GSW Alumni Association
with 180 members and an elected Executive Board that was presided by Rudolph Patterson.
Our Executive Board Members are notable in their fields and include professions in banking,
education, law, medicine, real estate and government, just to name a few.
As the college grew, so did the Alumni Association. Right from the beginning the Alumni Association has made conscious efforts to extend its scope and goals. In 1980, the development of the Excellence and Commitment to Teaching Award heralded the beginning of an important, ongoing tradition. This award recognizes an outstanding faculty member, nominated by graduating seniors, and is awarded each year during Spring Commencement. Then in 1986, the Leewynn J. Finklea Award was created to recognize outstanding alumni service to GSW and was named in honor of our first alumni director. More recently, we have offered the Teacher of the Year Award, which is a peer nominated award given at Fall Commencement to an outstanding faculty member and the Outstanding Staff Member Award.
Mission Statement
The Alumni Association at Georgia Southwestern State University strives to unite its members with a spirit of cooperative enterprise between the faculty, staff and students of GSW toward the fulfillment of the University's educational and humanitarian purposes; to aid in providing for the University an atmosphere in which scholarship and learning might flourish and in which the continuing search for truth and enlightenment might proceed unhindered; and to initiate, foster and support activities and events involving students and alumni which are designed to encourage enthusiastic and lifelong support of Georgia Southwestern State University and its efforts toward equality, growth, academic achievement and significant influence in the educational activities of Southwest Georgia, our state, and the nation.
