Officers from agencies all over northwest Georgia take a break from their basic law enforcement class outside on the Floyd campus. Photo by Lindsay Hamby

GHC’s Floyd campus rents out two classrooms and seven offices to the Georgia Police Academy, which is an extension of the Georgia Public Safety Center.

The academy trains and teaches basic law enforcement to people who are working to become certified police officers. Agencies all over northwest Georgia send their new employees to the academy on the Floyd campus to receive basic police officer training.

The academy receives students from sheriff’’s offices, jails, city police and county police departments as well as those straight out of the military from 10 different counties.

Ninety-five percent of students in the police academy program will become patrol officers.
The academy also teaches basic jail officer training to prepare students to be correctional officers in prisons throughout the state. Jail school is a different session of training from basic police officer school.

Police Academy Instructor, Kevin Morang said, “We are laying the foundation down for what they are going to have to do, trying to prepare them for what they will see on the outside.”

The police academy works with a new group of officers every couple of weeks. Morang said, “We teach them two semesters of criminal procedures in one week.” In two weeks the students take notes on over 600 pages of PowerPoint slides.

The officers learn about criminal cases, Supreme Court cases, the Constitution, laws, and criminal cases and watch videos that show crime scenes, interrogations, burglary, sex offenses and robbery.

The classrooms and offices that the police academy rent are located in the Pullen Annex of the McCorkle Building. Morang said, “We have a great working relationship with the college, and we are happy to be here. GHC couldn’t be more accommodating.”

The police academy needed more storage for equipment last year, and the college built storage areas by the lake for the academy to use.

The academy also takes the officers to a firing range in Polk County to learn about firearms. Students are also taught how to drive as a police officer in an official police car at a driving course in Forsyth County. Here they reenact traffic stops and how to operate all the controls in the vehicle.

The officers do calisthenics every morning. They run at 7 a.m. around Paris Lake, located behind the Floyd campus, as well as around the Lakeview building.

At around 9 a.m. the class marches out to the flagpole in the front of the McCorkle building to raise the flag for the day.

Linda Tibbits, a student of the police academy, said, “The program teaches discipline and prepares us for real-life scenarios.”

A replica of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was featured at the Lakeview Building art gallery. Photo by Catie Sullivan.

On Sept. 11 and 12 the Students Veterans Club invited the Exchange Club of Rome to display their replica of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The replica was featured in the Lakeview building art gallery from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both days.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier replica exhibit was open to the public. Local veterans and guest speakers from the Exchange Club came to speak to students and community members wishing to view and learn more about the monument.

According to Michael Peters, the Student Veterans Association president, “Classmates of mine did not know what the tomb was about, and it was interesting to see students awe struck and interested in the replica.”

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington D.C.’s Arlington Cemetery stands as a monument to acknowledge all United States military service members who died and whose remains were never identified.

The Rome Exchange Club’s replica of this monument has traveled all over the country. It has been to places such as Nevada, Florida, Texas and Alabama.

Jim Belzer, Rome Exchange Club member, said, “We want people to know about those who sacrifice their lives. These people here gave up everything, even their identities.”

The replica was constructed entirely in Rome, Georgia. Construction worker Phil Burkhalter of Burkhalter Builders, who is also an Exchange Club member, constructed the tomb and Chuck Shmult, a Vietnam Veteran, did all the replica’s artwork. The tomb looks to be made out of marble; however, the marble look was painted on by Shmult to replicate the look of the real tomb in D.C.

Everything in the club’s Tomb of the Unknown Solider replica is one half the size of the real monument. Everything about the tomb, from the lettering to the wreaths, depict the way the monument looks in Arlington Cemetery on a smaller scale.

Student Life Director John Spranza said, “It is important that students have the ability to see something like that because not many are able to visit D.C.”

Lisa Williams spoke in the Cartersville ballroom to both students and faculty. Photo by Catie Sullivan

Lisa Williams spoke at GHC’s Cartersville campus on April 25. Williams is the founder and president of Circle of Friends; Celebrating Life, Inc. This organization works to educate, provide assistance and stop sex trafficking. Williams said, “Young men and women need to be aware of what is going on around them on college campuses and be able to detect human trafficking in their communities.”

Williams’ key ideas in her presentation were that human trafficking can happen to anyone regardless of age, race, sex or gender and that assistance to those who have been victims of sex trafficking is necessary. Williams said, “This kind of stuff happens anywhere where there are people with skin; it happens anywhere and everywhere.”

Stacie Davis is the program manager of the Sexual Assault Center of Northwest Georgia and she attended the event to also show her support against sex trafficking. Davis said, “College campuses are the breeding grounds for sexual assault and in most cases 9 out of 10 occurrences happen with someone who is not a stranger, they are people you know and go to school with.”

Alexandra MacMurdo, assistant profesor of communication and assistant director of global initiatives thanks Williams for coming. Photo by Catie Sullivan

Williams explained how a victim she helped named Rachel was able to advocate for the passing of a law to provide mental and physical healing to those affected by sex trafficking with the aid of Williams. The law was passed and is known as Rachel’s law.

Alexandra MacMurdo, assistant professor of communication and assistant director of global initiatives helped oversee the event and she said, “We need to not only raise awareness but be aware ourselves. We need to be aware now more than ever.”

The event was followed by refreshments and socializing. Students and faculty who attended the event could pick up brochures and a self-defense keychain from the Sexual Assault Center of Northwest Georgia.

Cathy Ledbetter. Contributed Photo

Cathy Ledbetter has been at GHC since June of 2009. Ledbetter began her time at Highlands as the Paulding campus dean. Currently Ledbetter is retiring from GHC as the special assistant to the president for planning, continuous improvement and accreditation.

Ledbetter’s hometown is Columbus, Georgia. She lived at home while attending Columbus State University. After her first summer quarter, the head of the art department at Columbus offered Ledbetter a one-year full scholarship to continue her studies. Ledbetter then went on to receive this scholarship every year until she completed her Master’s in Art Education. She came to Highlands to be closer to the Atlanta area.

Ledbetter said, “Unlike other colleges that I have worked at, GHC is by far an institution where employees embrace student success and go out of their way to assist, advice and challenge and nurture students.”

One of her favorite aspects of GHC is the comradery among faculty, staff and students. Ledbetter’s favorite memory at GHC was when a student visited her to extend her appreciation for all the assistance Ledbetter provided her with.

Ledbetter said, “She thought she was stuck at the end of her rope and unable to continue attending GHC. She, like so many students, need consolation and suggested paths that they can’t see even exist while they are under duress. Often times we educators never know how we impact students and its rewarding to occasionally hear it.”

Having served 40 years in the field of education-teaching, coaching and leading, Ledbetter believes it is her time to move on and learn more about creating artwork, gardening, expanding her woodworking skills and giving greater service to her church and community.

Ledbetter said, “I sometimes think and feel like Michelangelo when he stated while on his deathbed that he has only begun to learn his profession. We humans are always in the process of learning.”

Back row from left, Joseph McDaniel, Nick Whitmire, Consultant John Kwist, Adviser Cindy Wheeler, Catie Sullivan, Jeimy Celon-Alcantara, along with Joshua Mabry, front, bring home several awards from the GCPA press institute. Contributed Photo

The Six Mile Post attended the Georgia College Press Association’s conference and awards ceremony on Feb. 16 in Athens, Georgia. Five members of the Six Mile Post staff went on the day trip to Athens, four editors and one staff writer.

The conference and awards ceremony was held in the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries of the University of Georgia. College students on newspaper staffs from all over the state attended the event to vote in the GCPA board elections, listen to guest speakers and receive awards for their work on their campus newspapers.

This event is held every year to help train collegiate print journalists and award them for their annual work as photographers, writers and artists.

Kendal Trammell, an associate producer on CNN’s digital mobile news programming team, was a guest speaker at the event. Trammell provided students with insight into finding and meeting the needs of an audience for your company’s social media platforms.

Vicki Michaelis from UGA and Seth Emerson from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution were also two speakers that held a session together on how to cover college sports. A few other speakers were featured at the conference as well.

The awards banquet was held in the auditorium of the Richard B. Russell Building. Jim Zachary, deputy national editor of Community Newspaper Holding, Inc presented all the campus newspapers with their awards.

The Six Mile Post received 12 awards this year and overall placed in either third, second, or first in almost every category.

Steve Blankenship, professor of history at Georgia Highlands, believes that the skills required to train animals can also be used in the classroom. Photo by Catie Sullivan

Steve Blankenship, professor of history on the Cartersville campus, has taught both students and animals.

Blankenship has taught at both Georgia Highlands and Georgia State. Prior to teaching, he was an animal trainer and caretaker. He has taken care of animals such as chickens, rabbits, horses, snakes, monkeys, bears, tigers and many more.

Blankenship is from Shannon, Georgia. He attended college at the University of Florida, Florida State, Emory and Georgia State, where he got his doctrate.

Blankenship began his journey as an animal trainer through the kennel and farm he ran in Conyers, Georgia.

He trained animals for entertainment and media purposes as well as just for fun. His dog Hunter was Sheriff Bill Gillespie’s dog on the TV series “In the Heat of the Night.”

His turkeys were used in Honey Baked Ham commercials and various other animals he cared for were featured in media.

All the animals Blankenship had were trained by himself. His dog Hunter was completely hand trained. Blankenship could control how loud or soft the dog barked, make it sit, lie down and play dead among other tricks.

He taught himself how to train animals just by being with them for hours and working with them daily. He once taught a chicken to sit still on a basketball, because the chicken was needed to sit stationary on a globe at a convention in Atlanta.

Along with the care taking and training of animals, Blankenship also rehabilitated animals like hawks, falcons, peacocks and other species.

Blankenship’s animal caretaking business grew from taking care of dogs and farm animals to exotic unique creatures, such as a tiger named Catori.

Blankenship said, “If you have never heard a tiger roar it literally sounds like the voice of God; it is beautiful to see this awe-inspiring animal up close.” Blankenship took care of the big cat from a cub until it was too big and it then lived out the rest of its life at Noah’s Ark, an educational animal sanctuary.

Daily life on Blankenship’s property involved cleaning pens and runs, replenishing water, feeding, repairing fences and making sure all the animals had their shots and were healthy.

He had thirty-five acres of pasture, runs for different animals and cages for smaller animals.

Blankenship said, “The skills required to train animals are very similar to the skills required to teach. You have to pay attention, excert power and use good voice control to overall be in command.”

GHC students at the Marietta campus have been facing difficulties with parking. Due to Kennesaw State University’s growing student population, parking at the GHC and KSU campus in Marietta has become full.
KSU ran out of assigned parking in mid July last academic year and started to take up parking at the Georgia Highlands parking lot. GHC Marietta Campus Dean Ken Reaves said, “We noticed the parking problem coming up towards the end of last year and knew that we had too many cars and too many students and not enough parking spots.”

Oftentimes parking places fill up between 10 a.m.-2 p.m. As an alternative GHC students are allowed to park in the White Water parking lot and ride Kennesaw State University’s bus, the B.O.B (Big Owl Bus), to campus. The bus trip from White Water to the Marietta campus is only about a mile to a mile and a half. GHC students who wish to ride the B.O.B can do so for free by presenting their GHC student I.D. to the bus driver.

Students who park at White Water and shuttle to the GHC Marietta campus are accompanied by Kennesaw students as well. Reaves said, “After spring, once more Kennesaw students graduate, parking spots will become more available.” Campus police are aware of the parking problems and have worked with students and only moderately ticketed cars, according to Reaves.