Officers of the Alpha Psi Omicron chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) honor society at Georgia Highlands College (GHC) are taking their leadership and organizational skills to the next level by helping launch the Student Ambassador Program (SAP) this fall.
PTK chapter President and student April Cole, who helped spearhead the initiative alongside 2023 GHC graduate and PTK Officer Katie Weatherford, says the primary goal of the SAP is to provide student leaders with a platform to share information on the endless opportunities GHC has for self-development, helping them to shape and impact the lives of future and current students at GHC.
Ambassadors will take on roles such as orientation leaders and guides for campus tours and will work with the recruitment team to visit area high schools and local events to give potential students an idea of what GHC has to offer from the perspective of current students. They will also assist with on-campus events, including the September inauguration of GHC President Mike Hobbs, Ph.D., and commencement ceremonies in the spring.
To make the program happen, Cole, Weatherford and their fellow PTK officers had to start from scratch.
PTK Chapter President April Cole
“Our chapter made an outline of the entire SAP program, pitched it to the President, Provost and VP of Finance through a PowerPoint presentation, and made changes according to their feedback,” Cole said. “We were ecstatic to discover the enthusiasm Dr. Hobbs had for this project.”
Cole said a special aspect of the ambassador program has been the ability to learn the “ins and outs” of program development for academia. PTK officers were given the ability to meet with nearly every department head at the college and obtain feedback for the program.
“We learned how budgeting works for new programs, how to work with marketing, recruitment for ambassadors and development of training programs,” Cole said. “Our chapter actually wrote the training manual for the ambassadors, which involved an in-depth knowledge of GHC.”
Cole and her fellow PTK officers also met with GHC leadership and administration to ask questions about different possibilities and potential downfalls of the program to minimize any future problems.
“This program challenged and prepared us for any future projects in organizational leadership and program development,” Cole said. “I have confidence that our officers could create programs with ease and success after the completion of this project.”
In addition, Cole said, the SAP will work to be a source of connection between the student body and GHC President Mike Hobbs and to bring a voice and face to the academic stories of students.
“There are many complications, doubts and financial struggles in mind when students take the step to enroll into college. The goal of SAP is to show these same students that college can be fun, fruitful, adventurous and enriching,” Cole said. “We all come from different backgrounds and walks of life, and our hope is to use our stories to inspire and encourage students to take a step into the world of academics and show them that there are infinite and endless opportunities to explore their identity and take charge of their life.”
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