position as chief of police at Georgia Highlands College. His plan? Transition the college’s campus safety department into a campus police department.

This move comes from the need for all University System of Georgia colleges to have a police department on their campus.

Chief Horace is the first certified police officer the college has hired, but not the last.

“Very soon we will begin to hire more certified police officers, until we have at least one on each of our campuses,” Chief Horace said. “I’m very excited for the chance to build this college police department from the ground up.”

Chief Horace explained that having officers who are armed and have arrest powers on campus who can respond to situations quickly helps make the col-lege a safer place.

“I think it’s going to be great to have our own police department and have the immediate law enforcement responses we would need on a college campus,” he said.

But, Chief Horace added, his approach to campus law enforcement is very customer service oriented. He stated that he wants to train his officers to work alongside students on a crime prevention/proactive model.

“It’s all about helping people, making them feel

safe and being able to make a difference,” he said. “The reason I became a police officer was because I thought I could make a positive change in law enforcement, while at the same time helping people.”

“It’s just an awesome feeling when you get to help others,” he added.

From 1990 through 1998, Chief Horace was a Petty Officer Third Class in the United States Coast Guard Reserves. He has worked in law enforcement for 20 years, beginning his career at Georgia State University (Atlanta, GA), where he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. Horace has since served as Major/Assistant Chief of Police and later Chief of Police at Columbus State University (Columbus, Georgia). Most recently, Horace served as the Major/Acting Chief of Police at Johnson C. Smith University (Charlotte, NC).

Chief Horace has been or is currently affiliated with the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police, GACLEA (Georgia Campus Law Enforcement Association), IACLEA (International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Association), Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. and the HBCU-LEEA (Historically Black Colleges and Universities Law Enforcement Executives).

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice, a Masters in Public Administration and a Masters in Divinity. He completed the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police Command College in 2002.

Chief of Police on progressing the college’s security department

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It’s 9AM on April 19, 1995. Two young broth-ers play in a daycare directly across the street from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma. Near their daycare, their mom works in her office. In downtown Oklahoma City, their dad is going about his daily routine as a deputy sheriff.

In two minutes, everything will change.In two minutes, a Ryder truck packed with

nearly 5,000 pounds of explosives will detonate. It’s parked in front of the Federal Building.

At 9:02AM, there is a flash and explosion.In that instant, the blast decimates nearly all of

the nine-story Federal Building, incinerates vehicles, and ripples out to destroy and damage more than 300 more buildings in the surrounding area.

Brandon Vallean, a four-month-old baby, and his older brother Desmond, two-years-old at the time, are enveloped by smoke and shock.

Their mom Michele immediately goes for them, finding Brandon first, wrapping him up to protect him from the smoke, and then seeking out Desmond, who is crying and bloodied—a shard of glass has split the top of his eye.

Moments later, their dad Michael is on the scene with the rest of the first responders. He wraps Desmond in a blanket and hurries him to aid. A picture is taken as Deputy Sheriff Michael Vallean rushes his bundled son to help.

That picture and many others of the Vallean

family during the Oklahoma City Bombing would be printed and talked about in books like “In Their Name: Oklahoma City: The Official Commemorative Volume,” in newspapers all across the country like the Edmond Sun, on news stations and radio, and even in national magazines like the U.S. News & World Report.

Brandon, a student at Georgia Highlands College, spread the magazines and newspapers and other publications covering the tragedy in Oklahoma across a table on the Marietta campus, as he talked about what happened that day.

“When the bomb went off, everyone could feel the shake,” he said. “My mom rushed to get to us… [she] found me and wrapped me up, so I wouldn’t breathe in any of the fumes… she could hear my brother crying. She could spot [his cry] from a mile away.”

“There weren’t any lucky ones,” he added.Timothy McVeigh, who was aided by Terry

Nichols, executed the bombing that Wednesday morning. The two were considered anti-government militants. Their domestic terroristic attack killed 168 people. Of those killed, 19 were children—one as young as four months. Several hundred were injured.

Brandon and his brother Desmond have both of their names etched on a survivors’ wall at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

Surviving the Unthinkable

Student Spotlight

A look back at the Oklahoma City Bombing through the eyes of one GHC student

SuRVIVING – continued on page 26

Brandon looks at the picture of his dad

carrying his brother in the aftermath of

the Oklahoma City explosion in the

book “In Their Name: Oklahoma

City: The Official Commemorative

Volume.”


the right spot.”On the other side?Researchers are calling it “Homo naledi.” According to associated press reports: The first

word “Homo” refers to an evolutionary group that includes modern people and close extinct relatives. The second word stands for “star” in the local lan-guage and is used in reference to the fact that the dis-covery was made in the Rising Star cave system.

Over 1,550 fossils were found, while Hannah

was there. It was a new species.“I would never have dreamed something like this

would happen. I was incredibly proud of her,” Billy said. “Everyone loves to see somebody do something with passion, and when your own kid does something they really love and believe in, it’s really rewarding.”

Hannah continues her studies at the University of Georgia. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in paleobotany.

The bombing scarred each of them in different ways.

Today, Desmond still has a mark over his eye from the glass that cut him.

Brandon struggled with intense sounds growing up.

“I couldn’t go to a movie theater for a really long time, because the sound would make me freak out, so I couldn’t really watch movies,” he said. “I guess that was my only way I could remember the bomb-ing…”

Brandon’s mom and dad, who were used to mov-ing around, left Oklahoma for Michigan shortly after the bombing. Brandon explained that his dad was originally from Louisiana and his mom from Texas. The two met after his mom traveled to Louisiana for a new job.

Brandon said his mom was constantly moving for her career in retail.

After a short time in Michigan, the family moved to Alabama, and from there, they ended up in Georgia, where Brandon graduated from high school and decided to pursue his associate degree at Georgia Highlands College.

Brandon wants to follow in his mom’s footsteps and work in the retail busi-ness. Once he completes his associate degree in business administration at GHC, he wants to com-plete his bach-elor’s at either Georgia State or Kennesaw.

Brandon said he has real-

ly enjoyed his time at GHC. He said the one thing he will miss most when he moves on is how supportive and nice the faculty and staff at GHC have been to him.

As for being a survivor of such a tragic day in history, Brandon said it has given him and his family strength and a sense of purpose.

“It brings us even closer,” he said. “Looking back on it, it’s like we weren’t supposed to be here, you know. It keeps us tight as a family.”

Brandon added that he is glad he can be here to talk about it, since as time passes, often many people begin to associate events like this one more and more with history and it loses its edge, becomes so distant that it’s easy to forget or pretend like it never hap-pened.

“But I can say it happened. It’s real. I was there,” he said.

“I feel like something like this should never hap-pen,” he went on. “It’s a part of my history, so I can always retell it. I’ll pass it down to my kids and they can pass it down to theirs. All I can do now is move forward.”

Stud

ent

Spot

light

Facts about the bombing by the International Business Times

*The blast measured around 3.0 on the Richter scale and could be heard up to 55 miles – or 89 km – away.

*The damage caused by the blast was esti-mated to be worth $652m, destroying over 300 buildings, burning 86 cars and shattered glass in 258 buildings. Substantial donations were received from all over the united States.

*The blast created a 30ft-wide, 8ft-deep crater on the street outside the Alfred Murrah Federal Building.

*The Ryder truck contained more than 2,200kg of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, nitromethane, and diesel fuel mixture.

MoRRIS – continued from page 23

SuRVIVING – continued from page 25

Brandon holds up two news articles

with pictures of his mom holding him

and his brother during interviews

following the Oklahoma City

tragedy.

highlands.edu | 27

alum

ni Spotlight

At eight years old, Lindsey Miles’ twin sister had a plan. She wanted one of those big trophies that’s taller than you are when you stand next to it. She told Lindsey that the best way to get one would be to play softball together.

Lindsey wasn’t convinced.Then Dad stepped in.“If she plays, then you have to play,” he said.Next thing Lindsey knew, her and her sister were

playing softball.“I was forced into playing softball,” Lindsey said.As for her sister and the really tall trophy, she

said, “We never got one. That’s probably why she quit. She never got that trophy.”

For Lindsey, softball had become an important part of her life, so she never stopped playing.

“I love softball,” she said. “It’s what I’m good at.”Lindsey went on to play all through school. She

even started taking hitting lessons in high school from different coaches all over Georgia. That’s how she met GHC Softball Coach Melissa Wood.

And when the inaugural softball team was formed, Coach Wood recruited Lindsey to join as the team’s right fielder.

If you fast-forward two years from the moment she was drafted, you’ll find that Lindsey is a GHC honors graduate, who earned her associate degree with an impressive 3.7 GPA. She was picked for the All-Region team. And she was happily recruited and accepted to the University of Georgia, where she will continue to play softball and work toward her bach-elor’s degree.

But Lindsey said she wasn’t always so focused and productive.

“In high school, I didn’t make good grades at all,” she said. “Being social was more important than open-ing a book and actually learning something.”

That all changed when Lindsey joined the GHC softball team and started taking classes at the college.

“It’s hard to explain,” she said. “Everything [at GHC] is so structured, and I’m good under structure. All the professors here are so focused on you. I know I wouldn’t have gotten that if I went somewhere else. That’s why I excelled in the classroom.”

Lindsey explained that Coach Wood also brought the softball team together to take on college courses as a group, instead of alone. She said they took the same classes, shared books, studied as a group, and took on each semester as a small community of students.

“You spent most of your time with those people,”

she said. “It helped us to learn together and make sure everyone else was learning it the same way and under-standing it the same way, instead of sitting in a corner by yourself and trying to figure it out.”

Lindsey added that on top of the group dynamic they formed, she and her fellow team members found it incredibly inviting at GHC.

“The professors are focused on your success,” she said. “I’ve never encountered a professor at GHC who wasn’t open to help me out or work around my sched-ule.”

“One time,” she went on, “I had to change the date of my midterm because I couldn’t be there. I called my professor and she said it would be fine and that I could come and take it in her office a different day—like it was nothing. I think professors like that are the reason why people become so successful.”

Lindsey is excited to move on to UGA, but noted that she doesn’t think she would have done as well or been as prepared for her upper-level classes had she not attended Georgia Highlands College first.

“I don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t gone to GHC after high school,” she said. “I feel like if I went straight to UGA I probably wouldn’t know how to han-dle harder classes and wouldn’t know how to manage my time very well. GHC and the soft-ball team shaped me for success.”

“I have to work hard to earn my grades,” she said. “[At GHC], I got a little more attention. Here, they know me by name. Here, they care that I finish. They have worked with me to find out what I need in order to excel.”

Lindsey miles excels as student and athlete

The difference one place can make


There were only seven students in the Georgia Highlands African American and Minority Male Excellence (GHAME) initiative on one cam-pus in 2009. GHAME grew over the years and eventually estab-lished its own Brother 2 Brother (B2B) stu-dent organization with over 120 students on all five of GHC’s cam-puses.

GHAME pushed to make its B2B chap-ter one of the best in the nation.

And it succeeded. Over 300 chap-

ters across the country vie for a single annual Outstanding Chapter of the Year Award given by the national organization Student African American Brotherhood (SAAB). GHC’s B2B won for the third time in four years in 2015.

But it’s not the accolades that draw students in. It’s not the mission statement. It’s not even the astounding enrollment, retention, and/or graduation statistics of its members. It’s the brotherhood itself.

Ask Evan Snelling.Evan was a high school basketball player from

North Cobb.Saying he was good might be an understate-

ment.

“I was ranked as one of the top players in the state,” he said. “I had multiple Division 1 offers.”

Evan knew who he was, knew who he was going to be: a basket-ball player.

And then…“We had basketball

practice one morning,” he said. “I got hit by a car.”

If you hear it first-hand, Evan instinc-tively points to areas that were affected by the hit, pausing at one along his neck.

“I broke my tib and fib completely,” he

said, “and every bone in my neck—except one—the one that paralyzes you.”

“That changed everything,” he continued. “I knew that my basketball career was over, but my education didn’t have to be.”

Evan said he enrolled at GHC to get started and had a rough first semester as he tried to put himself back together in the aftermath of losing his dream of playing college basketball.

Luckily, he will tell you, GHAME and B2B Director Jon Hershey walked into the college bas-ketball gym where he was taking his mind off class-es for a while and handed him a card.

A week later, Dr. Hershey found Evan again

alu

mni

Spo

tlig

htThe faces behind a three-time nationally

recognized student organization

ortiz awarded Communities in Schools volunteer of the yearMarietta Student Life Coordinator and GHC Alumnus Abraham Ortiz received the Communities in Schools

Volunteer of the Year for 2015. Pictured with Ortiz are Dr. Jon Hershey (left) and Marietta Campus Dean Ken Reaves .

Snelling and Mosley

highlands.edu | 29

alum

ni Spotlightand told him about a B2B meeting.

Evan said he had every intention of not going, but he did.

“I just fell in love with the organization,” he said. “It definitely helped me. It’s this brotherhood. It’s a lot of people just like you all striving toward the same goal. It changed my perception. I was very lucky Dr. Hershey stopped me that day and asked me to join.”

Evan graduated from GHC and is now working on his bachelor’s. He plans to take his studies to the graduate level next.

But Evan isn’t alone in being touched in a life changing way by GHAME and B2B.

Eric Mosley will raise three fingers, shake his head, and smile as he tells you what came between working an everyday job and opening his own barbe-cue restaurant called Bonez & Gristles.

“Three classes stopped me from advancing in my job life. I had opportunities to be man-ager of a company or to do other things, but as good as I was, I couldn’t move up,” he said. “Earning my degree gave me the encour-agement to say to myself that I can really do and accomplish anything. When I look back, all that was stopping me were those three classes.”

Eric started college like most traditional stu-dents. But before he finished he turned his attention to some community volunteer opportunities he had become passionate about. The more time he gave to his passion, the more he slowly pulled away from finishing college. Years later after he got married and had kids of his own, he started thinking about going back to finish his associate degree.

“I just thought, man, I’m too smart to be sit-ting around here not running something. My wife

said, ‘You need to go back to school.’ I told her, ‘I’ve been gone so long, I probably have to start all the way over.’ But I prayed about it and said if it’s supposed to happen, it will. And one day out of the blue, I ran into Dr. Hershey. He said, ‘Eric, when are you going to come back and finish school? I cannot retire, until you finish school.’”

Hershey took Eric and helped him find out what courses he needed to finish. It ended up being three classes in all. Eric told himself he had to finish those three classes.

“Hershey brought up B2B. When I first met Dr. Hershey when I was first going to school, we had

talked about starting a group to bring minorities together. Fifteen years later, I come back and every-thing that we had talked about was put into action.”

Eric said his last class was sta-tistics. And he said without the sup-port of GHC, GHAME, and B2B, he never could have finished. But he did. Tackling statistics with a “B,” no less.

“GHAME helps change lives at GHC. It lets young men know that

they can succeed—that we can accomplish what we set our minds to,” he said. “B2B is that togetherness, that support. That’s what makes it all worth while.”

After graduating, Eric started his own restaurant in Rome.

Outside of operating his business, Eric still loves reaching out and helping the community. Now he uses his story about GHC and B2B to inspire others to do like he did.

“Now when I go do my speaking engagements I can tell people to finish what you start. It’s never too late to go back and get an education,” he said. “It was a great accomplishment to walk across that stage. I had a great support system with the leaders of the school, with GHC, and with B2B.”

over 200 elementary students visit Cartersville Campus

Grove Park Elementary students from Northwest Atlanta took a field trip to the Cartersville campus to see the campus and expe-

rience what being on a college is like. While the students were involved in activities, the elementary principals met with college leaders to talk about educational leadership, college success,

and partnership strategies.

“GHAMe helps change lives at GHC. It lets young men know that they can succeed—that we can

accomplish what we set our minds to. B2B is that

togetherness, that support. That’s what

makes it all worth while.”


Inau

gurati

on of

Dona

ld J

. Gree

n, Ed.D

.

Donald J. Green, Ed.D., was installed as GHC’s fourth president by Chancellor of the University System of Georgia Hank Huckaby in front of more than 600 attendees on the Floyd campus.

“It is both a pleasure and an honor to serve as the fourth president for Georgia Highlands College,” Green said.

He continued: “This institution has a rich 45-year history of expansion, growth, and cultiva-tion. GHC’s future is looking even brighter, as we expand our academic degree offerings to best meet the demands of local business and industry. We have seen and continue to see our student organizations, like Brother 2 Brother and Phi Theta Kappa, and our student publications, like the Six Mile Post, recog-nized on a national level. Our championship athletic teams have also competed at a higher caliber, seizing tournament wins, bringing home a national Final Four trophy, seeing players off to university teams across the country, and even watch-ing the rise of a player as a professional athlete. When you come to GHC, you’ll start to see why our slo-gan is ‘Where Excellence Begins.’ There’s a new

energy at GHC. The students, the faculty, the staff – everyone is working hard to take this place to the next level. There’s a buzz in the air each new day. There’s comradery. There’s drive. And I am glad to be here to take part in that.”

The ceremony was held on Friday, September 18, 2015.

Retired Regent Willis Potts presided over the ceremony, and Regent Neil Pruitt brought greetings from the Board of Regents.

President Green began his duties on September 8, 2014. He holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Western Michigan University, a Masters of Labor and Human Resource

Management from Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Public Administration from Michigan State University. He is blessed with a wife and three children, who are all looking forward to making Northwest Georgia their new home.

Since joining GHC, President Green has taken a multifaceted approach to bringing GHC to the next level. He is meeting with local industry leaders and pursuing new bachelor degree options that are career focused and

Green installed as fourth president of GHC

Embracing the Legacy. Focused on the Future.


highlands.edu | 31

will help GHC graduates better serve Northwest Georgia after completion. He is working to increase and improve student interactions with faculty and staff beyond the classroom with a Student Success Coach initiative and an improved tutoring and testing net-work. These efforts, in addition to concentrated strate-gic planning in the areas of recruitment, retention, and increased marketing, have led to higher retention rates and a significant 7.1 percent enrollment growth.

He has also established and is leading a Latino Outreach Team whose goal is to raise Latino enroll-ment numbers throughout Northwest Georgia. As a result, GHC has experienced an unprecedented 24 percent increase in Latino enrollment. He has visited counties across Northwest Georgia - including Floyd, Bartow, Paulding, Douglas, and Cobb - meeting with area businesses, groups, and organizations, while also speaking at a variety of engagements.

highlands.edu | 31

GHC Foundation Board of Trustees Chair David Caswell brings greetings.

Student Government President Holly Chaney’s gives

an inspirational greeting.

Audience members take cell phone photos and share via social media.

Student athletes serve as ushers and greeters for the historical event.

Rome High School Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps post colors.

Faculty, staff, students, and guests enjoy the outdoor reception following the event.

Regent Neil L. Pruitt, Jr., brings greetings on behalf of the

USG Board of Regents.

Dr. Kristie Kemper serves as Grand Marshal and Dr. Jon Hershey as Mace Bearer.

Campus safety provide traffic control and shuttle service for guests.

A caterer prepares confections for the reception.

Over 600 attend the ceremony held at the Floyd campus gymnasium.

Inauguration of D

onald J. Green, E

d.D.

32 | Fall/Winter 201532 | Fall/Winter 2015

GHC Foundation Board of Trustees members attend the ceremony.

Faculty members in full regalia participate in the ceremony processional.

GHC Alumna Tressa Kelley leads the audience in the

Alma Mater.

Dr. Green takes a moment to pose with the GHC softball team at the reception.

Foundation Board Member Mary Louise Lever enjoys the outdoor reception.

Student ushers distribute hand fans to help guests keep cool

during the reception.

Faculty displays at the ceremony highlight recent accomplishments.

Numerous congratulory letters and proclama-tions are received in celebration of the event.

State Representative Katie Dempsey and other elected officials attend the ceremony.

C.J. Stewart, founder of the Atlanta-based program L.E.A.D., delivers the benediction.

Dr. Baltzer and the Highlands Brass Ensemble present the

music for the occasion.

(left) President Emeritus Randy Pierce greets friends at

the reception.

(right) Northwest Georgia Regional Commission

Chair David Austin brings greetings on behalf of business and industry. I

naugur

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of D

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J. G

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d.D.

highlands.edu | 33

In 1940, a 13-year-old boy sat on his front porch. His mother had died two years before and he watched as his father drove away, abandoning him and his pet goat. He would not finish high school. He would not attend college. He would work all his life, become an entrepreneur, and provide a comfortable middle class life for his family. That was my father. My mother did graduate high school and wanted to be a nurse, but college was only an unreachable dream for her. Both of my parents were determined that I would achieve that dream.

My wife’s (Cathy’s) father, Bill, left high school and joined the Army. When he returned from his service to our country, he worked the family farm. Eventually, he started work for Dow Chemical Company and they encouraged him to return to night school for his high school diploma. Again, Cathy’s mom, Mary, should have gone to college, but it wasn’t encouraged.

Living through The Great Depression and World War II, neither my parents nor my in-laws ever graduated college. But all four, from these two families, recognized the prosperity education could bring and wanted it for their children and their chil-dren’s children. That is the beauty of education; it doesn’t just change the individual’s life. It changes the whole family tree.

The value our parents placed on education began a legacy of learning. Within our family we have doctors, nurses, teachers, plumbers, stockbro-kers, architects, sales reps, human resource profes-sionals, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, and college administrators. And we have more college graduates on the way studying a wide variety of fields. Every one of those students is a story unto themselves with struggles they had to overcome.

Cathy and I had supportive parents. That makes the road to college easier, but it isn’t automatic. Cathy was a successful student, earning both a bachelor’s and master’s degree, but she has told me she went through a year of serious soul search-ing about why she was in college and for what. For me, I left my small town high school a year early to attend Michigan State University. I was an at-risk student and didn’t know it. I was what higher edu-

cation calls “first generation.” Neither my parents nor I had any idea of the commitment necessary to succeed in college. I was 16, had never had to study in high school, and had no career counseling. I spent the vast majority of my time during my fresh-man year playing basketball, and trying to grow up, and came very close to flunking out. But if not for the grace of God, I would have been another sta-tistic, a student with big dreams and no solid plan, who failed to complete.

Why do I tell you these stories? Because every day, stories like those from Cathy’s family and mine play out across Northwest Georgia. For over 45 years, the faculty and staff of Georgia Highlands College have welcomed talented aspiring students who were first generation college attendees; veter-ans; high school drop-outs; brilliant students who wanted to make college affordable; students who were smart, but had no idea how college worked; students who lacked any confidence; students with no career plan; others who had no one at home to support their dreams, who could not see a way to afford college, who arrived unprepared, who were scared or confused…and we have helped them all succeed.

Today, we celebrate both a college’s legacy of student development and its focus on a future of economic growth. I would hope all of you leave here with greater appreciation for the people of Georgia Highlands College, and for all our part-ners, represented by those on stage and many in this audience, who serve our students across all our college communities. And I would hope that you would know that Georgia Highlands College is charging forward, poised to provide even greater academic achievement, and economic and social prosperity in Northwest Georgia.

I am blessed to have been warmly welcomed by our students, faculty, staff, and the citizens and leadership of all of our counties. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for sharing this day with us. I appreciate you being a part of it. The future is very bright for Georgia Highlands College. We will continue our legacy and will continue to charge forward.

Inauguration of D

onald J. Green, E

d.D.

highlands.edu | 33

an Excerpt of President Green’s Inauguration address

To watch video of the inauguration ceremony or to view more photos, please visit highlands.edu and click on the youTube or flickr icons

found on the hompage.


The

High

lands

Inau

gurati

on Ga

laThe Georgia Highlands

College Foundation hosted the Highlands Inauguration Gala in honor of GHC President Don Green’s inauguration in September. The gala was held the night of the inauguration on the Cartersville campus.

Over $76,000 was raised during the gala in support of GHC students by the Georgia Highlands College Foundation. Additional Highlands Inauguration Gala donations are still currently being collected.

The Highlands Inauguration Gala was a fun evening of dining and dancing, while showing sup-port for the “blue and orange.” During the black tie optional (blue/orange tie preferred) event, there was live music by Laughlin, recognition of sponsors, and the official unveiling of the presiden-tial portrait.

“Student success is at the heart of all we do at Georgia Highlands College,” said Mary Transue, vice president for advancement and executive director of the GHC Foundation. “Unfortunately, for many students a lack of funds can pose a signifi-cant barrier to earning a degree – or to starting college to acquire the degree in demand in today’s economic environment.”

Transue stated that in a time of escalating college costs, stu-dents attending GHC can still earn their associate degree for approximately $7,300.

“Our affordable cost not only tremendously benefits students and their families,” she said, “it also allows the scholarship dona-tions we raise to go a long way for a number of our students.”

If you would like to make a donation in honor of President Green that supports GHC stu-dent scholarships, visit highlands.edu/givetoday. You may also mail your gift directly to the GHC Foundation Office at 3175 Cedartown Highway in Rome, Georgia. Or if you would like to speak to someone directly, please contact Mary Transue at 706-802-5457.


Highlands Inauguration Gala raises over $76,000 in support of GHC students

President and Mrs. Green are introduced at the reception.

Executive Director of the Founda-tion and VP for Advancement

Mary Transue welcomes guests.

Guests gather and mingle at the Cartersville campus student center for the opening reception.

Foundation Board Member and Special Events Committee Chair

Melanie Collier gives the invocation.

Photos and selfies with GHC Mascot Bolt are a fun and

popular activity for the evening.

highlands.edu | 35

The H

ighlands Inauguration Gala

highlands.edu | 35

SIlVeR SPoNSoRS Allmora Culinary ServicesGarner & Glover Company BRoNZe SPoNSoRS EMCOR Services AircondMary Louise LeverTerri and Harry Pierce and Albert and Sarah BurkhalterRollins RanchShaw IndustriesSteak N’ ShakeMary TransueWellstar Health System, Inc. CAPITAl SPoNSoRS Cartersville Medical CenterCentury Bank of GeorgiaCitizen’s First Bank/Georgia Bank & Trust, divisions of Synovus BankCook & Connelly

Representative Katie and Mr. Lynn DempseyTerri Reid HyundaiR.H. Ledbetter Properties, LLCMauldin & Jenkins, LLCMystique Management Group, LLCWillis and Glenda PottsRedmond Regional Medical CenterJerry W. SheltonSouthern Restaurant Holdings, LLCSouthland Engineering, Inc.Tommy and Kathy StricklandUnited Community BankJeff WatkinsWells Fargo Bank, N.A. HeRITAGe SPoNSoRS Dr. Janet and Mr. Dexter AlexanderBond, James Bond Inc.Dr. Jackie Belwood and Mr. Dennis KrusacBussey’s Florist & GiftsChemical Products

Melanie Cowart CollierCoosa Valley Credit UnionJeff and Stephanie DavisFloyd Medical CenterFollett CorporationFord, Gittings and Kane JewelersHeritage First BankThe Honorable and Mrs. Walter JohnsonDr. Todd and Mrs. Charlotte JonesDonna and Harold MantoothMorgan StanleyNew Riverside Ochre Company, Inc.Old Fashion Foods, Inc.President Emeritus Randy and Mrs. Claire PierceProfile ExtrusionRandy and Janie QuickRMS - Read Martin & Slickman Certified Public AccountantsGregory and Patricia ShropshireUnited Way of Rome and Floyd CountyMark Weaver

A SpeciAl ThAnk You To All our SponSorS for Their SupporT

Photographer Louis Tonsmeire unveilsDr. Green’s official presidential portrait.

Dining and dancing to the sounds of Laughlin.

The Cartersville campus gym is transformed into an elegant

venue for The Highlands Inauguration Gala.


Foun

dati

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alu

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new

s GHC foundaTIon board of TruSTEES

Jeff Watkins, ChairmanJeffrey A. Watkins, P.C.

David Caswell, Past ChairmanCentury Bank

Luke Lester, TreasurerBond, James Bond Inc.

Mary TransueExecutive Director

Dee Bishop

Sarah H. Burkhalter

Melanie C. Collier

James Jarrett

Mary Louise Lever

Steve Moore

Gregory F. Patton

Randy Quick

John Quinlivan

Matt Sirmans

Sue Spivey

Robby Stewart

A. Holley Strawn

Tommy Strickland

Mark Weaver

GHC aluMnI aSSoCIaTIon board MEMbErS

Dan KnowlesChairman

Harold BoydRetiree Representative

Susan Claxton

Dennis Denson

Odete Estes

Scotty Hancock

Tim Hensley

Dr. Lynn Plunkett

Hannah Smith

Ann Stocks

GIvE TodayFund an education.

Fund a dream.Fund a future.

Give today to the Georgia Highlands College Foundation and your tax deducible gift,

no matter the size, will change lives.

we have made it easy to give. Simply go to highlands.edu/givetoday,

complete the form,and start making a difference in the lives and futures

of our Georgia Highlands students.You may also mail your gift directly to:

GHC foundation office3175 Cedartown Highway

rome, Ga 30161

Should you wish to speak to someone, please call Mary Transue at 706-802-5457.

want to give a truly special gift to someone in your life?

Whether it’s a birthday, holiday, or just a token of gratitude, tribute

gifts to the GHC Foundation are the perfect way to honor someone you care about and provide an opportunity for many students to

pursue their dream of earning a college degree.

An acknowledgement note of your donation will be sent to the individual you wish to honor, advising them of your gift (without a

dollar amount) and an explanation that their gift will help change a student’s life at GHC.

Take time to give something truly special today by contacting Mary Ann Steiner at [email protected].

highlands.edu | 37

Foundation & a

lumni n

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TeLL uS, TeLL ALL.alumni news update

By completing and mailing the form below, you help GHC keep your records up to date.If you’d prefer to save a stamp, you’re welcome to

simply complete the online form at highlands.edu/alumniupdates.

Current name____________________________________Maiden name _____________________

Mailing address ____________________________City_________State______Zip code _______

Graduation year or year(s) of attendance ______________Primary phone ( ) _______________

E-mail address __________________________________________________________________

Job title ______________________________________Employer __________________________

Spouse’s name _______________________________Spouse’s maiden name _________________

Spouse’s grad. year (if GHC) ___________________Spouse’s job title ______________________

GHC retiree: Yes / No Faculty/Staff years _______ to _______

News/updates (promotions/awards/weddings/arrivals/deaths): _____________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

Signature____________________________________________Date________________________By signing this form, you have authorized the college to make changes to your biographical data

and understand it may appear in both the print and online.

Mail completed form to Alison Lampkin, GHC Office of Advancement, 3175 Cedartown Hwy, Rome, GA 30161 or send an email to [email protected]

Alumni welcome new arrivalsLorrie Rainey and her husband Nick, welcome a son, River, June 4, 2015Christina Mae Blair and her husband David, welcome a son, Archer Talon, Sept. 1, 2015Corey Pitts and his wife Ambrea, welcome a daughter, Chloe Brielle, September 26, 2015Savannah Ruth Powers and her husband Bryant, welcome a son, Jack Thomas, Oct. 6, 2015

Hello Baby!

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The Georgia Highlands College Chargers men’s basketball team caught a little more national recog-nition after the 2015 Final Four run, having been featured in both the Basketball Times and Sporting News.

Basketball Times gave GHC a full-page review titled “From zero to Hutchinson in just three seasons” in its August issue. The article details the Chargers quick rise and how the team and its coaches were able to do it.

Additionally, in its most recent issue, Sporting News ranked GHC’s basketball team as one of the top 10 NJCAA teams in the country, expressing that the team’s grit and passion was its formula for success.

The extra exposure comes from a Final Four run in March. Not many in Kansas had expected the #19 nationally ranked Georgia Highlands College Chargers men’s basketball team to make it very far in the NJCAA Division 1 National Championship Tournament.

The Chargers went head-to-head against Kansas-local Butler Community College (#7 nationally ranked) in its first step to the Final Four, winning a back and forth affair by two points, with a final score of 88-86.

Next, the Chargers earned a spot in the Elite Eight by taking down Southern Idaho College (#3 nationally ranked) with an unbelievable late game timeout, where a play was

drawn up to hit a game-winning three point shot with five seconds left on the clock. It worked. The final score was 67-66.

Third game into the tournament, the Chargers found themselves not only fighting against Kansas’ hometown favorite Hutchinson Community College, but also against the over 7,000-person crowd they drew. Against the roar of “defense, defense,” as the Chargers pushed the ball down the court, the Chargers defeated Hutchinson with a final score of 64-59.

Surging into the Final Four, the Chargers looked to win their match against Northwest Florida State College (#5 nationally ranked) for a spot in the finals. The team fell short by only two points in overtime with a final score of 105-103.

GHC President Don Green said that the Chargers epitomize what Georgia Highlands College is and what it offers.

“We are proud of our athletes and their success,” he said, “but the willingness to give all you can to compete and complete is embodied in all of our stu-dents. That is why we have one of the best retention rates in our sector of Georgia colleges. All of our stu-dents possess the same qualities our basketball team is showing.”

After the Chargers’ impressive display in Kansas, two GHC chargers made the list of the 12 on the All-Tournament Team, which honors those players who are considered to have performed the best in the tour-nament. Those players were: Montreal Goldston and Ty Toney.

Chargers basketball team featured in two national magazines

Dalton Geekie was officially drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 22nd Round of the MLB Draft. Geekie was a sophomore on the GHC baseball team playing OF/RHP and sporting the number 3. He is originally from Powder Springs, GA, where he graduated from McEachern High School. He has had a very good summer moving up 3 levels in the Braves organization.

GHC baseball

playerdalton

Geekie drafted

by the atlanta braves

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After a great season run, GHC’s softball team placed second during the conference regular sea-son (13-5) and fifth at the region tournament. Five players from the team were also accepted for the first team All-Region, which is the first year GHC softball players have made first team honors. Additionally, two other players made second team honors.

Brandi Hughes (battery), Kayleigh Medlin (infield), Lindsey Miles (outfield), Sierra Cagle (battery) and Karlie Jarrett (infield) were awarded first team honors. Ashley Jordan (outfield) and Grayson West (DP/Utility) round up second team honors.

Team honors are selected by the opposing team’s head coaches. Brandi Hughes and Kayleigh Medlin also received enough votes for nomina-tions to the NJCAA All-American Softball Teams.

“Seven All-Region athletes is a huge accom-plishment for our athletes, program and institu-tion,” Softball Coach Melissa Wood said. “A huge thank you to all of our student-athletes for putting the long hours in the classroom and buying in at

our mentally and physically strenuous practices. It’s great to see hard work pay off.”

Several players committed to a number of col-lege softball teams for fall 2015.

The University of Georgia has gained Lindsey Miles and Kayleigh Medlin on their team; Shorter University has taken Brandi Hughes and Sierra Cagle; Grayson West has headed off to LaGrange College; Georgia State has welcomed Liz Prance; Tennessee State University has gained Emily Willingham; and Karlie Jarrett has headed off to Berry College.

Kristen Mullis is the only sophomore who is not continuing to play ball, as she wishes to focus on her education. She is working toward medical school and will go on to finish her biology degree at UGA, and then she plans to go to Mercer.

All 10 sophomores graduated on May 16th with GPAs above 3.0.

Softball team sees seven players make All-Region team for the first time

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The GHC baseball team saw a rough start for its 2015 season, losing its first nine conference games and ranked last place in the GCAA for most of the year. But the Chargers pressed forward with an electric turnaround, winning seven of their last nine games.

With a huge late-season winning streak, the Chargers made their very first playoff appear-ance and won their first playoff game.

It was a strong pitching staff that helped raise the Chargers up this season. The team had the second-best team ERA in the GCAA at 3.60.

A team that is only in its second year also beat a few nationally ranked teams during the 2015 season, including Georgia Perim-eter, Walters State, and Chattahoochee Valley.

The baseball team went 24-28 overall in the season and 13-19 in the GCAA.

The team also sent its first player to a D-I pro-gram and had its first player selected in the MLB draft.

looking ForwardMike Marra will continue to coach the GHC baseball team for its third season. The team has seen commitments from players all across the country, including seven from Bartow County high school in Cartersville.

2015 Season recapCharger Baseball Charger Softball

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The GHC softball team worked hard on the field and in the classroom during its 2015 sea-son. The Chargers rounded out their season with a record best of 25-12—not too mention advancing to the Region XVII Tournament for the second time in its two-year-old program’s existence.

The Chargers finished 2nd in the GCAA Confer-ence posting a 13-5 record (0.722) while leading all conference opponents in wins (13), bat-ting average (0.384) – 11th highest in NJCAA, OB% (0.453) – 8th highest in NJCAA, Slugging % (0.507), runs (124), hits (198), RBI’s (117), total bases (261), and HBP (22).

The Chargers took their winning spirit off the field with them as they went to class each and every day. The entire team had a 100 percent gradu-ation rate for its second year in a row, boasting a cumulative GPA of 3.40, which landed the

team a NJCAA All-Aca-demic Team honors.

Lindsey Miles, Kristen Mullis, and Hillary Rowell took home the NJCAA Award for Exemplary Academic Achievement (3.60 – 3.79 on a 4.00 scale) while Miles and Rowell were just two of 28 general students in all two-year schools in the University System of Georgia to earn a spot on Georgia’s Phi-Theta Kap-pa All-Academic Team.

For a recap of players who transferred to four year programs and All-Region team honors, please see

the article on page 37.

looking forwardThe GHC softball team has brought in 19 new players from all over the country to fill in its ranks for the coming year. Melissa Wood will be continuing her tenure as the head softball coach for her third season with GHC and is accompanied by her assistance coach Cody Chupp and volunteer assistant Greg Hight.

Charger Softball2015 Season recap

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The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) has chosen GHC Women’s Basketball Coach Brandan

Harrell to serve as the representative for all junior/community colleges on its board of directors for the 2015-2016 academic year.

This is Harrell’s second term in the position.Harrell stated that it is an honor to serve on the

WBCA board.“This board makes tremendous efforts each year

to promote the game,” he said. “And for me to have a seat at that table is a great experience.”

Harrell said he is eager to contribute to the WBCA board’s promotion and growth of the game, noting that he takes his position as the junior/com-munity colleges representative seriously.

“I want to make sure that whatever we do, it is not only in the best interest of the game, but also in the best interest of the junior/community colleges that I represent,” he said. “It is my job to make sure the organization is aware of the concerns of the JC/CC coaches, and it is also my job to help keep the JC/CC coaches informed.”

Harrell joins several other coach-es from all over the country on the WBCA board.

“The WBCA has a storied tradi-tion of strong leadership provided by coaches for coaches to propel the association forward and enhance the game of women’s basketball for today and future generations,” said WBCA Executive Director Danielle Donehew.

Penn State head coach Coquese Washington suc-ceeds Florida State head coach Sue Semrau as presi-dent of the association. Washington, the association’s first African-American president, has served the last two years as vice president/president-elect. Semrau remains on the board of directors as immediate past president, replacing Arizona State head coach Charli Turner Thorne whose term of service on the board ends.

University of Hartford head coach Jennifer Rizotti has been elected by the membership as the new vice president/president-elect for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 academic years. Rizotti, who has served as the NCAA Division I Legislative Chair for the past four years, will automatically succeed Washington as president in the 2017-18 academic year.

The WBCA Board of Directors develops poli-cies, procedures and regulations for the operation of the organization. It also monitors the organization’s financial health, programs, and overall performance and provides the executive director with the resourc-es necessary to meet the needs of those the organiza-tion serves.

Harrell to represent all junior and community colleges

for WBCA for second term

Coach Harrell rallies the Lady

Chargers during an

intense game last season.

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Georgia Highlands College women’s basketball is led by Head Coach Brandan Harrell, Assistant Coach Demetrius Colson, and volunteer Assistant Coach eric Burkhaulter. The team competes in region Xvii of the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association of the national Junior College Athletic Association Division 1. The team is based out of the Floyd campus and plays all home games at the Floyd Campus Gymnasium in rome, GA. For a full game schedule, team roster, and season updates, visit ghcchargers.com. Watch for a basketball season recap in the next issue of the Highlander.

Women’s Basketball

Georgia Highlands College men’s basketball is led by Head Coach and GHC Athletic Director Phil Gaffney and Assistant Coaches J.J. Merritt, Matt Williams, Devin Williams, and John Williams. The team competes in region xVII of the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association of the National Junior College Athletic Association Division 1. The team is based out of the Floyd campus and plays all home games at the Floyd Campus Gymnasium in rome, GA. For a full game schedule, team roster, and season up-dates, visit ghcchargers.com. Watch for a basketball season recap in the next issue of the Highlander.

Men’s Basketball


At the end of September, GHC honored the late founding college member George Pullen, who held many positions at the college including Chair of the Division of Extended Learning. He was also named Professor Emeritus of History.

During his time at GHC, Pullen was well-known for his dedication, passion, and service to the college.

The former F-Wing on GHC’s Floyd campus was officially renamed the W. George Pullen Annex in his honor.

GHC Foundation dedicates annex named for George Pullen

Dr. William George Pullen gradu-ated from LaGrange College. In 1963, he received his Bachelor of Divinity Degree from Duke University and thereafter served for several years as a Methodist minister in the South Georgia Conference. His commitment to fighting social injustice and oppression led to his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement in southwest Georgia during this time. He received a master’s degree in history from Florida State University and, in 1971, his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.George was a charter member of the faculty of Floyd Junior College (now Georgia Highlands College) in Rome, joining the institution in 1970. He chaired the Division of Social Sciences from 1971-1993 and in 1994 became Chair of the Division of Extended Learning. In this position, he oversaw the beginning of Floyd College

Television, which is now GHTV. He retired in 1997 and was named Professor Emeritus of History. In his academic career, he authored a book and articles on U.S. eco-nomic policy and other topics, including a history of the City of Rome in the online New Georgia Encyclopedia.

In 1980, George ran successfully for the Rome City Commission, on which he served for 23 years. He served as Chairman of the Commission (now Mayor) from 1992-1998; in that role he was instrumental in the planning and construction of Rome’s 1986 downtown Streetscape and helped lead the effort for the new building for the Rome-Floyd County Library in the late 1980s. While on the City Commission, George served for a number of years on the Board of the Georgia Municipal Association.

MoRe oN PulleN FRoM A BRIeF exCeRPT FRoM HoMeTowN HeAdlINeS. “oBITuARy FoR GeoRGe PulleN…” (PoSTed FeB. 4, 2014):

Pullen family pictured with the commemorative plaque.

GHC Associate Professor Carla Patterson shares memories of dr. Pullen.

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It was 1974 when Ken Weatherman started working at Georgia Highlands College, which at the time was called Floyd Junior College.

He worked in several positions over the years, including six years as a full-time faculty mem-ber in physical education, 10 years directing the Student Activities program, and after completing a Doctorate in Higher Education with a major empha-sis in Exercise Science/Nutrition, he returned to full-time teaching as Associate Professor and then full Professor of Physical Education for the rest of his tenure.

And now 40 years later, Weatherman is hanging up his hat and saying goodbye.

“The best part of working at GHC has been the opportunity to share ideas in the classroom that I believe provide a lasting impact on my students for health and fitness,” he said. “Physical education has provided an avenue for immediate effects on stu-dents’ lives. This is gratifying. I cannot imagine a career that would be more fulfilling.”

Weatherman plans to make the most of his time off doing a variety of outdoor activities, such as hik-ing, bicycling, golfing, and snow skiing.

He noted that he already started a series of day hikes on the Pinhoti Trail near Sylacauga, Alabama, where he walked 339 miles, 30 connecting miles, and rode his bicycle another 109 miles to shuttle himself back to his car on days he didn’t have some-one to help him with shuttling.

Weatherman officially retired in January, but hopes to do some part-time teaching at GHC in the future.

The faculty and staff at Georgia Highlands College celebrated Weatherman’s time at GHC with a special lunch. Many stories were shared, but one student’s personal testimony about the 40-year vet-eran said it all.

The following is from an email sent to Ken inviting him to attend Honors Night with the stu-dent:

“I am hoping to graduate in May. (Chemistry is a bear). I know I would not be this far along if you had not called me the evening that I was so frus-trated and willing to withdraw. You probably make hundreds of phone calls and talk to many people, so the phone call might have been ‘standard procedure’ for you. However, it was a life-changing event for me. Your call came at a time when I was not so sure that I was doing the right thing for my family or my career. The traffic from Atlanta was horrific that evening and I had missed your test. You were willing to allow me to take the test on a different day. You were willing to work with me and I felt as though my education was as important to you as it was to me. I can’t say ‘Thank you’ enough. I pray that the deci-sions I make will have as much of a positive impact on someone’s life as your call had on my life that evening.”

Ken Weatherman retires after 40 years as a GHC faculty member

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After 20 years of working in the Georgia Highlands College Floyd campus library, Russell Fulmer decided it was time to retire.

Fulmer served as both an acquisition librarian and a freshmen college stud-ies instructor. He started at GHC in 1995.

He said GHC has been a place he has enjoyed.

“The students are the reason we’re all here,” he said, “and they make it fun.”

Fulmer earned his bach-elor’s degree in Modern European History and Russian and East European studies. He made history himself after that by being one of the first two stu-dents to graduate from the MLS program in the early 1970s at the University of Alabama Library School.

Fulmer served in various roles before making GHC home.

He accepted the Assistant Library Director posi-tion for Technical Services at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden Colorado. He also served as President of Colorado Library Association, head of technical service, and other various offices in the state library association.

Fulmer says he plans to stay busy and active and

hopefully visit many parts of Europe that he loves and has enjoyed study-ing over the years.

“The thing that I enjoy most about working with Russell is observing how he interacts with our students,” Dean of Libraries Elijah Scott said. “He always approaches them in a manner that is profes-sional and somewhat formal, but at the same time, he brings a sense of humor and warmth to his interac-tions with students.”

“He treats [our students] like adults who deserve respect,” he added. “I see that our students appreciate and gravitate to that treat-ment. Many of the students who he has had in his FCST 1010 classes will return to the library over the

course of their college career to ask for Russell and talk to him about their progress in college.”

Fulmer officially retired in March. He hopes to continue teaching freshmen college studies courses part time.

Longtime GHC librarian says goodbye after 20 years of service

2015 Faculty/Staff retirees

In MemoriamBARBARA MceNTIReJANuARy 26, 2015(AluMNA)

GeNeVA MullMARCH 13, 2015 (STAFF)

dR. GeoRGe SIMCoeJuly 10, 2015 (FACulTy)

Ken weatherman Professor of Physical Education 40 years

Christine HicksAssociate Professor of Nursing Education 24 years, 4 months

Carole abbott Administrative Assistant 21 years, 4 months

russell fulmerLibrarian20 years

Janet doster Assistant Director Testing Center 18 years, 9 months James Graham Assistant Professor of Mathematics 16 years, 9 months

blanca Gonzalez Associate Professor of Mathematics 15 years

Joyce lovinggood Customer Service Rep10 years, 8 months

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Four of the college’s founding faculty shared stories about the history and legacy of Floyd College/Georgia Highlands College during a GHC library sponsored event during inauguration called “Embracing the Legacy.”

Those in attendance were Harold Boyd, for-mer Vice President for Student Affairs; Dr. James Cook, Professor Emeritus of History; Jerry Shelton, Professor Emeritus of Physical Education; and Tom Melton, who was over the Finance Department.

Each started at the college the same year it was founded in 1970.

Dr. Cook gave the closing remarks.He stated:“I was 29 when I arrived at Floyd Junior

College; I am now 74. Thus, during most of my life, I have been associated with this institution in one way or another. Whatever I have accomplished was done in connection with the college. It was a privilege and honor to work at Floyd, and I am grate-ful for the opportunity. The college allowed me to utilize my talents, not only in the classroom, but

also in travel (13 Washington-Williamsburg trips, 17 European tours, and a Fulbright-Hays study trip to India) and in research and writing (4 books). But I stayed at Floyd and enjoyed my tenure here because of the relationships with the faculty, staff, and stu-dents. I think Jerry, Tom, and Harold have similar experiences.”

Founding college faculty share stories about the history of the college

Tom Melton, Harold Boyd, dr. James Cook, and Jerry Shelton

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