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For three consecutive years, GSW has been named the “Best Place to Work” in the Americus Times-Recorder's Best of Sumter 2023 Readers' Choice Awards after being voted on by the community.
“We take immense pride in the culture fostered here at Georgia Southwestern,” remarked GSW President Neal Weaver, Ph.D. “Our most valuable asset is undoubtedly our people. They work hard every day to ensure each person has an exceptional campus experience. If you ask anyone what makes GSW special, the resounding response is our welcoming atmosphere, strong sense of community, and friendly environment - attributes directly shaped by the individuals at GSW.”
Georgia Southwestern employs approximately 375 full-time and part-time faculty and staff. It remains one of the largest employers in Americus, falling behind the Sumter County School System, Phoebe Sumter Medical Center and Magnolia Manor.
Read more about this award here.
Twenty-five students have been selected to one of Georgia Southwestern State University’s (GSW) most prestigious and oldest organizations on campus, the GSW Marshals.
The 2023-2024 GSW Marshals include:
Read more about the Marshals here.
We are excited to introduce GSW's new Quality Enhancement Plan: HAIL, or High-Impact Approach to Learning. Curated by GSW faculty and staff, it is all about helping students see how everything they learn connects – from classes to community and even life after college. HAIL will help tackle the questions students might have asked themselves, such as “Why do I need this class?” or “How is this class/project relevant to my major or future?”
This 60-second animated video breaks down the basics of HAIL. Watch now here and learn more at gsw.edu/HAIL.
Savannah Paros, a GSW commuter student from Albany, is the recipient of a $1,000 gas card, made possible by the generosity of Charles Eames, a philanthropist from Waycross, and Perry Brothers Oil Company in Americus.
With the increase in travel costs, curbing that expense for GSW students has proven more important than ever. This award is designed to address some of that financial burden.
“Thank you to Mr. Eames for graciously donating the funds to make this opportunity possible,” stated Paros. “Living has become more and more expensive since I began college, and taking gas costs out of that equation would definitely make the continuation of my education career smoother and more accessible. This will allow me to focus more time and energy towards providing for my family and keeping my grades up, as well as lift financial worries and burdens from my shoulders.”
Read more about Savannah and the gas card program here.
The GSW women's basketball team is ranked in both NCAA Division II national polls released on Feb. 20. GSW moved up to No. 16 from No. 13 last week in the D2 College Sports Communicators (D2CSC) media poll. The Lady Hurricanes re-enter the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) poll at No. 23 after dropping outside of the Top 25 last week.
GSW won both of its games last week to improve to 19-3 overall and 12-2 in the Peach Belt Conference. The Lady Hurricanes hold a one game lead atop the PBC standings and the tiebreaker over Augusta, who is currently in second place, with four games left in the regular season.
This is the fifth consecutive week the Lady Hurricanes have been in the Top 25 of the D2CSC poll. GSW has been ranked first in the D2CSC Southeast Region poll in two of the last three weeks.
Read more here.
"The Piteraq," GSW's new humanities journal, aims to provide a platform for creative and intellectual expression. Submit your original literature, essays, poems, art, or manuscripts and be part of a community that celebrates diverse perspectives.
The upcoming issue will have a thematic focus, offering a unique opportunity to explore specific aspects within the humanities. Whether you're an upperclassman or a freshman, "The Piteraq" encourages inclusivity within academia. Your voice matters, and the journal's staff want to showcase the brilliance of GSW's creative minds. Deadline for submissions is March 17, 2024, and selected works will be featured in the late spring release.
For more information, reach out to Luther Bludsworth at lbludswo@radar.gsw.edu or Morgan Stanfill at mstanfi1@radar.gsw.edu.
The College of Business and Computing is hosting several employer spotlights this semester. Employers and recruiters will visit with students in the COBAC lobby on the following dates. All students are welcome to attend.
Past featured employers have included the IRS Criminal Investigation Division on Feb. 12 and Mauldin & Jenkins on Feb. 26.
GSW Comptroller Christy Barry has been selected to participate in the inaugural cohort of the University System of Georgia’s Chief Business Officer (CBO) Flywheel Accelerated Development Program. The goal of this program is to strengthen the System-wide bench of prepared individuals ready to step in to the CBO role. Competition for inclusion in this first cohort was intense, with only 10 participants selected out of over 100 nominations submitted from across the USG.
Assistant Professor of Accounting Sondra Smith, D.B.A., attended the annual meeting of the Georgia Association of Accounting Educators at Southern Regional Technical College in Thomasville, Ga. on Feb. 2-3, 2024. She transitioned from treasurer to vice president of the association, and she will serve as the president and host of the conference at GSW in 2026.
Canes Spotlight announced for FebruaryCanes Spotlights highlight Georgia Southwestern students who hold leadership roles, are involved in extracurricular activities and/or excel academically in their degree programs.
The February Canes Spotlight was junior history major Morgan Stanfill.
Morgan began her college journey a bit unsure of herself. "I started college later than my peers, and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do well after being out of high school so long," Morgan said. "With the help of other non-traditional students and my professors, I've been able to build much more confidence than I had at the beginning and have done way better than I ever could have planned."
Morgan is now engaged in campus life and the community, taking advantage of all the opportunities she can. She's currently interning at Andersonville National Historic Site and sharing her love of history, has studied abroad in Bulgaria, has presented research at local and regional conferences, and has discovered a passion for glassblowing. "I think it is really important to find what you are interested in and go for it," Morgan said. "I've found that following your passions makes actually doing the work so much easier and more enjoyable."Canes Spotlights are nominated by GSW faculty and staff.
Willis earns weekly honors, recognized at Georgia State CapitolSenior Zoe Willis was named the NCAA Division II Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association Co-Player of the Week on Feb. 20 by the NFCA. Willis shared the award with the University of West Florida's Emma Brice. This is the first weekly honor earned by Georgia Southwestern from the NFCA in program history.
Willis was named Peach Belt Conference Softball Player of the Week on Feb. 19.
On Monday, February 26, Willis was recognized by the Georgia General Assembly By Rep. Mike Cheokas and Sen. Freddie Powell Sims for being named the 2023 NCAA Division II National Softball Player of the Year. Her 2023 season was one for the record books as she recorded a .447 batting average, 25 home runs, 67 RBI, and a .997 slugging percentage. She is also the two-time reigning Peach Belt Conference Player of the Year.
GSW Assistant Softball Coach and former teammate Katelyn Wood and Stephen Snyder from GSW University Advancement traveled with Willis to the Georgia State Capitol. Pictured (L to R) are Cheokas, Wood, Willis, and Snyder.
Junior Jashanti Simmons was named the Peach Belt Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Week on Feb. 19. Simmons averaged 15.5 points per game as the Hurricanes won two big road games last week to solidify their hold on the top spot in the PBC standings.
Read more about the honor here.
Associate Professor Qian "Maggie" Wang, Ph.D., was recently featured on the credit and personal finance website WalletHub. Wang's expertise on credit cards for young adults was featured in an “Ask the Experts” column.
Read the full piece here.
Peacock's short selected for film festivalPatrick Peacock’s latest short film, The Seeker, was selected recently to screen in the South Georgia Film Festival in Valdosta. The film also garnered notice in the Southern Short Awards and the Spotlight Film Awards. A part-time instructor in the Department of Music, Communication, and Emerging Media, Peacock has produced several short films as well as a feature-length film called Back Focus. Through his years of experience writing, shooting, and editing local television commercials and other video projects, he has learned how to stretch his limited resources to create films that appear to have cost much more than they did in reality.
In his video production classes, Peacock uses his experience as a jack-of-all-trades writer/producer/director to help his students not only learn the technical essentials of production, but also techniques of storytelling they can apply to a variety of projects.
The Seeker is a six-minute film shot over two days last August. The story centers on a young woman who has a strange and frightening encounter in the woods while trying to deal with a difficult breakup. As with many of his films, things in The Seeker are not always exactly what they appear to be. Currently under consideration by several additional film festivals, The Seeker will be made available for viewing online later this year. Back Focus is available to stream on Tubi and Amazon Prime. Peacock is now developing the script for his next feature film, a supernatural thriller he plans to premiere in 2025.
Michael A. Moir Jr.'s article, '"A lonely impulse of delight"?: Louis MacNeice's Dialogue with Yeats's "Airman",' will appear in the 2024 issue of 'The Space Between: Literature and Culture, 1914-1945.' The article explores ways in which the generation of English and Irish poets who came of age in the years between the First and Second World Wars adapt the poetic tropes of the First World War to suit a new and different world situation; while poets like C. Day Lewis and W.H. Auden strike a utopian pose and celebrate the power of new technology to transcend human limitations, Louis MacNeice's tone is more skeptical, as he tends to consider the impact of machines from the point of view of their victims.
In September 2023, Assistant Professor of Accounting Sondra Smith, D.B.A., published "Tibbins Pharmaceuticals: A Case on the Application of Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing" in the IMA Educational Case Journal, Vol. 16, No. 3, Art. 3.
Rachel Abbott, PhD, Dean of the College of Education, David Jenkins, EdD, Director of First-Year Experience and Student Success, and Brittany McKenzie, Academic Resource Coordinator, presented at the 43rd Annual Conference on The First-Year Experience in Seattle, Wash. in February 2024. Their presentation, “Promoting Student Success through Campus Collaborations” highlighted the collaborative efforts at GSW to increase student engagement and success, social belonging, and academic achievement. The National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition serves education professionals by supporting and advancing efforts to improve student learning and transition into and through higher education. Over 2000 higher education professionals were in attendance representing all 50 states and 12 different countries.
Also attending the conference were Jill Drake, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Courtney Harmon, Assistant Director of First-Year Experience and Student Success, and Tripp Larkey, Dual Enrollment and Student Success Coordinator.
Hart and Taylor present at accounting educators meetingAssistant Professor of Accounting Sondra Smith, D.B.A., Senior Lecturer of Accounting Dawn Hart, and Lecturer of Accounting Danielle Taylor attended the Georgia Association of Accounting Educators Annual Meeting, held on the campus of Southern Regional Technical College in Thomasville, Ga. Feb. 2-3, 2024. The conference brings together educators from around the state to share teaching methods and discuss emerging trends affecting the accounting profession. Primary topics included changes to the CPA exam, innovative instruction, connecting academic research to business practice, data analytics in accounting education, curriculum flexibility, and generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT.
Hart and Taylor joined Kara Kostiuk and Megan McMahon from Wesleyan College and Natasha Goss from East Georgia State College to present How to Make Accounting Fun (or at Least Not as Painful). Their presentation was conducted in a panel-discussion format focused on the creative ways in which they teach accounting in an effort to make accounting concepts less abstract, more relatable, and more immediately relevant to their students. Taylor demonstrated how she teaches inventory costing methods using concession stand snacks. Hart demonstrated how she teaches activity-based costing using craft supplies and a Sleepy Hollow theme.
The Department of Human Resources has launched an Employee of the Month program with the purpose of encouraging recognition of GSW faculty and staff who have significantly benefited the University and made contributions beyond the usual expectations or their employment.
Nominations can be made online each month here.
The January 2024 Employees of the Month were:
Professor and Chair of the Department of History and Political Science Glenn Robins, Ph.D., earned second place in the John A. Adams ’71 Center for Military History & Strategic Analysis annual essay contest, presented by the Virginia Military Institute. Any aspect of the Cold War (1945-1991) era is eligible, including papers on military strategy, plans, and operations; the relationship between the armed forces and society; international security affairs; Cold War alliances; and the connections between Cold War military history and contemporary geopolitical challenges.
Robins’ entry was entitled “Reevaluating the Office of Commander in Chief: Jimmy Carter as a Case Study.” His essay focused on four questions. First, what was the nature of Carter’s military service and how did these experiences educate him on the seriousness of war and prepare him for the office of commander in chief? Second, how did Carter’s military thought shape his personal strategic thought and his ideas about the primary responsibility and objective of the commander in chief? Third, what role did Carter play in building the all-volunteer force? Fourth, how did Carter perform as commander of special military operations?
Edwards departs for Bowling Green State UniversityKerry Edwards has resigned as head women's soccer coach/assistant athletic director to accept a position as the top assistant on the women's soccer staff at NCAA Division I Bowling Green State University.
"We are very proud of what Kerry has accomplished in a very short period of time here at GSW," Leeder said. "We are so happy for her as she continues her professional journey with this opportunity."
"First and foremost, I want to thank President Dr. Neal Weaver and Athletic Director Mike Leeder for taking a chance on a first-time head coach and trusting me with the development of the program," Edwards stated. "You can only have one first win as a head coach and you all will always be the people that gave me the chance to do that."
GSW will conduct a national search for Edwards' replacement. Read more here.
Lance Alday joined the Office of Information and Instructional Technology as a computer technician on Feb. 1, 2024.
Payton Johnson joined the Office of Recruitment and Admissions as an admissions counselor on Feb. 26, 2024.
Sean Madden, assistant director of athletic communication in the Department of Athletics, exited that role on Feb. 2, 2024.
Chemistry participates in college and career expoThe College of Education in collaboration with Delta Kappa Gamma hosted their 7th Induction Support Event since fall 2023 for new teachers in the region. Jennifer Dickens and Jessica Woodard facilitated the professional development. Attendees learned different tools and tips about managing the classroom. Each participant was gifted with a timer to begin using in their classrooms, and 12 door prizes of Amazon donations and gift cards valuing $10-$15 were provided as door drizes. The COE thanks the DKG members and the community for the donations to support teachers.
On Feb. 9, 2024,
Three faculty and staff members spoke to Dr. Liz Wilson's class about forecasting supply and demand in higher education. Groups of students heard from Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jill Drake, Ed.D., Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management Gaye Hayes, Ph.D., and Professor and Dean of the College of Education Rachel Abbott, Ph.D.
Groups learned about enrollment and demographic trends and how that type of information helps higher education professional predict enrollment, and how research helps colleges determine future course and program needs, and how data from across USG and other universities helps analyze how best to supply programs and make decisions about staffing. The HR students were able to see the information they have been studying about HR planning put into practice in a real-world environment.
Mimi Pieper, a senior in computer science at South Oregon University, spoke to students in Yemelyanov's computer science and information technology classes. The talk was titled "Career Opportunities for CS/IT students in Cybersecurity." Pieper talked about various internship and certification opportunities that the students can take advantage of. She also emphasized the importance of career fairs including virtual ones for improving the networking. The talk was very well received by the students as they gained an imperative insight in the area of cybersecurity.
Find more events on the GSW academic calendar, on CanesConnect, and on the Events Open to the Community webpage.
