U P F R O N T
Hughes pens inaugural poem Sara Hughes recalls riding in the backseat of the family car when she was a child, choosing one word and making words that rhymed, using every letter of the alphabet. “I’ve always loved words,” she said. “I was interested in the way they sound.” Hughes’ words were an integral part of the investiture Nov. 12 of Dr. Dorothy Leland as the 10th president of Georgia College & State University. She was chosen as the official inaugural poet and read a poem she wrote especially for the occasion titled “What We Learn from Our Teachers” at the investiture ceremony. Hughes was chosen to write the inaugural poem from among a group of Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing graduates, said Dr. David Evans, chair and professor in the Department of English, Speech, and Journalism, and coordinator of the investiture service. The choice also reflected the desire of President Leland to have the inauguration celebrate the life of the university, he said. Hughes was born in Cordele, Ga., grew up in Thomson and graduated from Thomson High School. In May of 2004 she received her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing degree Sara Hughes recites the poem she wrote in honor of President from GC&SU. Her bachelor of Dorothy Leland’s inauguration at the investiture ceremony in arts degree in English is from November. Mercer University. She and her husband, fiction writer Scott Hughes, live in Macon, where she teaches pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students at Montessori of Macon. “In poetry, every word counts,” she said. “I like choosing the best words and putting them in the best possible order to get my message across.” The poem Sara wrote for the inauguration is “that rare piece written for an occasion that also succeeds as an artistic accomplishment,” said Dr. Martin Lammon, the Fuller E. Callaway/Flannery O’Connor Chair in Creative Writing and a professor of English at GC&SU. “Sara has struck just the right chord with her poem, an evocative, quirky recollection of childhood and learning, but also a celebration of holding on to what really matters as we face new challenges. The language, tone, and cadence of the poem are exquisite.”
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Georgia College & State University Connection • Winter 2005
SIFE prides itself on service to others It is no secret that Georgia College & State University prides itself on student involvement in the community, but there are many people who may not be familiar with the community service by a group known as the SIFE team. SIFE stands for Students in Free Enterprise, and is a student service organization whose objective is to encourage students and members of the community to become more educated about free enterprise and personal finance. To be considered a member, a person must complete 20 hours of community service. “SIFE is part of what experiential learning is all about,” said Dr. John Swinton, one of the team’s advisers. The GC&SU SIFE Team has taught international free trade to Baldwin High School’s home economics classes, and have sold signatures on bricks that are used to build Habitat for Humanity houses. The group has also been involved in a community program at Macedonia Baptist Church in which they teach citizens about debt and personal finance. And they have presented a program on debt to students in the residence halls. The SIFE team also competes with their projects against other SIFE teams across the southeast annually. For the past three years, the GC&SU SIFE team has won regionally and has gone on to compete nationally. They are currently working on their biggest project to date. They are investigating the possibility of opening a gift shop where GC&SU T-shirts and gifts will be sold. The money from that project will go to ship academic books to Africa.