Dana Nichols, current academic officer and provost, will assume the role of interim president of GHC beginning July 7. Don Green, who served as GHC’s president since 2014, has accepted the position as president of Point Park University. He begins his new tenure this summer in Pittsburgh, PA.

Nichols has served as the chief academic officer and provost of the college since 2018. Green said, “Dana provides the rare mix of wisdom, innovation, and energy necessary for leadership of a great institution such as Georgia Highlands College.”

Nichols said, “[In] Dr. Green’s time here, he has emphasized the importance of shared governance at the college. He has developed a system in which SGA, Faculty Senate and executive leadership at GHC work together to ensure student success.”

“I am working with various members of the leadership team, college foundation board and Board of Regents to ensure a smooth transition,” said Green, “ I love the students, faculty and staff of Georgia Highlands College and wish to depart with the college in an excellent position.”

As interim, Nichols will serve until a permanent president is hired. During this time, a search committee appointed by the USG Chancellor will begin the hiring process.

Nichols said, “These [search] committees are usually comprised of faculty and staff and SGA student representatives from the college, as well as community members, such as college alumni and K12 partners.”

The last time the college was in search of a president, it was two years between the time of appointing an interim (May 2012) and the permanent president, Don Green, being hired (June 2014). As of April 26, the USG had not yet advertised the vacancy at GHC.

The USG Chancellor appoints the position of president. Currently, Steve Wrigley serves as chancellor. He announced his retirement in January 2021, but the USG has paused the search for a new chancellor.

Prior to being appointed as interim, Nichols commented on USG Chancellor Steve Wrigley’s coming retirement. She said, “Dr. Wrigley has served admirably as our Chancellor since 2017. I have especially appreciated his encouragement to build curriculum and degree pathways for the 21st century. He will certainly be missed, and we wish him well as he enjoys a well-earned retirement.”

“…The college will remain committed to serving our students and to building solid relationships with the communities we serve,” said Nichols.

Green and his wife, Cathay, will be moving to Pennsylvania while their children remain in Georgia to complete degrees at GHC and other Georgia institutions.

The Old Red Kimono, GHC’s art and literary magazine, is accepting submissions. The submissions deadline is Monday, April 12. Students, faculty, staff and alumni can send original writing and artwork to John Kwist, jkwist@highlands.edu.

March is Women’s History Month. Travice Baldwin Obas, professor of communication, will be leading a discussion on media portrayals of women after a screening of the film “Miss Representation.” Join the event on Tuesday, March 16, at 12:30 p.m.

Student Engagement is providing Chick-fil-A at the campus locations. Join the in-person, live event in room #A122 on the Cartersville campus. On the Floyd campus, the live stream will be in the Solarium. On the Paulding campus, meet in in room #207.

Joining via Zoom is also an option. The passcode is: GHC.

Come be a part of the Financial Wellness Workshop this Monday.
Professor of Accounting and Business Jed Gillespie will be teaching students about personal finance.
Join via Zoom on Feb. 15, at 12:30 p.m.

Zoom link: https://highlands.zoom.us/j/98239788126#success
Passcode: Financial

I have a feeling there’s going to be a hard rebound when the word “quarantine” becomes nothing more than a distant memory. We will swing back, but we’re going to go further than what was normal. Our habits will mirror the age before iPhone.

Technology has kept us connected through Zoom calls and virtual meetings. But it’s a double-edged sword. We’ve tried hard to stay connected, but talking through a screen is not the kind of connectedness we were created for. I’ve found myself longing to disconnect digitally, and I think it’s because I need that physical reconnection.

According to a survey by Common Sense Media, “54 percent of teen social media users agree that it often distracts them when they should be paying attention to the people they’re with.”

I’m tired of my phone, and I don’t want to watch Netflix. I’m being drawn back to things of old. I find myself reading Louis L’Amour western novels my grandfather used to collect. I’m no longer playing DuoLingo to learn French. Instead, I’m learning Teeline Shorthand after my grandmother tells me she used to scribble out the code faster than anyone in her class.

Just the other day, I was searching for a podcast about local history and documentaries. I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. Later that week I stayed with my grandmother. We talked for hours about how life was when she was growing up. Her mind spilled with memories.

As I learned about her early life and followed her story through the decades, I thought to myself, this is exactly what I wanted to listen to. When I am searching for a podcast interview, no episode can be as personal as one that I’m tied to. It resonates with me because her story leads into my story.

A pandemic is strange. My loved ones aren’t being drafted off to war. No one is handing them weapons and sending them to foreign soil. The enemy has landed here — in our home. It’s floating through the air and seems to have no rhyme or reason. This is an invisible enemy with a double-battle. There is a biological and psychological war on.

A virus is making people physically sick. But there is also an undeniable fight for our minds. As reported by the CDC, “U.S. adults reported considerably elevated adverse mental health conditions associated with COVID-19.”

Maybe it’s time to look at the devices of the war and realize they are the devices in our hands. It will take more than a vaccination to win this battle.

I did have some unique opportunities during quarantine. When we only had church online, I was among the few still able to go to campus twice a week. I am a part of the media team and praise team. I learned about video and the virtual church experience, but singing to rows of empty seats is different.

This has taught me adaptability and I like to think I’ve gained the characteristic of resilience through it all.

I have taken almost every kind of schedule GHC offers. I have had a full load during a 15 week semester. I’ve taken the max amount of hours. I’ve done what we call “Maymester” and full summer. I started my freshman year with an eight-week course, and hybrid classes are no stranger to me. After all of that, I have had the opportunity to experience remote learning because March 12, 2020, changed everything.

Summer classes are often overlooked, but they have been most rewarding in my experience. Maymester is fun because you accomplish so much in such a short period of time. But a word of advice, you have no life other than school for those three weeks. This quick summer course begins on May 17 and grades are due on June 9. So it’s a semesters’ worth of class that goes by before you know it.

I took two classes, and one of them was a hybrid class (we only read the textbook and went to lab). It seemed to take a lot more of my time. The other was a literature class. I loved taking this class during May because we went through condensed versions of the text and consumed so much content in a bite-sized format. I do not recommend taking more than two classes.

I took a Full Summer Session, which goes through most of June and July. I took two classes completely online. I liked this because I still got to go on summer vacation with my family and didn’t have to get behind on my degree plan. Summer gives a catch-up period so you don’t have to cram as much into the Spring and Fall semesters. I highly recommend summer classes.

You can also break up the summer and take just the June or July Session. These are only one month long. Since I took four classes over the summer, I still got full-time financial aid even though the classes were broken up.

GHC also offers eight-week classes. These are a quarter instead of a semester. The eight-week class I took was a Special Topics class [GHXX]. It was fun, and since it ended mid-semester, there was less pressure during final exams week at the end of the semester. Experiment with your schedule and change it up a bit

Late Start Classes are something students can now sign up for. Instead of the typical 16 week semester, there are 10 week and eight-week classes that start in February and March.

It’s important to remember the school year is more than Fall and Spring. GHC has classes at so many different times to best work around your schedule. These odd times are something I’ve taken advantage of in college and it’s made my experience unique. It’s also helped me graduate on time and with less stress.

Students have the opportunity to win $1,000 in cash prizes by sharing new business ideas with the professionals. GHC is hosting the Charger Innovation Challenge. All students in any discipline can participate. The registration deadline is April 2. Students can register here to get started on a competition of innovation. If there’s an idea that needs to be out in the world, now is the time to pitch it.

Team orientation will be held Feb. 3 from 12-1 p.m. via Zoom.
Several student workshops will be held to get students on the fast track of pitching a high quality idea. On February 10, learn how to answer the question, “How do you know your big idea is a big idea?” On March 10, learn the ins and outs of presenting your idea. Practice day will be April 15. The workshops will be held from noon to 2 p.m. via Zoom. A recording of each meeting will be available to watch later.

Students will present their pitches via Zoom on Wednesday, April 21 from 12-3 p.m. They will present before a panel of entrepreneurs and local business leaders. Individuals or teams of up to three people will present their three to five minute pitch.

Patrick Manna, a consultant to GHC and an adjunct professor working with both Alan Nichols and Melanie Largin, Deans for the Schools of Education and Business respectively, shares how the idea for this challenge was born and the main goal in bringing this opportunity to students.

Manna said, “The ‘Charger Innovation Challenge,’ Business Pitch Competition is an idea that I brought and presented to Dr. Alan Nichols about two years ago, when he was the Dean of the School of Business, as part of a larger conversation on implementing a full course program on Entrepreneurship for the School of Business.

“The concept of a ‘Big Idea’ Business Plan and Business Pitch competition is something that I conceived and started when I was the ‘Executive In Residence’ at the Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina several years ago.”

The goal of this competition is to bring opportunities to students.

Manna said, “The primary objective of this type of ‘Shark Tank’ competition is to give our students the opportunity to present or ‘pitch’ their ‘Big Ideas’ for a new innovative product or service based on an actual real world market need to a panel of potential investors that is made up of Executives and Entrepreneurs from our Business Community.”

“The competition stresses innovative, critical, on your feet thinking and great communication skills. The CIC puts our student teams right in front of Executives that not only judge their ideas but can potentially invest in their concepts and help the teams get into business. There have also been some cases where judges would offer jobs to competing team members based on their pitch performance,” said Manna.

Pitches will be judged based on innovation, creativity, viability, how it fills a market need and presentation enthusiasm and passion.

From left to right: finalist Abby Welchel (2nd), Sarah Gupta (1st), Carson Graham (3rd), Lyons Nida (5th), and Nathaniel Carr (4th). Contributed

In GHC’s annual public speaking competition, the first place winner is Sarah Gupta with a prize of $150. Her speech was on the topic of better sex education in schools.

Coming in with the $120 second place award was Abby Welchel. She told us of the negative impacts beauty standards are having today. In third place with a prize of $100 was Carson Graham, who conveyed her desire to resolve the decline in Lindale.

Nathaniel Car showed his appreciation for music as the highest form of art, bringing home the fourth place prize of $80. Lyons Nida spoke on Global Warming and won $50 for fifth place.

Another award was given based on who best articulated GHC’s values of inclusiveness and freedom of expression. The five students who were presented with a GHC Values Award along with a $25 Target Gift Card were Nathaniel Carr, Trinity Fielder, Carson Graham, Nicholas O’Brien, Shereca Thompson.

Sixty-one GHC students took part in the competition held on April 12 at the Cartersville campus.

After presenting their speeches multiple times, the five finalists competed for first place Donald Green, GHC president, Leslie Johnson, dean of the Cartersville campus and student judge Erin Shurfo scribbled down notes and focused on every detail of the speeches before making their final decision.

Steve Stuglin, assistant professor of humanities, was event director. He was assisted by numerous volunteers.

Stuglin said he appreciated organizations that sponsored the competition. This years sponsors were the Rome Area Council for the Arts, Follett Bookstore Management, GHC Student Life, GHC CETL, and the GHC Honors Program.

A summary of the event along with more photos can be found at https://sites.highlands.edu/division-of-humanities/2019-speech-competition/.

To see clips of the speeches made by the finalists at the speech competiton,visit https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw68trX4XFBBWsVNqgTEefpEedVpsTp9R.

Front row from left: Lisa Donohue, Karishmaben Patel, Nicholas Whitmire, Cindy Mendoza Razo and Tajera Davy (all GHC students). Back row from the left: Todd Jones, Carl Hill, Felicia Wasson and Don Green. Contributed

PTK recently held an awards luncheon in the Empire Room of the Sloppy Floyd Building in downtown Atlanta and 12 people attended from GHC.

Out of the nine institutions in attendance, GHC had the most All-Georgia Academic Scholars present with five.

Todd Jones commented on this, saying he believed this speaks to the quality of the students in our Phi Theta Kappa chapter and the work of our faculty advisors who support this organization on campus at all locations.

These scholars all received All-Georgia Academic Team awards: Karishmaben Patel, Lisa Donohue, Tajera Davy, Cindy Mendoza Razo, Nicholas Whitmire, and Vanessa Cornejo (not in attendance), and there was a New Century Scholar and a Bronze Scholar from other institutions.

At this event, a roast beef dinner and the scholarships awarded were provided by the Atlanta based Coco-Cola Company.

The keynote speaker was Felicia Wasson, who works in the Community and Stakeholder Relations department of the Coca-Cola Company.

She told of her challenges enrolling in college and how she was unsure of what to do until a faculty member helped lead her in the right direction.

That faculty member went above and beyond by even working with her to overcome a stuttering problem.

This helped lead to Wasson’s decision to become a communications major in college.

Those who attended the March 27 event from GHC were Karen Huggin, assistant professor and lead advisor to the GHC PTK organization at GHC, Donald Green, president, Todd Jones, vice president for student affairs and the five GHC students.

Jones said, “Huggin in particular has done a wonderful job serving as lead advisor and continues to be a strong advocate for our students in their academic pursuits and in finding academic scholarships for those that transfer with their associate degree to other institutions.”

The Floyd campus Charger’s cafe is under new management, and Floyd students now work in the cafe. Photo by Kayley Agan

There is a new manager at the Floyd and Cartersville Campus cafés.

These two campuses are under the same management personnel and have recently gotten a new site director, Chad Welbourn.

Director of Auxiliary Services Jackson Mathews, who manages the contract with Aladdin Food Management Services, said that though the previous manager resigned to pursue another opportunity, this should not cause any major changes.

GHC outsources all its food services to a company called Aladdin Inc., a food management service that has been serving companies and businesses for 40 years.

This company is in charge of hiring and managing people for the food service positions.

According to Jeff Davis, vice president of finance and administration, GHC has partnered with Aladdin Inc. for two and a half years. Aladdin is part of Elior North America. ENA is among the top five contract food service companies in the United States.

This service manages purchasing, facility design, dietetics, human resources, marketing, operations and finance of the café, allowing the college to focus on the education side of things, while Aladdin takes care of all food services.