University System News:
Augusta Chronicle
Foundation establishes UGA scholarship for students from rural Georgia
The George W. Strickland Jr. Foundation recently gifted $400,000 to establish four Georgia Commitment Scholarships at the University of Georgia. Scholarships will be awarded starting in Fall 2019 and prioritize students from 16 rural counties: Evans, Tattnall, Bryan, Bulloch, Candler, Liberty, Toombs, Emanuel, Jenkins, Screven, Burke, Appling, Wayne, Glynn, Long and Effingham. The Strickland Scholarships will impact students in rural Georgia, an area that had deep meaning to the foundation’s namesake, Evans County native George W. “Jack” Strickland Jr., a United States Army veteran and business owner in Claxton. Strickland died in 2010 and the foundation was established in 2016.
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
CSU program helps students with disabilities learn new skills
By Mike Haskey
This Columbus State University program helps students with disabilities improve their fitness, better their motor skills, and socialize with other kids.
Albany CEO
Staff Report From Albany CEO
Georgia Southwestern State University’s Guaranteed Acceptance Program offers guaranteed admission into GSW’s nursing program for a select number of exceptional high school seniors and a $1,000 on-campus housing scholarship. Currently, there are 51 incoming freshmen applicants for Fall that have been accepted into this unique program. First launched in 2012, GAP gives high school students priority acceptance over other applicants and support during their pre-nursing studies. Beginning in the fall, new GAP students will receive a $1,000 on-campus housing scholarship that can be renewed for one year. Applications for the upcoming Fall semester will remain open through August 9, 2019.
Douglas Now
Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp baseball game was a hit with SGSC students
Baseball and summer seem to go hand-in-hand. As a fun activity this semester, students from South Georgia State College enjoyed a minor league baseball game in Jacksonville, Fla., as the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp took on the Montgomery Biscuits. The event, sponsored by SGSC’s Student Life, is an annual tradition that many times will give students their first professional baseball experience. “The students who attended the Jumbo Shrimp game were able to witness the passion and dedication of professional athletes in action. Baseball is an integral part of American culture, hence why it is America’s pastime,” explained Avery Lewis, SGSC’s Student Engagement Coordinator who attended with the students. “Providing positive role models to students is a cornerstone of our college’s mission, and when these role models are young men that are part of a successful, public sports team, their impact is that much greater.”
The George-Anne
Future commencement plans begin to take shape at Georgia Southern University
By McClain Baxley
Administration at Georgia Southern University has begun to form focus groups and committees to analyze 2019 spring commencement surveys and better the commencement process moving forward. At the spring 2019 GS commencement ceremonies, graduates, attendees and workers were asked to fill out an online survey to give their thoughts on the ceremonies. The survey brought in 1,765 responses. One of the most noteworthy conclusions when looking through the responses was that the majority of them leaned negative. Dr. Scot Lingrell, Vice President of Enrollment Management said that was expected. …With the responses tallied, the task now is to talk with different groups and get a more specific consensus. Lingrell has formed five focus groups, a student group, a faculty group, an alumni group, a group of faculty that helped work commencement and a group that was involved in the planning of the ceremonies, that will meet over the next few weeks. From there, the fall 2019 commencement committee can finalize the December ceremonies and move on to the spring 2020 ceremonies.
Savannah CEO
Georgia Southern University Wins 2 Professional and 4 Student Emmy Awards
Staff Report From Savannah CEO
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Southeast Chapter recognized the Multimedia Development Center (MDC) at Georgia Southern University with two professional and four student Emmy® awards. This brings total Emmy wins to 12 for the MDC, which directs, produces and manages video projects and more than 100 live events each year, including Eagle athletic events that are carried on ESPN and other nationally televised university broadcasts. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is a professional organization for individuals in the television and broadcasting industry. They announced their Emmy winners last week.
Ag Update
Multiple agricultural companies and organizations have recently chosen their 2019 summer interns.
…Gabi Ius of Orlando, Florida, was selected to serve as the American Angus Association’s communications intern. She started with showing sheep and then became involved in 4-H and FFA. That led her to find her passion in communicating about agriculture. She will be a junior at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College where she’s double-majoring in agricultural communications and agribusiness.
Albany Herald
UGA, Padova partnership leads to joint research
By Clint Thompson CAES News
A dual degree master’s program that evolved from a partnership between the University of Georgia and the University of Padova in Padua, Italy, has also led to collaborative research between the two institutions. Katrien Devos, a professor with joint appointments in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences on the UGA campus in Athens, coordinates research on the genetics of economically important grasses, including switchgrass, as a bioenergy crop, seashore paspalum as a salt-tolerant turfgrass, and millets as subsistence food crops for the developing world. Her lab also served as the proving ground for research by Fabio Palumbo, a graduate student from UNIPD.
space.com
Bill Nye and Planetary Society Set to Ride a Sunbeam with LightSail 2 Solar Sail
By Doris Elin Salazar
This Monday (June 24), the nonprofit organization The Planetary Society will launch LightSail 2, the first spacecraft propelled solely by sunlight, in a mission made possible by crowd-funding, officials said. While it won’t be the first spacecraft to successfully use a solar sail at some distance from Earth — that honor goes to the Japanese spacecraft Ikaros, which launched in 2010 — it is an important extension of that technology. The Planetary Society has twice attempted testing solar sailing in the past. LightSail 2’s predecessor, a test mission called LightSail, launched May 20, 2015. Ten years prior, the organization had launched a lightsail dubbed Cosmos 1, but it was lost due to a rocket failure. This is an artist’s concept of the spacecraft Prox-1, student-built at Georgia Tech, deploying LightSail 2 into Earth’s orbit. Like a sailboat, the spacecraft is propelled by pressure; in the upcoming LightSail 2 demonstration test in low-Earth orbit, engineers want to see if a spacecraft can be propelled by the pressure of photons (particles of electromagnetic radiation) emanating from the sun.
Science Daily
Hydrogel offers double punch against orthopedic bone infections
Surgery prompted by automobile accidents, combat wounds, cancer treatment and other conditions can lead to bone infections that are difficult to treat and can delay healing until they are resolved. Now, researchers have a developed a double-duty hydrogel that both attacks the bacteria and encourages bone regrowth with a single application containing two active components. The injectable hydrogel, which is a network of cross-linked polymer chains, contains the enzyme lysostaphin and the bone-regenerating protein BMP-2. In a new study using a small animal model, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology showed significant reduction in an infection caused by Staphylococcus aureus — a common infection in orthopedic surgery — along with regeneration within large bone defects.
Columbus CEO
CSU Announces Winners of 8th Annual Business Plan Competition
Staff Report From Columbus CEO
Columbus State University’s Turner College of Business recently awarded three aspiring entrepreneurs with funding to launch their own businesses. The recipients were the winners of CSU’s 8th annual Business Plan Competition, which is open to both students and members of the community. This year’s contest attracted the largest number of applicants, with 69 business plans submitted. Melanie Phillips was named the 2019 winner with her business, Transitional Independence LLC. In her plan, Phillips pointed out a profound shortage of organizations that meet the needs of intellectually challenged adults in the Columbus community. The business will offer curriculum specifically designed for clients with complex learning needs, while incorporating research based instructional support and evidence-based teaching strategies to create an interactive learning environment.
Higher Education News:
Savannah CEO
Georgia’s Technical Colleges to Offer More Tuition-Free Programs
Staff Report From Georgia CEO
Students seeking an affordable, career-ready educational pathway will soon have more options from which to choose. Georgia’s technical colleges will offer even more diplomas and certificates associated with the tuition-free HOPE Career Grant. There are now 17 high-demand fields that qualify – up from 12. They range from automotive to computers, construction, cybersecurity, dental assisting, health sciences, industrial maintenance, nursing, manufacturing, paramedicine, welding, and many more. The additional programs were approved by the State Board of the Technical College System earlier this month. For a listing of the HOPE Career Grant educational areas offered at Columbus Technical College, visit their website. …Also approved by the State Board is a small tuition increase at TCSG schools. The per hour tuition rate will be $100 per credit hour, replacing the current $89 per hour that has been in place since 2014. Even with the slight increase, a public technical college education like what one would earn at Columbus Technical College, is an incredibly wise investment.
Inside Higher Ed
Waiting for Work Authorization
International students can apply for work authorization 90 days before they graduate, but they’re facing application processing times that routinely exceed that.
By Elizabeth Redden
Colleges are seeing increases in processing times for international students applying for work authorization through the Optional Practical Training, or OPT, program, leaving some students with job or internship offers unable to take up their positions on time. OPT allows international students to stay and work in the U.S. for up to a year after graduating in a job related to their field of study (students studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields can get an extension for a total of three years of OPT). Students can only apply for OPT 90 days before they finish their academic program, but colleges are reporting average application processing times that exceed that.