Georgia Southern University

While most people tend to avoid ticks, Jackson Tomlinson, a graduate student in the Department of Biology finds them fascinating and beautiful. His interest in the parasites was recently rewarded with the discovery of two species of ticks that are entirely new to science.

Georgia Southern University recently recognized approximately 3,300 students for excellence in academics on the Spring 2019 Dean's List. To be eligible for the Dean's List, a student must have at least a 3.5 grade point average and carry a minimum of 12 hours for the semester.

When 19-year-old Georgia Southern student and archer Adam Heidt arrives in Naples, Italy, this July, he'll be competing against some of the top collegiate athletes in the world as he works toward his goal of one day competing at the Olympics. Heidt, a Springfield, Georgia, native, will join other college athletes at the summer World University Games (WUG) to represent USA Team in the individual, team and mixed team archery competitions.

Students seeking careers in the hospitality industry aren't just learning concepts in the classroom, but they are also prepared for the industry through hands-on experiences at Georgia Southern University. The Hospitality Management program in the Parker College of Business prepares students for entry-level management positions in the restaurant and lodging industries while focusing on industry operations. Throughout the academic year, hospitality students travel throughout the Southeast to locations known for tourism to experience the behind-the-scenes operations of restaurants, hotels, pre-packaged food facilities and more.

The spring 2019 graduating class in the Athletic Training Program at Georgia Southern University has earned a 100% pass rate on the Board of Certification (BOC) exam. The comprehensive test covers a student's entire education and clinical experience and must be passed in order to become a certified athletic trainer.

A team of Georgia Southern University logistics students placed third out of 14 schools and received $1,000 in the first-ever FreightTech Innovation Challenge in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Janna Hines, senior communication sciences and disorders major from Columbia, South Carolina, has been honored with the Southern Talon Award.

Four senior logistics and supply chain management students in the Parker College of Business brought home a second consecutive win from the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) Logistics and Supply Chain Management Case Competition in Jacksonville, Florida.

More than 15 students from colleges and universities from the Southeast participated in the inaugural Parker Regional Sales Competition (PRSC) on Georgia Southern University's Statesboro Campus.

STATESBORO, Ga.-The Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art (BFSDoArt) at Georgia Southern University recently presented its annual Form and Content student exhibition April 5 to 12 at the Center for Art & Theatre on the Statesboro Campus. Form & Content features student work from Art Foundations classes that include Drawing I, Drawing II, 2D Art and Design Foundations, 3D Art and Design Foundations, and Digital Foundations.The exhibition was juried by Ben Tollefson is a nationally-exhibited artist and an assistant curator at the SCAD Museum of Art. Tollefson has been working with both 2D and 3D art, his practice is highly realistically rendered, chromatically complex and tightly composed, yet evocative and surreal in appearance. Winners were announced at the closing reception on April 5. Haley Wilson was awarded first place. Peyton Butts was awarded second place. Genevieve Townsend was awarded third place. Students work accepted in the Form & Content exhibition are Jacoby Aultman, Jalen Austin, Patrick Brownlee, Yaschira Camacho, Carlos Carvajal, Justin Chinnery, MacKenzie Cintron, Katsi Cruz Delgado, Cathy Estes, Brittany Evans, Anna Forbes, Anna Grace Raley, Sabrina Hill, Makenzy Lane, Giselle Martinez, Dubby Ibuoka, Taylor Mcmahan, Matthew McRae, Pardiss Moazzam, Katherine Naude, Laiken Owens, Anna Peters, Abigail Rodriguez-Colon, Elias Smalls, Cheyenne Smith, Megan Tanner, Julianna Tilman, Nina Trammell, Makinzie Wall, Elizabeth Wilson, Devon Witkowski, and Whitney Youngblood Josey.

The Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art (BFSDoArt) at Georgia Southern University recently presented its annual undergraduate juried exhibition from April 5 to 12 at the Center for Art & Theatre on the Statesboro Campus. Juried 2019 featured the variety of media taught within the Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art, which includes drawing, painting, jewelry, multimedia, mixed media, photography, printmaking, sculpture and ceramics. The exhibition was juried by Susan Laney, is the owner and director of the Laney Contemporary Gallery in Savannah, Georgia. Laney has been active in the art scene for well over a decade and has worked with some of the region's most important contemporary artists, as well as with galleries and artists nationwide. In addition to her gallery, she frequently curates exhibitions for a number of museums and art fairs. Winners were announced at the closing reception on April 5. Nina Samuels was awarded Best in Show. Taylor Goody was awarded Juror's Choice. Aminatta Mbow was awarded Exceptional 2D, and Andrew Shirah was awarded Exceptional 3D. Other students with work accepted into the Juried 2019 exhibition were Marjorie Adams Alise, AJ Aremu, Meridith Bearden Lauren, Ashton Beeghley, Peyton Butts, Emily Coats, Andrew Cobb, Sierra Cornell, Jasmine Davis, Hannah Eldridge, Allison Exley, Nicholas Farmer, Rachel Forehand, AnnaBrooke H. Greene, Shelby Head, John R. Lewis, Tanner Maxey, Tyre McDonald, Tommy McMillan, Alex McReynolds, Abigail Newman, Megan Nussbaum, Katrine Ramhoj, Virginia Russell, Alyssa Santana, Macey Skelton, Kevin Spillane, Megan Tanner, Raven Waters, and Gherri Weekes-Garnette.

Georgia Southern journalism student Brendan Ward will take part in the American City Business Journals Business Reporting Program at New York University as a part of a Dow Jones News Fund Internship.

The Georgia Southern Theatre program presented the inaugural Mical Whitaker Scholarship for the Study of African American Theatre on April 27 to junior theatre major Tyair Blackman.

Georgia Southern University Spanish and French major Emily Pressler has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) grant for the 2019-2020 academic year. Pressler's placement will be in Galicia, Spain, and she will assist primarily in English classes for students who speak Spanish, Galician and English.

Georgia Southern University's Model United Nations delegation has been selected as an Outstanding Delegation at the annual National Model United Nations Conference in New York City. This is the ninth consecutive year that Georgia Southern has been recognized as an Outstanding Delegation and the 11th time in 12 years that it has been accorded this distinction.

Two Georgia Southern students and one alumna are semifinalists for selection as 2019-2020 Fulbright English Teaching Assistants. Emily Pressler, a senior Spanish and French major, Michael Casteel, a senior computer science major, and alumna Adom Abatkun ('18), who earned a degree in criminal justice and criminology, applied last fall for the opportunity to teach English in other countries. All three students worked for months on their applications before interviewing with the campus Fulbright committee. The national screening committee then selected these students to move on to the next round. Fulbright's National Screening Committee selected the students to move on to the next round, and they are now waiting for a decision to be made by selection committees in their respective, potential host countries. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program supports individual study/research projects and English teaching assistantships in other countries. Any senior or alumni may apply for these awards.

Two members of the Georgia Southern University Office of Leadership and Community Engagement staff, Urkovia Andrews, Dr.P.H., assistant director for service-learning, and Jordan Wilburn, coordinator for community engagement, were recognized at the Downtown Statesboro Development Authority's (DSDA) annual meeting and Brick Awards. Wilburn was acknowledged for providing the DSDA with Georgia Southern student volunteers who connect, serve and lead. Andrews was recognized for partnering with the DSDA with the Georgia Southern BUILD Program and Step Into Statesboro tours. She has also helped with the Downtown Dog Park, written grants and served on the Blue Mile Committee. Destin Doe, a senior computer science major and community liaison for the DSDA, was also recognized with an Excellence in Service award.

Georgia Southern University senior Jessica Riley Martinez was recently awarded the 2019 Jordan Smith Undergraduate Fellowship and will represent Georgia Southern at the 38th Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience (FYE) in February.

Georgia Southern theatre majors Mary Flott (senior) and Joey Hukin (sophomore) traveled to the nation's capital the week of April 16th to attend the National Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Both women were a part of the theatre program's award-winning fall production of "Emilie: The Marquise Du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight" by Lauren Gunderson.

Mya Carter and Cole Sammons, students in the Parker College of Business at Georgia Southern University, competed among the nation's best undergraduates during the University of Toledo Invitational Sales Competition (UTISC) - the only national sales competition dedicated to non-senior students.

Two years of professor-mentored research integrating biology and mathematics on Georgia Southern University's campus has culminated in two distinguished opportunities for undergraduate student Katherine Barrs. Barrs, a Statesboro native double majoring in math and biology, has garnered a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, the preeminent undergraduate award for students pursuing research careers in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering. She is one of only 496 college students from across the United States to earn the scholarship, which she will apply to her remaining four semesters of coursework.

Georgia Southern University seniors and sport management majors Gabriel Anderson, Stacie Anderson and Jenna Kniss, were selected by faculty to represent Georgia Southern at the 2019 Applied Sport Management Association (ASMA) Conference Case Study Competition in February. The conference, held in Nashville, Tennessee, tasked students with finding a location for the next Major League Soccer expansion team, writing a report about their recommendations and presenting their findings to a panel of experts in the soccer industry. Georgia Southern came in second of the seven undergraduate teams. In addition to the competition, students were able to visit with alumni, CJ Berthelsen ('15), Zack Taylor ('11) and Michael Schetzel ('94), who are currently employed with the Nashville Sounds, Nashville Predators and Nashville Soccer Club respectively, and meet with other leading industry professionals.

Caroline Steed has been selected as this year's recipient of the Annie F. Oliver Award for Volunteer of the Year. This award, given annually by the Savannah Speech and Hearing Center, recognizes individuals who have demonstrated excellence in and a strong commitment to volunteering for the betterment of the Savannah Speech and Hearing Center community. Steed, from Savannah, graduated in 2017 with a Bachelor of Science in Rehabilitation Sciences from Armstrong State University. Upon graduation, Steed returned to Georgia Southern University to obtain a post-baccalaureate certificate in communication sciences and disorders on the University's Armstrong Campus. "I was extremely honored to receive this award," stated Steed. "Volunteering for this organization has truly been a once in a lifetime opportunity and I feel very fortunate to be given the opportunity to be able to work with the diverse populations that Savannah Speech and Hearing Center serves." Steed has been volunteering with the Savannah Speech and Hearing Center since January 2018 and has clocked more than 188 hours of volunteer experience working in a variety of areas including hearing screenings at local schools, the Stroke Group, Sound Start and fundraising events. "I have had the chance to learn from some of the most skilled, caring and compassionate people I have ever had the pleasure of coming into contact with. Volunteering and giving back to the community I was born and raised in gives you an incomparable sense of worth," said Steed. Steed was honored at a Volunteer Reception held in February. After graduation in May, Steed plans to continue her education and obtain a master's degree in communication sciences and pursue a career in speech-language pathology.

Georgia Southern University student Edward Legaspi was recently recognized by the University System of Georgia (USG) Board of Regents and the Georgia General Assembly for receiving the Academic Recognition Day Award. Legaspi, who is a senior double majoring in accounting and information systems, was nominated by the Parker College of Business for representing the highest scholastic ideals of Georgia Southern. The award is considered one of the greatest academic honors a USG student can achieve.

Last week, Georgia Southern University Master of Public Administration (MPA) students Gina Pate, Austin Hinkley and Colin Karnes placed first in the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA)-Batten Global Student Simulation Competition at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Georgia Southern University recently recognized approximately 3,300 students for excellence in academics on the Fall 2018 Dean's List. To be eligible for the Dean's List, a student must have at least a 3.5 grade point average and carry a minimum of 12 hours for the semester.

Georgia Southern civil engineering graduate student Mariah Peart has been selected by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as one of 10 New Faces Of Civil Engineering for 2019 - Professional Edition. Engineering professor Gustavo Maldonado, Ph.D., said it's the first time a Georgia Southern student has received this recognition.

Georgia Southern University recently recognized approximately 1,850 students for excellence in academics on the Fall 2018 President's List. To be eligible for the President's List, a student must have at least a 4.0 grade point average and carry a minimum of 12 hours for the semester.

Three psychology graduate students in Georgia Southern University's College of Education (COE) claimed all student awards during the 48th annual Georgia Association of School Psychologists (GASP) fall conference, held on Jekyll Island in October. Ed.S. School Psychology program candidates Jessica Martin, Shanice Murphy and Courtney Smith received recognition for their strong academic performances as well as dedicated service in GASP or the school psychology field. In addition, Martin and Murphy both received the GASP's Christine Daley School Psychologist Student Scholarship. Given to students majoring in school psychology in a Georgia program, the $1,000 scholarship is awarded to two graduate students annually. Recipients of the award were selected based on academic success in their graduate program, leadership experience, strong recommendations from professors and a desire to contribute to the school psychology field in the state of Georgia.

Georgia Southern University senior child and family development major Julissa Ortiz is building her resume as she prepares to begin her career. Being named student of the year by the Georgia Association for the Education of Young Children (GAEYC) will certainly help.