Georgia Southern University Digital Commons@Georgia Southern Georgia Southern Magazine University Communications and Marketing Spring 2018 Georgia Southern Magazine Georgia Southern University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/georgia-southern Part of the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Georgia Southern University, "Georgia Southern Magazine" (2018). Georgia Southern Magazine. 24. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/georgia-southern/24 This magazine is brought to you for free and open access by the University Communications and Marketing at Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. It has been accepted for inclusion in Georgia Southern Magazine by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. For more information, please contact [email protected]. the largest selection of Georgia Southern merchandise Support our University simply by shopping! All of our proceeds are reinvested in support of campus programs and activities. 44 26 14 56 FEATURES SPRING 2018, VOLUME 20 ARMSTRONG: A POWERFUL LEGACY / 11 UP FIRST Armstrong Campus history features rich stories The New Georgia Southern / 6 One University. Three Campuses. / 8 FORWARD TOGETHER / 14 SGA presidents share connections NEWS / 25 STUDENT AFFAIRS / 16 Georj Lewis' journey to Georgia Southern leadership RESEARCH / 36 KEY CHANGE / 18 ATHLETICS / 42 Alumna Becky Case enjoys success at Birchbox ALUMNI / 48 CYBER DEFENSE / 20 Scott Scheidt expands cyber education at Armstrong SUPPORT / 56 GROWING A LEGACY / 22 IN MEMORIAM / 60 Alumnus John Shuman replants a family business Georgia Southern magazine © 2018 Georgia Southern University ISSN 1524-0975 2 GEORGIA SOUTHERN SPRING 2018 SHINE ON The 268-acre Armstrong Campus is home to some 6,000 students while the Liberty Campus serves nearly 500. Georgia Southern banners and signs went up earlier this year on both campuses. GEORGIASOUTHERN.EDU/MAGAZINE 3 TRUE BLUE SPOTLIGHT “I’ve wanted to work [at Children’s Hospital of Atlanta] since I was three.” — Amelia Ballard Amelia Ballard continues her fight against cancer In 1994, when she was only 17 me, and when I was having a good RN in the emergency department. months old, Amelia Ballard (‘15) was moment or a good day they respected “I’ve wanted to work there since I admitted into the Children’s Hospital of that. And they really became more like was three,” she said. “I definitely cried Atlanta, where she would spend most a family when we were there than because that was a huge milestone in of the next four years in two grueling anything else.” my life, a huge goal that was almost a battles with cancer. In 2015, after Ballard says even though getting her dream that I didn’t know was attainable graduating with a nursing degree from nursing degree often seemed like an until it happened.... So that was a big, big Georgia Southern, she returned to the impossible task, she enjoyed her time moment for me and my family.” hospital as a nurse, helping other kids at Georgia Southern. In the classroom, When asked if she feels like the ordeal win the same fight. she learned from professors like Crystal was worth it, Ballard doesn’t see it like A cancer survivor for more Edds-McAfee, DNP, RN, who had also that. She doesn’t focus on the painful than 22 years, Ballard can’t recall worked at CHOA and taught pediatrics. procedures that marked her years of everything about her bouts with Outside the classroom, Ballard worked treatment. She remembers her parents acute lymphoblastic leukemia, but she at Camp Twin Lakes, a year-round camp playing games with the gloves and remembers that the experiences led her for children with serious illnesses, masks that were required to interact to a very specific dream as early as three disabilities, and other life challenges, with her, and the nurses who let her years old—to be a nurse at Children’s which only reinforced her desire to push the plunger to flush her I.V. and Hospital of Atlanta (CHOA). And even pursue pediatric care. bandage the boo-boos on her stuffed though the hospital was the source of All of her hard work came to fruition animals. And it’s that perspective that years of aggressive treatment, including in 2015. While she was still finishing she wants to bring to her patients. intense radiation and a painful bone her clinicals, she found an opening at “I like to stand on the positive side of marrow transplant, she says it was the CHOA for a patient care technician in things and kind of see how far my family close relationships with her nurses she the ER. She applied, and was called and I have come through it...,” she said. “I remembers most. back for an interview soon after. The want to make sure to try and instill some “Nursing is much more than the same day of her interview, only hours hope into these kiddos and their parents pokes, you know,” she said. “You develop after she’d returned home, she received while I’m taking care of them.” those relationships with your patients, the call telling her she’d gotten the job. Taking care of them—not only like a and the nurses spent a lot of time with In 2016, she accepted a position as an nurse, but also like family. —doy cave 4 GEORGIA SOUTHERN SPRING 2018 THEN AND NOW 1941 This student reporter for the Inkwell— Armstrong's student 2018 newspaper— Voice, video works the phone and texts lines for a story. connect any student to anybody at any time. 1988 Long distance calls to home meant a common hall payphone and often a roll of quarters—or better yet a calling card or calling collect. GEORGIASOUTHERN.EDU/MAGAZINE 5 FEATURES THE NEW GEORGIA SOUTHERN 2018 MARKED A HISTORIC CHANGE for higher education in southeastern Georgia. The New Georgia Southern—combining 82 years of Armstrong State University with 111 years of Georgia Southern University—was officially launched on January 1, 2018. The new institution is the state’s largest and most comprehensive center of higher education south of Atlanta. 6 GEORGIA SOUTHERN SPRING 2018 A WORD FROM PRESIDENT HEBERT This year marks the true start to weaving the traditions and values of two storied institutions into one strong community— an even stronger Eagle Nation. Together, we will make the new Georgia Southern truly great. The rigorous process of the consolidation of Armstrong State and Georgia Southern included four heavily-attended town hall meetings, 15-plus consolidation implementation committee (CIC) meetings, numerous public speaking engagements and Q&A sessions, and countless faculty, staff and student meetings. All told, more than 500 recommendations from our 95 operational working groups including hundreds of faculty, staff and students from all corners of each university were submitted and approved in 2017. And the first few months of 2018 have seen all that planning play out as web pages have been updated, application processes have meshed, degree programs have been adjusted and emails have been switched—thousands of changes big and small with much more to come. I want to thank all of those students, faculty, staff, alumni and business and community members who worked diligently outside of their regular duties to create these foundational plans. In addition, the entire university community in Statesboro, Savannah and Hinesville contributed to this consolidation in numerous ways, and we are so grateful for the commitment and the hard work you all have given and will continue to provide. With 141 degree programs at the bachelor’s, master’s and Now a multi-campus university with the Statesboro Campus, doctoral levels, Georgia Southern now serves more than the Armstrong Campus in Savannah and the Liberty Campus in 27,000 students from all 50 states, Washington D.C., and Hinesville, the new Georgia Southern offers undergraduate and Puerto Rico as well as 102 nations. While the new Georgia graduate degrees through nine colleges: Southern draws the vast majority of its students from • the Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Computing, Georgia, it includes a growing proportion from coastal South Carolina and northern Florida making it a true regional leader • the College of Arts and Humanities, in education. • the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Georgia Southern University remains accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on • the College of Business, Colleges—the regional body for the accreditation of degree- • the College of Education, granting higher education institutions in the Southern states. the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies, The commission approved the consolidation prospectus in • early December 2017. The Board of Regents of the University • the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, System of Georgia then granted final approval for the creation • the College of Science and Mathematics, of the new Georgia Southern University in a December vote. • and the Waters College of Health Professions. GEORGIASOUTHERN.EDU/MAGAZINE 7 FEATURES ONE UNIVERSITY. THREE CAMPUSES. The campuses of Georgia Southern ARMSTRONG LIBERTY STATESBORO HTTPS://EARTH.APP.GOO.GL/C7ETB 8 GEORGIA SOUTHERN SPRING 2018 Statesboro Campus Georgia Southern’s oldest and largest campus spans 900 acres in Statesboro, and features both Georgia-style, red- brick buildings and state-of-the-art modern facilities amid beautiful oaks and pines. The campus is home to more than 20,000 students. Armstrong Campus in Savannah A 268-acre arboretum campus just minutes away from historic downtown Savannah and a short drive from the sunny beaches of Tybee Island houses more than 100 degree programs and some 6,000 students. Liberty Campus in Hinesville This modern, state- of-the-art facility in Hinesville is located just a stone’s throw from Fort Stewart, the largest U.S. Army installation east of the Mississippi River, and is equipped to serve local and military- affiliated students.