To our colleagues and partners,

I cannot express enough how thankful I am to serve as the President of Georgia Highlands College. It is truly an honor and a privilege. There are many themes and topics I wanted to stress in my inaugural address – including “standing on the shoulders” of all those who came before me and who work with me now – but I also want to really emphasize the part that our own student newspaper the Six Mile Post reported on during their coverage of the recent investiture at GHC:

“Today is just one of the greatest days of my life… I’ll give you my word today that I won’t be outworked. I won’t sit down. I won’t stand down. I will fight for us and I will fight for our students. I will make sure that we get every opportunity that we can and every resource that we can to make sure to bring those back to our students so we continue to have success story after success story. I humbly accept the role as the fifth president of this great institution.”

Thank you to our student news editor Savannah Pollocks for capturing this in my speech. You can read her full article at sixmilepost.com

I can't wait to share the following updates below with you – but more importantly, I appreciate your continued support for our students, our access mission, and everything we do.

Thank you for taking time to read this update.

Investiture: Thank you to the nearly 400 people who attended the ceremony in September and the many more who viewed via livestream. You can view the recorded video or pictures online at highlands.edu. I would also like to thank everyone who spoke and presented during the event and everyone at GHC who helped organize and run the event. I would like to additionally give a special thanks to Regent Cade Joiner for agreeing to preside over the event for us. 

Highlands Scholarship Gala: A huge congratulations to our GHC Foundation for a successful scholarship gala in Cartersville. The live music, food, student testimonials, and GHC video were a huge hit. Over 450 people joined together to celebrate GHC students while raising money for scholarships. I am looking forward to this annual event and everything it will bring to helping students in our region go to college and graduate. See more pictures from the event online.

Leading up to the investiture and scholarship gala, our faculty and staff came together to participate in “Weeks of Service” throughout the communities we serve. The goal was to give back and show our region that we are part of the community! The following events took place throughout the month of September.

Public Health Fair: The Atrium Health Floyd School of Health Sciences at Georgia Highlands College partnered with Atrium Health Floyd to provide a free public health fair which included health screenings, flu shots, and more. 

Rome Community Kitchen: We were happy to join the Rome Community Kitchen in preparing and serving meals. This local non-profit is operated by GHC alum LaTonya Burrell.

School Supply Drive: The School of Social Sciences and Education at GHC organized a school supply drive and delivered those supplies to Anna K. Davie Elementary.

Kindergarten Reading: We visited East Central Elementary to read to kindergarteners... and we may have handed out GHC chocolate bars right before they went home! (Sorry parents!)

Mobile Market: The School of Humanities at GHC partnered with the YMCA to pack and give out bags of food through a food assistance mobile market.

STEM Night: The School of STEM at GHC took over the gym at South Paulding Middle School and gave the kids a STEM Night, which included fossil digs, solar system bracelets, liquid nitrogen, and even… a robot dog.

Serving Ice Cream: As a way to show "we are here to serve our students," we also hosted ice cream socials for students on every campus where faculty and staff worked together to serve free ice cream to our students between classes.

Teacher Appreciation: The School of Business and Professional Studies at GHC visited the Floyd County College & Career Academy to thank teachers and show our appreciation for all they do in preparing students for continued success.

Youth Sports: Our softball players played a fun exhibition against a little league team called the North Georgia Wolfpack in Cartersville. This was really a fun way to celebrate kids and youth sports in our area. At the end, their team signed a ball for us and our team signed a ball for them.

"Secret Sauce": We did all of the "Weeks of Service" events listed in this update AND MORE! And none of it was possible without the hard work and dedication of our faculty and staff. I say it a lot - but what makes GHC special is our people. That's our "Secret Sauce." Without hesitation, our faculty and staff go above and beyond to serve our students and our communities, and for that, I could not be more thankful to have such a wonderful team to work alongside of at GHC.

In my inaugural address, I talked about how higher education removes barriers to opportunity, and that one of the most important things you can do in life is "pay it forward." With your help, GHC continues to provide so much opportunity to the students in our region - who grow up here, learn here, work here, and raise their families right here.

Alongside Atrium Health Floyd, we held a "white coat" ceremony for our students in health sciences at the beginning of this semester. Together, we are educating, training, and employing the next generation of healthcare providers for our region. This is a great example of what we strive to do with every degree program we offer at GHC.

I would not be here today, if not for opportunity… if not for access to opportunity… if not for my mother, my friends, and the heroes in my life who took what they were given and chose to pay it forward. 

Georgia Highlands College is THE ACCESS COLLEGE. We are THE OPPORTUNITY COLLEGE. 

The investments we make in our students today who are seeking to make a better life for themselves, their families, and their community will have exponential returns for our region and state tomorrow. We provide access. We provide opportunity. We always pay it forward! 

Again, thank you for reading this update, and please know I will not let you down. I am honored to be part of continuing to solidify GHC as the OPPORTUNITY COLLEGE for everyone alongside you as your president of Georgia Highlands College.

Sincerely,

Mike

President Mike Hobbs

Georgia Highlands College