VOL.20 NO.1 • SPRING 2013
Honors Program Allows CSU’s Brightest to Shine – Page 12
Reflections on Vietnam, Space, Poetry and More
Schuster Student Success Center has become a hub of main campus activity since opening in 2009. The 37,700-square foot building houses most student support services, including the career and counseling centers; the Academic Center for Excellence, which oversees most advising and tutoring; offices for two premier student programs, Honors and Servant Leadership; Disability Services; and Student Affairs administrative offices.
A recent few days in April offer an incredible example of the power of our university. The first example was the culminating event of our First Year Experience program, which this year has included yearlong revisit, review and reconnection with the war in Vietnam. We began the academic year by hearing from Gen. H.R. McMaster, commanding general of Fort Benning and its Maneuver Center of Excellence, who Timothy Mescon discussed his own book, Dereliction of Duty, and his impressions of the Vietnam War. The closing speaker for the Vietnam War focus on campus in April was Tim O’Brien, the celebrated author of The Things They Carried, a story collection of a platoon’s experiences, borrowed from his own, very personal recollections as an infantryman in Vietnam. O’Brien’s work has earned him (among many, many recognitions) a National Book Award, France’s Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and a listing by John Updike in The Best American Short Stories of the Century. O’Brien spoke on campus during the day to more than 1,000 attendees and then, in the evening, spoke at the Springer Opera House as part of the Southern Literary Festival hosted by Columbus State. His talks were emotional, specific and graphic. That same evening, Dr. Bernard Harris, the first African American astronaut to walk in space, helped dedicate a NASA space shuttle nozzle (which flew five missions in space) as the most significant part of the $19 million in NASA equipment donated to our Coca-Cola Space Science Center. Harris also spoke on campus during the day and at the Columbus Convention and Trade Center in the evening. His talk was compelling and impressive. A physician by training, Harris joined NASA and traveled more than 7.5 million miles in support of space exploration and scientific research. His foundation supports STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education in the United States and around the world. Columbus State University supporter and donor Joseph Lunsford, an executive at Exxon Mobil, assisted mightily with the effort to bring Dr. Harris to campus and the community. The very next day, the poet laureate of the United States, Natasha Trethewey, read from her works at Columbus State University’s Riverside Theatre Complex as part of the Southern Literary Festival. Trethewey, who grew up in Decatur, Ga., won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for Native Guard, her 2006 collection about black Union soldiers who guarded a fort off the coast of Mississippi during the Civil War. Trethewey’s readings were powerful and provocative. If you layer onto these events the final weekend musical theater production of Rent, the International Trombone Festival, a juried student art exhibition, and then sprinkle in Cougar tennis, baseball and softball, you have some insight into the level and quality of activities at our university. I am so proud to work with exceptional colleagues and students as we continue to walk our own great journey and reach new and important milestones in this our 55th year.
Contents VOL. 20 NO. 1 • SPRING 2013 Editor Bill Sutley Contributing Writers Hannah Vongsavang John Lester Bill Sutley Tim Turner Magazine Design & Layout Sally Morgan / MidMedia LLC Contributing Artists Richard Hodges Philander Norwood Contributing Photographers Mike Culpepper Roger Hart John Lester Larry McTighe Naartjie Multimedia Antonio Orsborn Sammie Saxon Tamma Smith Bill Sutley Tim Turner About the Cover Matthew Perry, an Honors Program senior in astrophysics-planetary geology, discusses his honors thesis before a slide showing 2005-2011 earthquakes near Central America’s western coast. His thesis discusses the relationship between those quakes and certain climate patterns. (Photo by Mike Culpepper) Address Correspondence to: Focus Office of University Relations Columbus State University 4225 University Ave. Columbus, GA 31907 email: bsutley@ColumbusState.edu Vice President for University Advancement Alan Medders Associate Vice President for Development Spence Sealy Director of Alumni Relations Jennifer Joyner Assistant Vice President for University Relations John Lester
4225 University Avenue Columbus, Georgia 31907-5645
10 12 16 18 Provost: Rankings show university measures up
Honors Program looks toward future success
Alumnus markets device to avert racing tragedies
Photographer’s work helps inspire filmmakers
CAMPUS NEWS
L E A D E R S H I P F o rum Speakers Announced Former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle D. “Gabby” Giffords and her husband, former space shuttle Commander Mark Kelly, will headline the eighth annual Jim Blanchard Leadership Forum, hosted by CSU’s Leadership Institute, on Aug. 26-27. Giffords, a Democrat, joined Congress in 2006 and was re-elected twice. A week into her third term, she was seriously injured when a gunman opened fire at a Tucson shopping center where Giffords was meeting with constituents on Jan. 8, 2011. Six were killed and 13 injured. Giffords resigned in 2012 to focus on her recovery. Kelly, a retired U.S. Navy captain, is also a best-selling author, prostate cancer survivor and an experienced naval aviator who flew combat missions during the Gulf War. Selected as an astronaut in 1996, Kelly flew the first of his four missions in 2001 aboard Endeavour, the same space shuttle he commanded on its final flight in May 2011. He has also commanded space shuttle Discovery and is one of only Gabby Giffords two four-time visitors to the International Space Station. “As a family, they have modeled the kind of leadership for how one deals with tragedy, and they did it on an international stage,” said Ed Helton, director of the Leadership Institute. “We are honored to have them here to share their story with us and to learn what we are sure will be invaluable lessons.” Second-day speakers for the forum at the Columbus Convention and Trade Center are: • Seth Godin, an author widely considered one of the world’s leading experts on online marketing. • Tom Mullins, founding pastor of one of the nation’s largest churches, the nondenominational Christ Fellowship, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. • David Novak, chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands, Inc., which operates or licenses Mark Kelly Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and other restaurants worldwide. • John Stankey, group president and chief strategy officer of AT&T Inc. • Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford Motor Co. • Maj. Gen. H. R. McMaster, commanding general of the U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning. Registration for the full conference is $429. Tickets for tables of eight are $3,400. For more information and to register, visit http://JimBlanchardLeadeshipForum.com.
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Focus on Columbus State University
New Director Joins Schwob School July 1 E. Scott Harris, director of the University of Southern Maine’s music school, has been selected as the new leader of CSU’s Schwob School of Music. Harris, who’s been at the Portland university since 1992, became founding director of its music school in 2002. He’s also taught at Ithaca College and Indiana University, where he earned all three of his E. Scott Harris degrees. “He has the right mix of academic credentials, leadership experience, outreach knowledge and personality to realize the faculty’s vision of taking our music school to another level of excellence and prominence,” said College of the Arts Dean Richard Baxter. Harris will start work in the Saunders Center for Music Studies on July 1, taking over from Rex Whiddon, the Schwob School’s founding director, who returned earlier this year to serve as interim director while a national search wrapped up. “I’m excited about the future of the Schwob School of Music under Dr. Harris’ leadership and look forward to working with him to achieve our mutual vision for a school that is recognized internationally as one of the leading centers for music study,” Whiddon said. Harris earned his bachelor’s degree in composition, his master’s in music theory and his doctorate in music theory, with minors in cello, composition and computer science. In addition to his scholarly duties, teaching and advising and fund-raising, Harris said a priority for him has been community engagement, including work with youth ensembles, the local Boys and Girls Clubs, and community outreach performances.
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University Avenue Golf Studio, Practice Facility Planned Columbus State is planning to build a new golf studio and practice facility on University Avenue with input from former Masters champion Larry Mize. The studio and practice facility will be the new home for Columbus State’s golf teams. CSU Foundation Properties, Inc. recently bought the Boutwell Clinic and its parking lot at 3434 University Ave., which fronts land Foundation Properties already owned. That 11 acres is long and narrow, perfect for a driving range. The university is now seeking funds to convert the clinic
into a clubhouse and offices, using the adjacent 11 acres for a driving range, putting and short-game areas. Currently, CSU’s men’s and women’s golf teams and students enrolled in golf classes must drive eight miles from main campus to the Bull Creek Golf Course. The proposed $1.75 million facility will be within walking distance of main campus. “It will be a fantastic recruiting tool that will enable us to attract blue-chip prospects to Columbus State,” said Mark Immelman, CSU’s men’s golf coach. Mize, the Columbus native who
won the 1987 Masters, is helping design the studio. Ideally, CSU wants timber cut and the property graded in time for the studio to have a full growing season before a projected spring 2014 opening. The Columbus State men’s golf program owns six national championships, second most in NCAA Division II history. It’s also produced six individual national champions and 56 All-Americans. In just its fourth year of existence, the Columbus State women’s golf program has already produced five All-Conference selections.
Spencer Map Collection to be Donated to CSU Archives A leading Columbus State supporter, J. Kyle Spencer, intends to donate to CSU Archives one of the most comprehensive collections of the early maps of Georgia. “These maps represent the emergence of the people of Georgia as a state,” said Mark Flynn, CSU’s dean of libraries, which houses the Archives. “It’s all about our history and shows how land transformation relates to our history.” Before becoming part of the CSU
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Archives on the top floor of CSU’s Schwob Memorial Library on main campus, a sampling of the maps will be on display through June 14 at the W.C. Bradley Co. Museum, 1017 Front Ave. The collection will reside in the CSU Archives, along with over 5,000 linear feet of archival material, including maps, architectural drawings, photographs, audio recordings and video recordings. The Spencer collection will include the
first maps to identify the Margravate of Azilia, the precursor to James Oglethorpe’s colony and the first cartographic works to delineate Georgia. Spencer, a senior member of the CSU Foundation, has collected maps dealing with the American colonies and Georgia for more than 30 years. The Georgia material allows an observer to trace the disappearance of the Indians and the westward growth of the state’s counties.
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University Relations Wins Top Advertising Award Competing against universities throughout the Southeast, Columbus State won the grand award for overall advertising campaigns during this year’s annual conference of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education District III. CSU’s University Relations office entered several pieces of work from last year’s “First Choice” campaign for the competition. Working with Columbus-based Basset and Becker Advertising/ Naartjie Multimedia, the campaign was designed to help recruit more highly academically qualified students. The “First Choice” campaign showcased students who had a choice of where to go to school but proclaimed that “CSU was my first choice!” At the end of the year, the average high school GPA of all degreeseeking, first-time, first-year students who submitted a GPA to the university rose from a 2010-2011 average of 2.96 to a 2011-2012 average of 3.03. “We are not trying to say that this ad campaign was the reason our students’ GPAs went up, but we would like to think it was an effective way of highlighting the university’s move to become a more prominent institution with higher academic standards,” said John Lester, assistant vice president for university relations.
Undergraduate Admissions Application Now Online Columbus State’s new online undergraduate admissions application joins previously available online admission application forms for graduate programs and the online admission application form for international students. The new online undergraduate admissions application at http://ColumbusState.edu/admissions/undergrad/ is a streamlined form that’s more efficient for students who wish to apply only for admission to CSU, allows more application fee payment options and facilitates quicker application processing.
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CSU Announces Competitive Program to Better Prepare Students for Medical School A new Competitive Premedical Studies program launches this fall at Columbus State, with organizers hoping to make the process of getting into medical school less daunting. “From the moment they step on campus, we’re going to start providing them with tools that will help them become successful medical school applicants,” said program director Katey Hughes, an associate professor of biology. That includes free participation in a course that prepares students for the standardized Medical College Admission Test, better known as the MCAT. The program will initially accept up to 15 freshmen for the fall 2013 launch, but Hughes anticipates more CSU freshmen will be allowed to join by spring 2014. Application details and more are available at http://ColumbusState.edu/premed. Academically talented students selected for the program will also enjoy: • Shadowing opportunities through physician mentors. • Medical school visitation experiences. • Peer mentors. • Contact with CSU graduates currently in medical school. • Medical school application preparation, including the MCAT prep course normally costing $1,800. • Medical school interview strategies. “We have students who go to medical schools and they’re definitely prepared,” Hughes said. “But here’s what I see: The process of getting to medical school can be overwhelming and, too often what I see is students who start out, definitely capable of going academically, but because of their course rigor, because of MCAT prep, because of all these external factors, they become overwhelmed and end up not submitting applications to medical school. This will hopefully provide resources from the time they come to help gear them up in that process.” Georgia ranks 41st in physicians per capita — a shortage that’s expected to worsen in the next two decades. In response, Georgia’s medical schools are increasing enrollment capacity, setting the stage for new opportunities at the undergraduate level. “CSU’s aim is to be the preferred premedical studies university in Georgia,” Hughes said.
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Servant Leadership Unveils Playground Columbus-area children have a unique new playground to enjoy, thanks to Columbus State’s Servant Leadership Program. “This playground is the culmination of several years of hard work from the students,” said Stuart Rayfield, the Frank Brown Distinguished Chair in Servant Leadership and director of CSU’s Servant Leadership program. “These students saw an opportunity to create an amazing playground for students of all abilities, and even with a price tag of more than $400,000, they were not deterred and neither were the community partners they approached. The finished product is a result of what Columbus is known for — public-private partnerships.” The playground behind the main Columbus Public Library on Macon Road was dedicated in October and praised as a place to engage children of all ages and abilities. The senior classes of 2010, 2011 and 2013 in CSU’s Servant Leadership Program raised money for a playground specifically designed to offer elements of play for children with disabilities. The largest donation was a grant award of $50,000 from the Knight Fund at the Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley, Inc. The playground, built on land owned by the Muscogee County School District, features specialized equipment such as playwebs, climbing walls and “first floor” activities that are wheelchair-accessible.
Cheerleaders Finish Second in National Competition
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ORLANDO, Fla. — Columbus State’s cheer squad took home second place at the Universal Cheerleaders Association College Cheerleading National Championship in January. Competing in Small Coed Division II, Columbus State finished second behind champion Wilmington University. This was the second consecutive second place finish for the small-coed team after winning the national championship in 2011. CSU also had a pair of teams compete in the partner stunt competition. The team of Tommy Goforth and Ali Anderson placed fifth, while Jason Riel and Chelsea Horton ended up ninth.
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Seven former Miss CSU’s were on hand at the February pageant for the crowning of Katelyn Pawlowski, far right, as Miss CSU 2013. Those pageant alumni and the years they won are, from left, Shana Teel Purkey (1999), Sommer Bundy (2003), Jessica Scott Bounds (2006), Jamie Harper McConnell (2008), April Hollingsworth (2010), Hayley Henderson (2011) and Amarinda Trear (2012).
Exercise Science Major Heads to State Pageant as Miss CSU Katelyn Pawlowski, a junior exercise science major from Midland, will represent Columbus State as Miss CSU 2013 at the Miss Georgia Pageant June 19-22. Pawlowski was crowned Miss CSU at the Feb. 17 campus pageant, featuring six Columbus State students competing in four categories.
For her talent, Pawlowski offered a contemporary jazz dance performance. Her platform was, “Do You See What I See: Giving the Gift of Sight.” First runner-up was Ansley Phillips, a freshman communication major from Fortson, and Kelsey Ray, a sophomore special education major from Trion, was second runner-up.
A former Miss CSU, Shana Teel Purkey of Nashville, and Mark Immelman, CSU’s men’s golf coach, served as emcees during the February pageant, when contestants were asked an on-stage question and then competed in swimsuit, talent and evening wear categories.
Artistic Honor Steven Tette, a graduate art student at CSU, presents his painting, “Self Concept (Family affair),” to Gov. Nathan Deal in the state Capitol in February. The painting, on six months loan for display in the governor’s office as part of the “Art of Georgia” exhibit, “stood out as an exceptional representation of contemporary Georgia artwork,” Tette was told in a selection letter from the Georgia Council for the Arts. The painting of his parents took Tette about 60 hours to complete. The image is mostly from a photo, but he used artistic license to include himself as a child, looking through the window behind his mother.
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CSU Hires First Bartlett Center Director The expert art curator charged with bringing to life Columbus State’s Bo Bartlett Center is now on board and laying the groundwork for its opening. David Houston, who had been director of curatorial at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., joined CSU’s College of the Arts on Feb. 1 to oversee development of the David Houston 18,425-square foot Bartlett center on the top floor of CSU’s Corn Center for the Visual Arts. “We are in the process of putting together a comprehensive strategic plan of how the Bartlett Center will work with the university and the city’s cultural institutions to carry forward its unique mission,” Houston said. The center, originally the vision of a private collector of major works by Bartlett, will house the largest single
collection of the realist’s paintings, including several grand scale works, plus the Columbus-born artist’s donated sketchbooks, journals, archives and memorabilia. The center will also offer educational programming, archive access for scholars and host exhibitions for an active visiting artists program. Bartlett, who has homes in Maine and Washington state, returned to Columbus in March to offer a successful master class at CSU for 20 people from across the U.S. The artist has known Houston about six years and called him “the perfect match for the center.” CSU’s center will be the fourth Houston has helped develop and open. He has also been the director of an art gallery at Clemson University, and he has been a professor and lecturer of art.. “To attract an individual with the credentials of David Houston to be the executive director positions this project to gain national attention in the art world,” said Richard Baxter, dean of CSU’s College of the Arts.
Computer Science Professor Named Fulbright Scholar A Columbus State computer science professor, Vladimir Zanev, will teach in Bulgaria next fall as a participant in the Fulbright Scholar Program. Fewer than 15 Fulbright awards nationwide go to computer science faculty. Zanev previously taught at Winston-Salem (N.C.) State University, the University of South Carolina, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia and at Sofia University. Congress approved the program, the brainchild of U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, in 1946 to promote post-World-War II academic exchanges between the U.S. and other nations. Since then, about 300,000 faculty and students have participated.
Considering graduate school?
Consider CSU For more than 25 years, Columbus State University has been building its graduate program and now offers 50-plus master’s, specialist and other degree options, including a doctoral degree. Choose from graduate programs in business, education, public administration and leadership, just to name a few. U.S. News & World Report ranks several among the best in the country! CSU offers exceptional mentorship and professional partnerships. Students can interact one-on-one with outstanding faculty and develop close relationships with advisers. Most CSU graduate programs offer great flexibility. Many graduate classes in our nationally accredited programs meet in the evenings and some on weekends. We also offer a dozen online graduate degrees so you can take CSU wherever you are in the world!
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http://ColumbusState.edu/gradschool
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Proud Journey
By Tom Hackett
Reflecting on New National Rankings s a proud alumnus of Columbus State University (BA 77, M.Ed. 85, when it was still named Columbus College), I must admit having felt a slight pang of jealousy in past years when U.S. News & World Report posted rankings for colleges and universities. That’s because my alma mater wasn’t listed. The envy, on behalf of my institution, was aimed at those
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fortunate colleges and universities prominently featured in the U.S. News & World Report‘s annual Best Colleges publication, displayed prominently in the magazine section of my favorite bookstore and grocery store. Though I know national rankings by independent agencies do not always tell the whole story about an institution, even a cursory glance at the rankings told me that those colleges and universities
CSU Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs who were “in the mix” were also those that commanded regional and national respect from the public in general and from high school counselors, parents, and, ultimately students who apply to those institutions. Last year, for the first time, Columbus State University was ranked among the Top 50 public regional universities in the South by U.S. News & World Report. As if to punctuate
About Our Top 100 Ranking • “Best Colleges” rankings released last September by U.S. News & World graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, Report put CSU among the Top 100 “regional universities” in the South financial resources and alumni giving. for the first time. • In ranking No. 91 as a “first tier” school among regional universities in • U.S. News defines a regional university as offering a full range of underthe South, Columbus State tied with three other schools: Charleston graduate majors and master’s programs. (S.C.) Southern University, University of Louisiana at Monroe and the University of West Georgia. In the ranking of public regional universities, • Columbus State is ranked No. 91 in the South in the “Best Regional CSU tied with ULM and West Georgia at No. 46. Universities” section of the magazine’s Best Colleges 2013 guidebook. • Among public regional universities in the South, CSU ranks No. 46. • Regional university rankings are divided into four geographic regions: North, South, Midwest and South. • Ranking factors include assessments by top officials at peer institutions,
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• CSU President Tim Mescon welcomed the news, indicating he believes the university can climb higher in the rankings: “We will continue this relentless pursuit for perfection in all we do.” • U.S. News & World Report offered its first “America’s Best Colleges” report in 1983.
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that stellar achievement, U.S. News & World Report followed up by ranking our online graduate programs in business and education as 33rd and 34th, respectively, in the nation. It’s difficult to overstate what this means to someone whose association with this institution began in 1970 as a faculty member’s oldest child, who began attending the institution in 1972. Though these rankings did the trick in providing balm for this alumnus’ ego, what is much more important is what such rankings mean to potential students, who are more discerning than ever as to the return on value of their college tuition. And as to how parents aid their children in this most important college-selection decision, rankings are crucial to their discernment of quality institutions. That makes these rankings of high value to those of us who support Columbus State University. Students begin making crucial choices for colleges early in their high school career. Savvy admissions officers at selective institutions have long known this fact and work diligently to identify talented students as early as middle school. Once talented students are identified, those officials begin to market their colleges and universities to students (and their parents) by outlining the great college experiences available at their institutions and pulling out all the stops with marketing brochures with vibrant colors, personalized letters from senior academics and administrators with all marketing strategies “on message,” citing tradition, institutional excellence, academics and other hallmarks of exciting campus life. As school counselors, parents and students are all targeted by such marketing, it becomes more and more difficult for them to discern the quality of the college experience from such materials. Now it has always been true that students and their parents
BEST ONLINE PROGRAMS GRAD EDUCATION
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About These Rankings
• Columbus State learned in January that U.S. News & World Report had ranked CSU’s online graduate degrees in business and education No. 33 and No. 34 respectively, compared to all others nationwide. • Highlights of the assessments are to be included in the magazine’s Best Graduate Schools 2014 and Best Colleges 2014 guidebooks. • The online Master of Business Administration degree program offered by CSU’s Turner College of Business was ranked No. 33 among 148 listed programs. • Columbus State’s online MBA is offered through the Georgia WebMBA consortium of six University System of Georgia business schools, all accredited by AACSB International (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business). • Columbus State’s online graduate education program was ranked No. 34 among 143 listed programs.
look to the traditional reputation of institutions as they make choices. Increasingly, however, they are looking to outside arbiters of quality. Because of its history in providing college and university rankings, the U.S. News & World Report rankings have attained a status where they influence decisions about which colleges and universities rate an application. Many educational institutions go to great lengths to ensure that they perform well on the metrics used by U.S. News & World Report to assign rankings because of the meaning of those rankings to those
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• CSU offers an online Master of Education in curriculum and instruction (formerly known as an M.Ed. in accomplished teaching), a Master of Education in educational leadership and two Master of Arts in Teaching degrees — one designed for high school math teachers and another designed for high school science teachers. • Methods used in ranking online programs vary, but among the factors emphasized by U.S. News are student engagement; faculty credentials and training; student services and technology; admissions selectivity and a program’s reputation among its peers. • U.S. News & World Report develops the rankings by conducting surveys among institutions and gauging performance in several areas according to responses from the schools. For the online graduate programs in business rankings, U.S. News surveyed 628 business schools. In looking at comparable education programs, U.S. News collected information from 679 education programs.
choosing institutions to which to apply. It is in this competitive environment that Columbus State University has found itself ranked in the Top 50 Public Regional Universities in the South and among the Top 35 online graduate programs nationally in business and education. This represents a level of national recognition placing us in an upper tier of educational institutions. I have no doubt that more such recognition is on the way for my alma mater. But in the meantime, I’ll pass the magazine section proudly, with an eye toward even better things in the future.
This banner, visible from Inerstate 185 on the west side of main campus, is one of several signs sharing the good news about the rankings.
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Building on Brilliance By Bill Sutley
Senior Matthew Perry, left, discusses his Honors Program thesis on the relationship between earthquakes and climate with his faculty mentor, Clint Barineau, associate professor of geology and Columbus State’s 2013 Educator of the Year.
CSU’s Growing Honors Program Looks Toward Tomorrow he research biochemist remembers the U.S. senators and House members he met while studying political science in Washington. The CPA remembers the kangaroo boxing matches she witnessed while studying biology in Australia. The communication graduate remembers how much better she learned Spanish while living with a family in Mexico. Thanks to word of mouth about such experiences and the success of its alumni, CSU’s Honors Program has seen skyrocketing growth in recent years and developed a reputation for producing graduates who learn how to reach beyond their disciplines and routinely expand their comfort zones. In the 15 years since its birth in 1998, the Honors Program has grown ten-fold, from 19 students then to more than 200 last fall. University officials
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and Honors Program boosters believe there’s room for even more growth and success, if the promise of expanded resources becomes reality. To even be considered for CSU’s Honors Program, applicants must have a high school GPA of 3.5 or better, combined with a score of 1,200 or higher on the combined math and verbal SAT score or an ACT composite score of 26. Once accepted, Honors Program students must take more rigorous versions of core courses, maintain a 3.4 GPA, take specialized honors courses that eventually lead to completing a thesis, engage in campus leadership or community service and participate in several enrichment extras.
Taking the Pulse of Politics Joshua Fields ‘03, the biochemist who got a taste of politics in D.C., had
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several options for attending college, but CSU’s new Honors Program, the reputation of CSU’s biology department and a serious but treatable recurring health issue helped him decide to stick close to his Columbus home. It’s apparently paid off. He finished his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 2011 and now remains as a post-doctorate researcher in cell biology at Georgia Regents University, which was Medical College of Georgia when he started there. (Furthermore, the bride he met in an Honors Program biology class, Tiffany Lauren Floyd ‘03, has also finished her Ph.D., in developmental biology, and has a post-doc at the Augusta school). “Now that I’ve met a lot of people from around the state who have come to MCG, I’ve found the (CSU) biology program and also the Honors Program
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really propelled me further along in my studies than these students and really prepared me for graduate school in ways that other schools had not trained their students,” Fields said. A political science professor organized the Washington trip for Fields and other Honors Program students who got a first-hand look at politics on the national stage. “We met senators and congressmen, and that really made for an excellent experience,” Fields says. “And even though I now have focused on science, it’s always something in the back of my mind that really captured my interest, thanks to the interactions I had through the Honors Program and the interests of professors.” Also thanks to the Honors Program, which emphasizes study abroad, Fields had a chance to study Tropical Ecology at Andros Island, a part of the Bahamas in the Caribbean. “This is something I would have not been able to do without the assistance and, let’s say, the push from the Honors Program,” Fields said. “I actually got a lot of experience in research through the biology department, but some of the actual extra research projects I got into, like tropical ecology, were completely owed, in my opinion, to the Honors Program.” Today, Fields’ research is gaining national attention, including an article published recently in Nature, where he discussed how Vitamin E can help cells repair and even strengthen their membranes. That’s part of a focus on wound repair at the cellular level that could lead to significant advances in treating genetic diseases such as muscular dystrophy.
with colleagues in other countries on “global problems,” Hackett says. Like others at Columbus State, the provost believes the success of CSU’s Honors Program opens the possibility of it evolving into a standalone college, complete with endowed professorships and more resources to help students share their research at distant conferences. “You need to have the resources to have already successful students challenged at this upper level,” he said. “They’re looking for something really spectacular.” Establishing an Honors College for a university the size of Columbus State would be a bold move, Hackett says, noting it’s a change that’s already been discussed by Honors Program faculty. “When it comes to something like this, first you want to crawl, then you want to walk, then you want to run and then you want to sprint,” he says. “I think we’re at the level where we’re running, and we can run faster before we get to a sprint.”
Contagious Excellence Melanie Simmons Powell, `05, `06, a certified public accountant manager for a Columbus accounting firm, came to CSU as an early childhood education major, but a few babysitting experi-
Australia, where she was up-close with sharks and other fish while diving the Great Barrier Reef. And then there was the sultry afternoon when the class spent hours observing a savannah watering hole, not seeing much for their trouble. “We were just melting,” she recalls. “And then, as we were about to leave, this whole herd of kangaroos came up and it was like this big impromptu boxing match. It’s something you would never see in a regular biology class.” Like many other current and former Honors Program students, Powell remembers also the emphasis on developing problem-solving and leadership skills. “Any skills you pick up, they can apply to any profession you choose,” she says. During her same Australia study abroad trip, she remembers the importance of problem-solving for one of her classmates who had a customs inspector question some scuba gear the inspector deemed “suspicious.” “It also helps you develop teambuilding skills and helps you gain a sense of independence and self-reliance — the ability to adapt to problems as they arise,” she says. Two current students credit the
Producing `Global Citizens’ Tom Hackett, CSU’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, says the emphasis on study abroad is part of what makes the CSU Honors Program unique when compared to those at other universities. “I think, ultimately, that’s what the Honors Program does: It prepares our students to be citizens of the world, to be global citizens,” he says. That’s important to society because the “ubiquity of Internet access and the growing ease of travel” can make it possible for some of CSU’s brightest Honors Program alumni to work
ences helped her calculate that spreadsheets and tax law might be more pleasant to work with, for her at least. One vivid Honors Program memory was the biology course she took in
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Martha Newell, a senior Honors Program student, pets a moose at an Alaska nature park during a break from a 2012 research internship that had her camping out for several weeks and tracking dwindling caribou herds on one of the Aleutian Islands. Later, Newell was recognized at a national conference for her presentation related to the research. Honors Program for helping them emerge from the shells they developed as quiet, serious students. “Probably one of the best things the Honors Program has done for me
Kayla Brown, holding microphone boom, prepares to interview Dr. Joseph Zanga, right, chief of pediatrics at a Columbus hospital, 13-year-old Jalen Salter (on bed) and his grandmother, Sheila Salter. Brown, a senior communication major is producing a documentary as part of an Honors Program project that has her working with CSU’s Nonprofit and Civic Engagement Center and a local education foundation. The documentary aims to raise awareness of asthma, which often strikes Jalen, and how it can be treated in younger patients. involves leadership,” says Michael J. Anderson, a senior headed soon to medical school. It started simply enough — with the challenge given him, as a chemistry major, to take the lead in a “mocktails” demonstration involving non-alcoholic drinks prepared for one of the Honors Program’s non-credit enrichment classes. From there, the challenges kept building until he found himself vice president for financial affairs of CSU’s Student Government Association and president of the American Chemical Society affiliate. “Without the Honors Program, I can’t say I would be in the SGA,” he said. Rachael Lambert, a senior accounting major, says taking one of the program’s leadership classes helped prepare her to become treasurer of Honoris Causa, the organization of Honors Program students that Fields helped found when he was at CSU. “Doing that helped me learn more about budgets for my major,” she said. “I’m an introvert and usually like to just do my work and go home. But with the Honors Program, I’ve been able to take part in extracurricular activities, involve myself in more community service events and meet people from various majors I wouldn’t have normally met.”
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Among Honors Program cheerleaders in CSU’s administration and faculty, there’s often talk of how those best and brightest students infect others with their zeal for learning. “It raises the academic discussion by having students of that caliber on campus,” says Honors Program Director Cindy Ticknor, an associate professor of mathematics and the third leader in the program’s young history. “It’s a natural fit for honors students to be academic leaders on campus. They’re pervasive through all student organizations, including fraternities and sororities. Just by the nature of their existence on campus, they’re going to be influencing others and encouraging others.”
was challenged by the requirement to engage in graduate-level research as an undergraduate and write a thesis. (Fine arts students can combine an abbreviated thesis with a performance or art project.) But, like so many others, study abroad produced meaningful memories. Hargrove took Spanish in high school, but she got her ultimate challenge when she spent four weeks living with a family in Cuernavaca, Mexico, meeting with classmates, also living in homes, for daytime sessions at a local university. “We got completely immersed in the culture,” she says. “You were never able to shut off from speaking and understanding the language. It was difficult at first — like a puzzle. “
Focusing on the Future The future of CSU’s Honors Program is something of a complex puzzle as well. In 2009, the university developed a strategic plan that called for significantly increasing the number of students in the program, to more than 350 students by 2015. Two years later, the number of students in the program had grown by 50 percent. Ticknor is impressed that only 36 percent of Honors Program students are on scholarships expressly designed for its students. “That means we have 64 percent participating because of what the program has to offer,” she says. “The reason students want to participate in the program is because we can offer
Translating Success Kate Hargrove, ’11, is in a unique position to evaluate the impact of the Honors Program as a communication graduate who transferred from a larger university and a current graduate student at CSU. She’s also a graduate assistant in Alumni Relations, where she occasionally talks with fellow program alumni. “I would say the thing that stands out most to me was the camaraderie,” she says. “It’s a community inside a large community.” As with many other students, she
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Zachary Bryant, ‘12, and Bjorg Hilmarsdottir, a junior from Iceland, pause for a photo while taking a noncredit Honors Program enrichment course. They were both vocal performance majors when they took the Culinary Arts course taught by Jamie Keating, a local chef, at RiverMill Event Centre.
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a program that advances them and advances their careers.” In November, CSU’s Tower Society, the donor group that’s done the most to support the Honors Program, pledged to reconfirm its commitment to the program’s future and even increase the amount of annual support designated for the best and brightest at Columbus State Ticknor says that support is crucial to the Honors Program being able to keep up with its commitment to smaller class sizes, providing scholarships for top students, increasing the variety of challenging core courses, one-onone faculty mentoring for independent projects, enrichment seminars and field trips, and priority consideration for study abroad scholarships. “We need to sustain the numbers,” she said. “Our graduates, they’re doing some amazing things. They have been able to leverage what they do in the program.” Ticknor anticipates it won’t take long for the Honors Program to expand from 200-plus students to 300-plus, comprising 3-5 percent of CSU’s undergraduate enrollment within two years.
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Samantha Worthy, a chemistry major in the Honors Program, has been analyzing water at 12 sites on Lake Walter F. George to detect the presence of certain chemicals and their impact on the lake as a source of drinking water. “Increased enrollment expands the number of courses you can offer,” she says. “With that number you can offer a wider range of courses students can select from.” Ticknor starts building her class during the summer with a special Honors Program summer orientation.
“The best part of my job is getting to know the students,” she said. “Part of the benefit of the program is to meet other people who are focused on academics and extraordinarily interested and passionate about what they learn.” Later in the school year, those Honors Program neophytes and their more experienced counterparts will be invited to meet members of the Tower Society, a group of alumni who each commit to giving a minimum of $1,000 annually to CSU. Retired Synovus Financial Corp. Board Chairman Jimmy Yancey, ’64, who remembers the earliest talks of the Tower Society targeting the Honors Program for special support, says he always looks forward to meeting Honors Program students. “It gives us a chance to see the benefits of our investment,” he says. “All of us who’ve gone to these meetings have come away with the idea this is a good investment.” To learn more about supporting the Honors Program, contact Alumni Relations Director Jennifer Joyner at Jennifer.Joyner@ColumbusState.edu or 706-507-8956.
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Overnight Sensation By Tim Turner
Success No Race to Finish Line for Alumnus TLANTA — Jim Goodroe’s mission is to save lives, and you might say NASCAR’s 23 U.S. speedways and thousands of smaller race tracks around the world are his mission field. The first 10 years, virtually no one was interested in what the Columbus State graduate was preaching about as sales manager of a company distributing a racecar driver’s “head
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and neck support” system — HANS for short. All that changed with the tragic death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. on Feb. 18, 2001. Despite being harnessed securely, experts believe the impact of his car hitting a wall whipped Earnhardt’s head violently forward, separating it from the spine, causing a fatal basilar skull fracture. The prevailing post-crash analysis was that, if
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Earnhardt had worn the HANS device, he would have survived. “It was just incredible the interest suddenly in our product,” said Goodroe, who graduated with a business administration degree from then Columbus College in 1972. “We were a 10-year overnight sensation.” From 1991, when he joined Downing Atlanta, Inc., the HANS manufacturer sold only about 25 devices a year. HANS Performance Products now sells about 10,000 devices annually in 14 countries as it’s a compulsory safety item in many racing associations. Of course, no one — not even Goodroe, the primary early evangelist for the HANS device — was happy that it took Earnhardt’s death on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 to persuade the racing world that such devices deserved some of the precious space in a driver’s crowded racecar. “For 10 years, we couldn’t get anybody to listen to us,” Goodroe said. “And in truth, the original HANS device was this big, clunky thing. We called it the Darth Vader model.” Part of that device’s harness extended down the chest, it had a “clunky” attachment system and was not very user-friendly, Goodroe concedes. “So there was a lot of resistance,” he said. “There’s no chance Dale Earnhardt would have ever used one. He didn’t even wear a closed-faced helmet. He was the last of the macho guys.” Goodroe is now proud to call Earnhardt’s racing heir, Dale Jr., a “strong proponent” of a vastly improved, redesigned HANS device. Before that fateful 2001 Daytona, for reasons ranging from machismo to misplaced priorities, the HANS device left racecar drivers cold. Since then, the industry’s change of mind has been profound. “(We) went from having a product nobody knew anything about, or cared anything about, to having a product that everybody wanted and had to have,” Goodroe said. “I could remember coming in some mornings and there would be satellite trucks parked on our front yard. I’d walk out to the shop and Jim Downing (company owner and co-inventor of the HANS device) being interviewed by some international journalist.”
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Downing is credited as being the first to identify problems associated with a restrained torso and an unrestrained head in sudden impacts after the 1981 death of a driver friend, Patrick Jacquemart, at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Downing knew there had to be a way to stop those injuries, so he took his idea to Bob Hubbard, his brotherin-law and a biomechanical crash engineer for General Motors. Together, they designed the HANS system. The HANS device is worn around the neck, placed under the shoulder straps that go over the driver’s shoulders. On each side of the HANS’ collar is a tether that attaches to post anchors on either side of the driver’s helmet. This restrains the head from violently pitching forward and downward after the body, which is well restrained by the harness device, quits moving. With the restrained body going only so far, the HANS device helps prevent potentially lethal hyperextension of the neck. Goodroe was well prepared for his company’s sudden success. After graduating from Columbus College in June 1972 and marrying in Septem-
ber, he moved to Atlanta to work for an oil company. He was also taking law school night classes, eventually deciding that “hanging around jails trying to get criminal clients” held no appeal for him. He knew he loved auto racing, so Goodroe changed career course and moved into auto parts. That’s how he got to Downing, where he’s now worked 22 years. “I did well in my classes at Columbus College,” Goodroe said. Racing-related photos surround Jim Goodroe, holding a HANS device, at his Atlanta office.
1. HANS device, 2. Tether (one per side), 3. Helmet anchor (one per side), and 4. Shoulder support. “I was already a pretty good writer. In law school that was very important, so I didn’t have to take remedial training on how to write. (At Columbus College) they placed me in advanced English. That has helped me a lot in my career.” Goodroe said he now finds his work especially uplifting because of testimonials he’s received about the HANS device. “I can’t tell you how many letters we’ve received from ...,” Goodroe said, pausing to gather himself, eyes moistening. “Sometimes I get emotional because I read them from mothers and wives and sons and daughters. ‘Thank you for developing this. You saved my father’s life, or my husband’s life.’ “People have actually experienced impacts while using the device and have gotten out of the car and walked away,” he said. “It’s just so very gratifying to see that.”
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Art Alumnus Wins National Attention for Photo By Hannah Vongsavang ammie Saxon is no stranger to a camera, but the Columbus-based professional photographer is more used to the spotlight shining on his subjects. That’s changing for the 2006 Columbus State University art graduate, thanks to a photograph of his that’s been selected as one of 10, among thousands submitted, as inspiration for upcoming films. “I had been notified that I was a semifinalist, but I didn’t think I was going to get that far,” Saxon said. Impressing such celebrities as actor Eva Longoria and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Saxon’s Lost in Blue photo was named a winner in the Project Imaginat10n competition sponsored by Canon USA and Hollywood director Ron Howard. The photo depicts a woman falling, bathed in blue as if underwater, her eyes closed and arms askew. “I had this reoccurring dream that I was drowning,” Saxon said. “It was just beautiful. I didn’t want to wake up. So I tried to figure out how to do underwater photography even though I can’t swim. Eventually I figured out a way to create that sensation of being underwater using lighting and baby powder.” Saxon credits friends who help on such shoots for contributing to his photo creation. Saxon also credits his Department of Art education. “I learned a lot,” he said of his time at CSU. Saxon heard about the inaugural Project Imaginat10n competition in 2011. Determined to participate in 2012, he submitted his photo in the Mood Category and, although learning he was a semifinalist, stayed busy with other projects until, one evening, he began receiving congratulatory messages on Facebook. Longoria, best known for her role on TV’s Desperate Housewives, mentioned in an interview that she had chosen his photo as an inspiration for her film project. “I thought this beautifully captured the mood of what this person’s going through,” Longoria in a videotaped interview. “She’s drowning, she’s in trouble and that’s just a rich place for
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Saxon’s Lost in Blue inspired actor Eva Longoria and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. us to draw story from.” Before the Internet chatter about Longoria’s selection had died down, Saxon was surprised to learn that Stone, the Twitter co-founder, had also chosen Lost in Blue as an inspiration. He got official email confirmation a few days later. Lost in Blue was among photos selected by Howard and Canon and then put up for consumer vote. Winners from this group then were selected by the celebrity directors to inspire films expected to premiere at a special Project Imaginat10n Film Festival this summer. As a CSU student, Saxon spent most of his time on main campus, before the art department relocated to the RiverPark campus. “I’m jealous,” Saxon said with a chuckle. “Now the art department has everything I really wanted when I was a student.” From its bigger work and class spaces, as well as galleries, CSU’s Corn Center for the Visual Arts has impressed Saxon. Joe Sanders, CSU’s Alan F. Rothschild Distinguished Chair of Art, shares Saxon’s desire for the university to expand its graphic design course offerings. “Sammie’s achievements in such a short time period are remarkable, and we are particularly proud of his dis-
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tinction,” Sanders said. “(Saxon) will be pleased to hear that the department is developing new curriculum in digital media and design.” For more on Saxon and his photography, visit http://www.sammiesaxon. com. For more on CSU’s Department of Art, visit http://ColumbusState. edu/art or call 706-507-8300 to learn about upcoming exhibitions or arrange for a tour.
Sammie Saxon ‘06
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Retired Lt. Gen. Carmen Cavezza
Top Awards Presented at President’s Recognition Dinner
Col. Thomas D. Macdonald
Two respected military leaders — a decorated leading the effort to make Columbus part of the 1996 active-duty officer and a former general who’s also Summer Olympics as host of the softball competition. enjoyed success in retirement — were honored April Before that, he spent 33 years in the Army, retiring as 18 by Columbus State University at its 41st annual Fort Benning’s commanding officer after extensive President’s Recognition Dinner. assignments in Asia and elsewhere. Retired Lt. Gen. Carmen Cavezza, the forAt Columbus State, Cavezza was instrumer Fort Benning commander known just mental in developing the Cunningham Center, as well for his later success in city governlargely influencing its subsequent success as a ment and at CSU, was presented the Frank conference center, as a regional technology D. Brown Achievement and Leadership incubator and its creation of the Jim Excellence Award, which recognizes an inBlanchard Leadership Forum, which annually dividual or organization that exemplifies the attracts top speakers to Columbus. Cavezza leadership skills and ideals of its namesake, also held the title of assistant to the president CSU’s retired third president. for external affairs at Columbus State. Pete Robinson Cavezza has also served in leadership Col. Thomas D. Macdonald, BBA ’86, positions with the Rotary Club, the Greater now serving as chief of staff for the Army’s Columbus Chamber of Commerce Board, the renowned 10th Mountain Division at Fort National Infantry Foundation Board, Valley Drum (N.Y.), was presented the Thomas Partnership, Columbus Regional Medical Y. Whitley Distinguished Alumnus Award, Foundation and other Columbus entities. named for CSU’s founding president. Macdonald has served in several military Also at the Cunningham Center dinner, roles since he was the distinguished military three friends of Columbus State were named Mat Swift graduate of Columbus College’s ROTC unit honorary alumni: in the mid-1980s. During a critical point in • Pete Robinson, managing partner of the the war in Iraq, Macdonald led a battalion of Atlanta-based international law firm more than 700 soldiers in combat. After his of Troutman Sanders LLP. (The former promotion to lieutenant colonel, he was asGeorgia legislator is also chairman of signed to the U.S. Military Academy in Troutman Sanders Strategies, a fullWest Point to help lead 1,000 cadets. service lobbying and issue management Macdonald later was named garrison comfirm.) mander at Fort Benning, essentially serving • Mathews D. Swift, president and chief Phil Tomlinson as the post’s “city manager” from 2008-2011. operating officer of W.C. Bradley Co. In addition to the challenges that come along Real Estate Division. with that position, Macdonald oversaw the post’s most • Philip W. Tomlinson, chairman and CEO of TSYS, significant transformation since the 1960s in its move as well as the immediate past chair of the CSU to become the Maneuver Center of Excellence. Foundation. Macdonald and his wife, Amy, have three children. Cavezza, who retired in December as the inaugural Two of them are students at Columbus State: Ian is executive director of CSU’s Cunningham Center, has currently a senior in the ROTC program, and Devin is a also enjoyed success as Columbus’ city manager for sophomore. MacKenzie is in high school in New York. eight years before that, moving into that position after
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Class Notes 1970
Lewis Leonard, B.A., retired July 20, 2012 after serving 26 years as director of Information and Communication Services for Chatham County, Georgia. Leonard was inducted in February 2012 into the Society of the Cincinnati – Massachusetts, which works to perpetuate the memory of the Revolutionary War. He resides in Savannah.
1975
Charles “Chuck” Merkel, B.A., welcomed his first grandchild in November. Earlier this year, Merkel began another deployment to the Middle East as a member of the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing staff.
1976
Roger W. Buterbaugh, B.A., transferred from the Department of the Army to the Department of Veterans Affairs and is now chief of human resource management for the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta. He supervises a department that provides human resources support for 2,400-plus employees in two VA hospitals and two clinics in the Augusta area. He received the Civilian Superior Service Award when he departed the National Ground Intelligence Center in Charlottesville, Va., last January. James “Jim” Tucker, B.A., recently retired after 34 years in the field of publishing and libraries. He worked at Georgia Tech before starting a career as a representative for several companies, including EBSCO Inc. and The Faxon Co. Tucker conducted numerous workshops for faculty and staff statewide as a representative for EBSCO, which produces several databases used for academic research. Tucker lives in the Atlanta area and is currently involved with his grandchildren, coaching T-ball and soccer, refereeing soccer and serving as an assistant in the Cub Scouts.
1977
Susan Andrews, B.S., M.Ed. ’80, former school superintendent in Harris and Muscogee counties, in December became deputy superintendent of the state Department of Education, a position she was asked to fill by State School Superintendent and Gov. Nathan
Deal. In that role, she will oversee implementation of the state’s Race to the Top grant program, which is designed to use federal funds to improve school performance.
1983
Renee Sudduth Roth, BBA, was named chief information officer of Synovus Bank. In her new role, Roth is responsible for all technology for Synovus, including network systems, data center operations, e-channels and application development and support.
1985
Dorenda Weaver, BBA, was spotlighted in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer for her work as executive vice president and chief accounting officer at TSYS, where she’s worked for nearly 28 years. Weaver was inducted into the CSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003 from her outstanding record as a Lady Cougar softball player. She is a member of the CSU Tower Society and serves on the United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley board and on the executive committee and as chair of the United Way Women’s Leadership Committee. She’s also on the West Central Georgia board of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and on the board of the Chattahoochee Valley Sports Hall of Fame.
1988
Kim Mehaffey Kilgore, M.Ed. was honored with the 2012 Dr. Eugene Odum Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the Environmental Education Alliance of Georgia. Kilgore serves as the director of the Arrowhead Environmental Education Center and is the environmental education coordinator for Floyd County Schools inRome. Rodney Wall, B.S., MPA ‘04, is the new special agent in charge of the regional Georgia Bureau of Investigation office in Perry. Wall, a 22-year veteran of the GBI, now oversees an annual budget of about $770,000 and a staff of nine. The regional office’s coverage area includes Ben Hill, Bibb, Crawford, Dooly, Houston, Irwin, Peach, Turner, Twiggs and Wilcox counties. Wall and his wife, Vanessa, make their home in Ellaville, his hometown. They have a son in eighth grade and a daughter in college.
1992
Jeffrey Gagnon, A.S., BBA ‘94, of Atlanta recently opened the new ABF
Service Center in Puerto Rico. The new center enhances the services that the freight-handling company can provide clients in the Caribbean and expands its warehousing capabilities. Gagnon is ABF’s regional director of sales for its Southeast and Caribbean markets.
1993
Emily Brown Rosher, BBA, is a senior move manager and the owner of Silver Service. In her line of work, Rosher helps the aging and ailing downsize from larger homes to smaller residences or an assisted living facility. Previously, Rosher worked in the dentistry field for 30 years. She currently lives in Columbus.
1994
Larry V. Johnson, M.S., graduated from Georgia Southern University in December 2012 with an education specialist degree in community counseling. Following his first book, Will He Ever Learn?, Johnson recently published his second book, The Trail to Four Adventures, and is in the process of writing his third.
1996
Lynda Dianne Harmon, B.S.Ed., M.S. ‘09, was the very first recipient of the weekly MEA Federal Credit Union Golden Apple Award of the 2012-2013 school year. Harmon is currently a special needs teacher at Northside High School in Columbus, where she has spent 11 of her 18 years teaching.
1997
Donnie Smith, Ed.S., currently serves as the Sumter County schools superintendent. The Americus Kiwanis Club heard from Smith last fall as he discussed the mission of the Sumter County School district: To graduate all students.
1998
Jennifer Anne Collins, B.S., M.S. ‘11, is the director of outreach and education for Chattahoochee RiverWarden, a nonprofit working to protect the Chattahoochee from West Point Lake to the Florida-Georgia state line. Outside of work, Collins serves on Pasaquan’s preservation board, the River Valley Regional Commission’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board, and on the board of the nonprofit Bicycle Columbus. Collins is also a part of the Trees Columbus Teaching Team, the Columbus
Submit Your Class Notes: http://ColumbusState.edu/ClassNotes 20
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Audubon Society and the Chattahoochee Valley Beekeepers Association. W. Troy Heard, B.S.Ed., is the director of a new Las Vegas play that received a four-star review. An original production, Summer Camp! The Musical revisits 1980s teen comedies. Katina Leann Williams, AASCJ, was recently spotlighted in the LedgerEnquirer’s 5 Questions feature. Williams is a Columbus Police detective. Romona Xylena Wright, B.M., graduated in December from Georgia State University with a master’s in music education. On Jan. 25, Wright presented a research poster, “Did Tanglewood Not Mean Anything? It’s Time to Embrace the Music of Our Time,” in the Research Poster Session at the Georgia Music Educatiors Association In-Service Conference in Savannah.
2000
Angel Jackson-Gillespie, B.A., graduated from the Defense Information School last May. Currently, JacksonGillespie is assigned to First Brigade Combat Team, First Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas as the brigade public affairs officer. Lisa Grant Mettler, B.S., M.S. ‘02, and Christian W. Mettler, B.S., are living and working in China. As two of four Americans teaching at Yancheng Teacher’s University in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, they are in their second school year teaching English.
2001
Jennifer Reaves Jones, BBA, was recently admitted as a partner in Dougherty McKinnon & Luby, LLC, a certified public accounting firm with offices in Columbus and Pine Mountain. Jones, a CPA, has more than 10 years of audit and tax experience. Erin Luby McLeod, BBA, was recently admitted as a partner in Dougherty McKinnon & Luby, LLC, a certified public accounting firm with offices in Columbus and Pine Mountain, Georgia. McLeod, a CPA has more than 10 years of experience in public accounting providing audit and attestation, tax preparation and planning, and consulting services.
2002
Lisa Bell, B.S.Ed., M.Ed. ‘07, was recognized in December as the winner of the Milken Family Foundation Educator Award, which comes with
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a check for $25,000. Bell is the only teacher in Georgia to receive the award for 2012, as this cash award honors one teacher per state annually. Educators are selected without their knowledge. Bell currently teaches third grade at Downtown Elementary School in Columbus. Rick Jacobs, MPA, was appointed and is now serving as acting warden at Hays State Prison in Trion, overseeing about 350 staff and 1,460 male inmates. Jacobs is a graduate of the Georgia Law Enforcement Command College and serves as an adjunct professor in criminal justice and management at Columbus State. Edward Lacey, MPA, has moved to Gilmer County to become Ellijay’s new chief of police after 22 years at the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office. During that time, Lacey served in almost all areas of the department, including leading the uniform patrol division, internal affairs, criminal investigations, administrative services and, most recently, as training director. Lacey and his wife live in Ellijay and have two sons, Davis, who is in college, and Mac, who is in high school.
2004
James Grant, MPA, has been hired as the new deputy chief of police in Roswell. Before starting his new job last October, Grant served the Georgia Bureau of Investigation as special agent in charge of its Regional Drug Office in Canton. Grant has more than 30 years of law enforcement experience. Carter Greene, MPA, was promoted to assistant police chief of Athens-Clarke County earlier this year. Greene, a 28year police veteran, now commands the Operations Support Bureau. Greene and his wife, Shoan, have five children: Kelsey, Elizabeth Anne, Mary Campbell, Carson and Addison. Tonia Kaye Hues, B.S., of Americus has been teaching photography and digital media at Georgia Southwestern State University since January 2009. Hues’ photography and video art installations have been exhibited both regionally and nationally. Kimberly Kump, B. A., is a new senior account supervisor at Lovell Communications Inc., a strategic public relations firm based in Nashville, Tenn., bringing eight years of experience from the financial and employee benefits sector to her position.
2005
Elise Haney, B.S., M.Ed. ‘08, received the weekly MEA Federal Credit Union Golden Apple Award last September. Haney teaches math and science at Double Churches Middle School here in Columbus. Tia Senior, B.S.Ed., M.S. ‘11, received the weekly MEA Federal Credit Union Golden Apple Award in January. Senior teaches at Rigdon Road Elementary School.
2006
Walton Davis, MPA, was named earlier this year as the new warden for the Hall County Correctional Institute. Davis has worked in criminal justice for nearly 30 years, holding several senior management positions with the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. Diana Gherghi, B.S., BSN, is a member of the 2013 class for the Columbus State University Hall of Fame. During her time playing for the Lady Cougars tennis team from 2003-2006, Gherghi racked up a 70-6 singles record and earned allAmerican and all-Peach Belt Conference honors three times, as well as a No. 2 national ranking in both singles and doubles. Gherghi is now a nurse anesthetist living in Columbus.
2007
Cameron Bean, B.S.Ed., MBA. ‘10, is currently the director of development for the Springer Opera House in Columbus. Bean starred as Seymour in the Springer’s production of Little Shop of Horrors last fall.
2008
Trey McLaughlin, B.M., has just released his debut gospel album, Limitless, in November. In addition to serving as the minister of worship and arts at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Augusta, McLaughlin is also a music instructor at the Jessye Norman School for the Arts and the associate director of Barefoot Productions, Inc./Creative Impressions.
2009
Victor Cross, B.A., received the weekly MEA Federal Credit Union Golden Apple Award in January. Cross teaches gifted English classes at South Girard School in Phenix City, Ala. Robert Mikell, MPA, was named commissioner of the Georgia Department of Driver Services by Gov. Nathan Deal in October. Mikell had served as deputy
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commissioner of DDS since March 2007. Mikell, his wife, Sherrie, and their three children live in Snellville. John Stephenson, B.A., a former vice president of CSU’s Student Government Association, graduated in the fall from George Washington University with a law degree. This January, he started a fellowship in law at Georgetown University.
2011
Alan Everidge, MPA, has been promoted to major to oversee the Houston County (Ga.) jail. He’s a 25-year veteran of the sheriff’s office there. Danielle M. Thompson, B.A., has enrolled in Regent University in Virginia, seeking her master’s degree in film production.
2012
Dylan Bollinger, B.S.Ed., was one of 44 educators across Georgia to receive the New Teacher Assistance Grant from Georgia Power. Bollinger, the first theatre educator to receive the award, received $1,000 for classroom supplies. He’s the director of Harlem High School Theatre. Alia Spradlin, B.A., a first-year teacher, received the weekly MEA Federal Credit Union Golden Apple Award in December. Spradlin teaches world literature at Chattahoochee County High School.
Alumni Reunite for Weekend Fun Again in October undreds of Columbus State alumni flocked back to campus for CSU’s second annual Alumni Weekend last Oct. 12-13, taking advantage of nearperfect weather to reunite with old friends and dance the night away atop an Uptown Columbus parking garage. Four alumni were honored: Heather A. Avery, ’00, ’05, Young Alumni Award; Sommer D. Bundy, ’05, Alumni Service Award; Jason F. Harrison, ’00, Excellence in Alumni Achievement Award; and Marine Capt. Charles E. Anklam III, ’08, Distinguished Alumnus in Military Service. Jay A. Knape, CSU’s senior Web services manager, won the CSU Alumni Association Faculty/Staff Appreciation Award.
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Alumni Weekend 2013 is Oct. 11-12 http://myCSU.ColumbusState.edu
Passages: Associate Provost Greg Domin, 46 Greg Domin, CSU’s associate provost for graduate education, distance learning and international affairs, died of natural causes April 10 in his car on his way home to Byron, Ga. A former chair of CSU’s Department of Political Science and Public Administration, he’s survived by a wife, three children and two sisters. “Greg was a terrific man who was devoted to his family, to his students, friends and colleagues,” said Tom Hackett, CSU’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. “He was an educator who never tired of learning or teaching, and a hardworking professional who left a great void at CSU.” Domin, 46, had recently been chosen as president-elect of the Georgia Council of Graduate Schools. A Mercer University professor before coming to CSU in 2009, he had also taught at Northern Arizona University, where he earned his doctorate.
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Calendar
May-October 2013 May 6 Columbus State University. Graduation. Columbus Civic Center. 6 p.m. 11 Oxbow Meadows. Audubon Bird Park Grand Opening. Visit Oxbow Meadows’ newest addition, courtesy of the Columbus Audubon Society, while enjoying related activities. Children will be able to create a Mother’s Day present. 10a.m.-4p.m.. 13 Columbus State University. Classes Begin: May Session. 706-507-8800 15 Columbus State University. Application deadline, June Session. 706-507-8800 27 Columbus State University. Memorial Day: No classes, offices closed.
June 3-Aug 2 Continuing Education. Activ8 Summer Camps. Ages: 4-7, 8-11, 11-up. Activ8 offers 10 weeks of enrichment and sports to 1,200-plus kids. New camps start each week. Older kids can make their own schedule with over 180 camps to choose from. Extended hours, 7 a.m.-6 p.m., available. For details, visit http://Activ8er.com or call 706-507-8070. 3, 10, 17, 24 Coca-Cola Space Science Center.
Astronomy Night.. Callaway Gardens. 9 p.m.
dedicated to the insect world. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Cost: $5
4-8 Schwob School of Music. The Eighth Annual English Horn Masterclasses with Carolyn Hove. Classes in orchestral and solo literature, small group reed-making classes, and tips on choosing equipment and taking orchestral auditions.
13 Coca-Cola Space Science Center. Astronomy Night. FDR State Park. 9 p.m.
8 Coca-Cola Space Science Center. Astronomy Night. Providence Canyon. 9 p.m. 10 Columbus State University. Classes Begin: June Session. 706-507-8800 21-22 Columbus State University. New Student Orientation. Overnight session on main campus. For more information and to register, visit http://ColumbusState.edu/ orientation. 26-29 Schwob School of Music. Forty-Second International Trombone Festival. Look for about 700 trombonists, featuring performances, lectures, 11 international trombone competitions, exhibits and more. 30 Columbus State University. Application Deadline for fall semester. 706-507-8800
August 24 Coca-Cola Space Science Center. Astronomy Night. Center, 701 Front Ave. 8 p.m. 26-27 Cunningham Center. Eighth Annual Jim Blanchard Leadership Forum. Columbus Convention and Trade Center. (Details, Page 4.) Register at http:// jimblanchardleadershipforum.com. $429 per person or $3,400 per table
September 2 Columbus State University. Labor Day: No classes, offices closed. 706-507-8800 14 Coca-Cola Space Science Center. Astronomy Night. Center, 701 Front Ave. 8 p.m. 28 Coca-Cola Space Science Center. Astronomy Night. FDR State Park. 9 p.m.
July
October
1, 8, 15, 22, 29 Coca-Cola Space Science Center. Astronomy Night. Callaway Gardens. 9 p.m.
7-8 Columbus State University. Fall Break: No classes. 706-507-8800
4 Columbus State University. Independence Day: No classes, offices closed. 706-507-8800
11-12 Alumni Relations. Alumni Weekend. Outdoor concert, Annual Alumni Association meeting, alumni recognition luncheon, and more.
13 Oxbow Meadows. Insectival. Ever eaten an insect? Spit a cricket? Seen the world through a bug’s eyes? Or watched honey be extracted from a beehive? This day is
19 Coca-Cola Space Science Center. Astronomy Night. Center, 701 Front Ave. 7 p.m.
Plan Ahead. Leave a Legacy. You want Columbus State University to carry on for generations to come. But you also need to provide for a loved one. What can you do? You can do both and it’s easy. Consider… • Making Columbus State University a beneficiary in your retirement plan • Leaving a life insurance policy • Making a gift through your will • Making a gift now, and receiving income for life Many such gifts can help you and your family today as well as help CSU continue its mission years into the future. And some you can even put into place today without affecting your cash flow during your lifetime.
Want to learn more? Please visit our website:
ColumbusState.edu/legacy
Spring 2013
or contact James W. Fogal, CFP, in University Advancement at 706.507.8433 or by email at James.Fogal@ColumbusState.edu.
Focus on Columbus State University 23
Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 10 Columbus, Georgia 31907 4225 University Avenue Columbus, Georgia 31907-5645 Address service requested
Parents: If this issue is addressed to a son or daughter who no longer lives at home, please send the correct address to the Alumni Office at the above address above or email us at alumni@ColumbusState.edu. Thank you.
Show Your Pride and Support Your Alma Mater! Introducing a new Columbus State University specialty license tag for Georgia residents. A portion from the sale of each tag comes back to CSU for alumni scholarships. To find out more about the new plate, visit your local tag office or the Department of Revenue website at www.dor.ga.gov.