Georgia Southern’s ongoing commitment to military and military-connected students is recognized once again – this time by . The University’s success is reflected in its top 10% ranking in the comprehensive annual ranking of schools for military service members and veterans. 

“To be included in the list is an incredible achievement for Georgia Southern,” said President Kyle Marrero. “It is a testament to the supportive campus and academic environment we have created for military-affiliated students to meet their unique needs. With the availability of courses on post at Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield’s Education Center, we are able to provide even more access to graduate degree programs and certificates that will help these students unlock their full potential.”

Veterans, service members and military-connected students make up nearly 14% of the University’s student population.

The recent Military Times ranking showcases how all three of the University’s campuses and online learning center cater to the military community and have become the leading choices for veterans, service members and military-connected community members seeking a postsecondary education. It reaffirms the University being named a school for six years in a row and a Gold School for 2023-2024 by Viqtory Media, publisher of G.I. Jobs, STEM Jobs and Military Spouse magazine.

Building on this track record and in an effort to make higher education more accessible to military-connected students and service members, Georgia Southern now offers graduate courses on-base in partnership with Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield. The courses, designed explicitly to meet the unique needs of soldiers, veterans, their families and civilians, can be completed toward the following degree programs and certificates: Master of Science in information technology; Master of Arts in professional communication and leadership; Master of Health Administration; graduate certificate in cybercrime; and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree, tailored to fit the specific needs of our military community.

“Our Military-to-Business MBA program recognizes the tremendous value that soldiers bring to the table,” said Lowell Mooney, Ph.D., professor of accounting and director of graduate studies in the University’s Parker College of Business. “We are honored to create an MBA curriculum specifically for soldiers. Their exceptional leadership and team-building skills, combined with their strong values – integrity, discipline and resilience – form a powerful toolkit.”

University staff are also available at the base education centers to help with the admissions process, joint service transcript review and education for academic credit.

Georgia Southern is part of a network of institutions that allows transferability of credits for military students, provides in-state tuition for members of the military and their families, and offers college credit for prior education, military training and experience. The University has a strong and proud history of supporting veterans, current-serving military personnel and their families, and has accumulated many awards for its dedication to the military community. Information and resources are available on the .

For more information on Georgia Southern’s on-post presence, visit .

����Vlog has been awarded a $1.6 million grant to help provide childcare subsidies for eligible student-parents over the next four years through the Child Care Access Means Parents In School (CCAMPIS) program. 

Written on behalf of the Office of Inclusive Excellence by Corine Ackerson-Jones, director of TRIO Student Support Services (SSS) on the Armstrong Campus in Savannah, the CCAMPIS grant will serve no less than 30 student-parents per year on the Armstrong Campus and the Liberty Campus in Hinesville by providing a maximum amount of $150 per week for childcare services to be paid directly to the childcare provider.

The grant, a first of its kind at Georgia Southern, is fully funded by the Department of Education and will work with centers licensed and accredited through the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning. To apply for CCAMPIS assistance student-parents must be eligible.

“According to recent data, the annual price of childcare can exceed the annual cost of in-state tuition at a public four-year university,” said Ackerson-Jones. “Without financial assistance, it is next to impossible for economically challenged student-parents to attend school and pay for quality, affordable childcare.” 

Amanda Brandmire, a student-parent studying natural resource and wildlife conservation on the Armstrong Campus, said balancing her role as a parent and a student can be challenging emotionally and financially, especially when it comes to childcare. 

“There have been several times where my husband and I had to get very creative with our funds to make it because of our childcare costs,” she said. “My husband and I may skip meals or go a week at a time without food because childcare is a necessity for us to work and go to school. In addition, I have to give up study time or time with my kids to go pickup a shift delivering for DoorDash just to get by. Right now we don’t have an income and we are a week behind on childcare expenses, but thankfully our daycare is working with us.” 

A subsidy for childcare would change the trajectory of Brandmire’s education. 

“For me this would be an amazing opportunity,” Brandmire said. “I am so close to finishing my undergraduate degree and plan on applying to grad school in March. Being a first-generation college student, my education is extremely important and this would help me make graduation a reality.”  

Brandmire feels this resource would appeal greatly to other student-parents in the greater Savannah area. 

“This is also a huge selling point for potential students and moms like me who want something better but can’t get over the childcare hurdle,” Brandmire said. “I appreciate Georgia Southern for taking the time to reach out and serve their non-traditional students.”

Ackerson-Jones has worked on the Armstrong Campus for 17 years and assists low-income, first-generation students, and students with disabilities through the TRIO SSS program which is also funded 100% by the Department of Education. Through her role, she saw a need for student-parents like Brandmire and sought ways to make a difference in their educational journeys. 

“It has been evidenced in the data that the four-year graduation rate for Armstrong and Liberty campus PELL recipients falls below that of non-PELL recipients,” Ackerson-Jones said. “It has been my experience that a great number of these students are not graduating sooner due to financial hardship. They must work more hours, so oftentimes they cannot maintain a full course load. Taking less classes prolongs graduation. It was my goal to find some financial relief for these students because the threat of unaffordable childcare was a threat to them remaining in school.

“There has never been a child care facility on either of these campuses nor has there been any access to financial support for student-parents to help pay for child care,” she continued. “The time seemed right to try to rectify this.” 

The objective of the program is that student-parents will persist from one academic year to the beginning of the next, or that they will earn a bachelor’s degree from Georgia Southern, Ackerson-Jones added. 

“I am excited about the addition of the CCAMPIS grant to the array of programs that serve underrepresented students, this one serving Pell-eligible students who are also parents, which complements our work in the Inclusive Excellence cluster,” said Dominique A. Quarles, Ph.D., associate vice president for Inclusive Excellence and chief diversity officer at Georgia Southern. 

“Mrs. Jones went beyond what’s required of her to respond to a need she saw on campus, which resulted in securing $1.6 million in grant funds to serve students in a way that will have a real and immediate impact on their ability to enroll and complete their degree at Georgia Southern.” 

The grant will be disbursed at $401,128.00 a year for four years for a total of $1,604,512.

More information on student eligibility and the application process will be available soon. To learn more, contact the Office of Inclusive Excellence by emailing oie@georgiasouthern.edu. 

����Vlog’s Center for Public Health Practice and Research at the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health (JPHCOPH) received a $4 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to provide targeted technical assistance to rural hospitals nationwide. The funding will support the team’s implementation of the Targeted Technical Assistance for Rural Hospitals Program over a five-year period (2023-2028).

“Many rural hospitals are struggling financially across the U.S.,” said JPHCOPH Dean Stuart Tedders, Ph.D. “Long-term, the primary program goal of this grant is to ensure that all rural hospitals are financially viable and positioned to serve their communities with the essential health care services that we all need and expect. A viable health care system is essential for assuring that all communities and their residents thrive. I am very proud of the Center for Public Health Practice and Research at the JPHCOPH and the commitment they have made to improving the quality of life of rural and underserved populations across the country.”

Bettye Apenteng, Ph.D., and Charles Owens, both professors of health policy and management, serve as the co-principal investigators for the grant.

“We are proud to be selected to work cooperatively with rural hospitals across the U.S. to strengthen their viability so they can continue to provide essential health care locally so the residents, the local hospital and the community may thrive,” said Owens.

As part of this cooperative agreement, the team will work in partnership with HRSA and rural health stakeholders to provide in-depth and tailored technical assistance to rural hospitals at risk of financial distress nationwide. Technical assistance delivered as part of this program will help rural hospital communities implement a prioritized strategy for maintaining essential services locally through capacity building in evidence-based decision-making, operational and financial improvement, strategic management, community partnership, project implementation and evaluation.

“We are excited to extend the work we have done in Georgia with rural hospitals, for close to a decade, to the rest of the nation,” said Apenteng. “We look forward to building strong collaborative relationships with rural hospital communities nationwide.”

The grant activities will be executed by a multidisciplinary team that includes additional JPHCOPH faculty Angie Peden; Andrew Hansen, DrPH; Linda Kimsey, Ph.D.; William Mase, DrPH; Tilicia Mayo-Gamble, Ph.D., and Samuel Opoku, Ph.D.; and Parker College of Business’ Kwabena Boakye, Ph.D.; and the College of Arts and Humanities’ Jason Murdock.

Georgia Southern has received the 2023 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education. The annual HEED Award is a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion. Georgia Southern joins other universities in Georgia that have received the HEED award, including the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia State, and Emory University.

Locally, Dominique A. Quarles, Ph.D., Georgia Southern’s associate vice president for Inclusive Excellence and chief diversity officer completed a progress report for the University’s Inclusive Excellence Action Plan, in anticipation of developing a new plan in 2024 that aligns with the extension of our institutional strategic plan through 2026.

“We are excited about the progress we have achieved thus far,” Quarles said. “Our efforts over the last few years will provide an excellent foundation for the next iteration of the University’s Inclusive Excellence Action plan. We are better equipped today to make targeted investments that broaden the impact of our efforts to the entire University community and fulfill the inclusive excellence goals outlined in pillar three of our institutional strategic plan.”

In addition to the HEED award, Quarles noted other institutional recognitions that highlight how Georgia Southern creates a welcoming environment including its repeated designation as a military-friendly university, and as a First-Gen Forward institution from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA). This designation acknowledges the University’s commitment to supporting first-generation college students, who often face unique challenges in navigating the higher education landscape.

“Together we are creating a vibrant, welcoming environment for all our students, faculty, and staff,” said Georgia Southern President Kyle Marrero. “The work to date has helped define and further align our next steps with the fundamental principles of academic freedom, freedom of expression, and inclusive excellence.”

View Georgia Southern’s Inclusive Excellence Plan Progress Report in the MyGeorgiaSouthern portal under the “Performance Excellence” tile.

Benjamin Roberts, a ����Vlog senior with a double major in theater and computer science, was named the second place Young Actor at the 2023 Black Theatre Network (BTN) Conference held this summer in St. Louis, Missouri.

Roberts was one of five young Black actors from across the country selected to attend the conference. Students had to submit auditions that included monologues, both comedic and dramatic, written by Black playwrights. Finalists were invited to workshops to hone their monologues and then resubmit. 

While at the conference, Roberts attended performances, workshops and meetings, and attended a session with a Tony-winning producer Rashad Chambers. 

There, Roberts gained industry knowledge on what agents are looking for in an actor, how to build relationships with an agent, how to find the right agent for you, things to avoid when searching for an agent and information on what it takes to be a producer.

“We were able to network with many professional Black actors, directors, playwrights, producers and agents,” said Roberts. “This year BTN was able to partner with Walt Disney which also gave us a meeting with them to give us insight on the auditioning processes at Disney, and allowed us to showcase our talent for their representatives. One of the judges from the competition was a casting director for Disney.”

Roberts and the other finalists also watched a one-man show,“Fly.” The production highlights the social justice, spiritual and political challenges of being Black and conscious in America.

“It was an amazing production which motivated us for the competition that followed the next day,” Roberts noted.

The conference also allowed the students to find acting opportunities post-graduation. 

“The greatest thing about my experience with BTN was how they treated us, and the lengths they went to help showcase young and upcoming Black talent,” said Roberts. “They allowed us to be heard and be unapologetically Black. It was a space by us and for us, while providing great resources and opportunities to help us on our journey.”

The BTN is composed of artists, educators, scholars, students and theater-lovers who are dedicated to the exploration and preservation of the theatrical visions of the African Diaspora. For 35 years, the BTN has collected, processed and distributed information that supports the professional and personal development of its membership. For more information, visit .

Georgia Southern awarded nearly $20,000 in scholarships to military spouses pursuing college degrees for the fall 2023 semester. This furthers the University’s commitment to and indicates a remarkable step forward with the scholarship program for military spouses. The scholarships are supported by the .

This initiative not only recognizes the sacrifices and challenges that military families face but also empowers them to pursue higher education and achieve their academic and professional goals.

Amanda Bradley, a Texas native, began her studies in psychology and earned her bachelor’s from Georgia Southern. Now, her path to being a has taken her study of behavior analysis, a passion she discovered after the University established a master’s program in the field.

Her husband is stationed in Columbus, Georgia, as an active duty member of the military. With the two living on different sides of the state, Bradley said this scholarship not only helps with her academic life but also her home life.

“This one is taking a mental load off and a financial burden off,” she said. “We have two living situations now, I commute here on a daily basis. That stipend, in addition to covering my tuition, is going to be extremely helpful in getting me to and from school and helping me succeed in that program.”

Beverly Husted, hailing from Michigan, also found a lifeline in the scholarship program. A dedicated student pursuing environmental biology, she was drawn to the University’s sustainability program. 

Husted, who was previously pursuing an online education that incurred high costs, emphasized the importance of financial support, particularly for military families living on a strict budget. She found solace in the University’s commitment to offering in-state tuition rates, making her education more accessible.

As a military spouse, Husted knows the significance of family support. Her husband’s military discipline and commitment to their family played a crucial role in her educational journey.

“I think it’s the support from each other as a military family,” she said. “I wouldn’t be able to do it without my husband, period.”

����Vlog has ranked in the top providers nationally for degrees conferred to diverse students among higher education institutions.

For several years, Diverse Issues In Higher Education has produced the Top 100 Degree Producers rankings of the institutions that confer the most degrees to diverse students. The data was reported at the end of 2022 for the previous year of 2020-2021.

Georgia Southern ranked highly in the following categories:

• #2 for international (temporary resident) students receiving doctoral degrees in public health
• #3 for African American and total minority students receiving doctoral degrees in public health
• #5 for African American students receiving bachelor’s degrees in the physical sciences
• #6 for African American students receiving bachelor’s degrees in communications disorder sciences
• #6 for African American students receiving bachelor’s degrees in parks and recreation

“We are proud to be ranked in the top 20 in a variety of disciplines and categories,” said Dominique A. Quarles, Ph.D., associate vice president for inclusive excellence and chief diversity officer. Along with our designations as a First-gen Forward Institution and Military Friendly School, this highlights the University’s success in providing education to students in our diverse state and region, and it reaffirms the importance of inclusion as a value at Georgia Southern.”

The number of combined bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees awarded increased by over 55,000 degrees from 2019-2021 to 2021-2022 for diverse students nationwide. 

Underrepresented students of color received 35% of the combined degrees. The data comes from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data system survey known as IPEDS, collected by the U.S. Department of Education.

Georgia Southern detailed diversity rankings:

Rank	Category	Degree Level	Discipline
#2	Temporary Resident	Doctorate	Public Health
#3	African American	Doctorate	Public Health
#3	Total Minority	Doctorate	Public Health
#5	African American	Bachelor’s	Physical Sciences
#6	African American	Bachelor’s	Communication Disorders Sciences
#6	African American	Bachelor’s	Parks, Recreation, Leisure
#8	African American	Bachelor’s	Engineering
#9	African American	Bachelor’s	Marketing
#10	African American	Bachelor’s	Rehabilitation and Therapeutic Sciences
#13	African American	Bachelor’s	Finance
#13	African American	Master’s	Parks, Recreation, Leisure
#14	African American	Bachelor’s	Family And Consumer Sciences
#14	Two or More Races	Bachelor’s	Communication Disorders
#15	African American	Bachelor’s	Education
#19	African American	Bachelor’s	All Disciplines Combined

For more details, visit the