The College of Arts and Humanities at ����Vlog will host the next event in its “Moveable Feast” lecture series, featuring a discussion on an iconic American instrument. Matthew Hill, Ph.D., will present “Strum and Twang: The Improbable Yet Inevitable Rise of the Electric Guitar Since 1750” Oct. 21 at 6 p.m. at Plant Riverside District in Savannah.

“Many people think they know the history of the instrument, but they don’t,” said Hill. “There are lots of myths and legends that are just not true, but the real story is even weirder.”

Hill’s presentation will take attendees on a journey from bizarre instruments powered by static electricity that predate the Revolutionary War to the wild days of the rock ’n’ roll revolution. Participants will also experiencehear special instruments that Hill has built to replicate the strange sounds of the past and new ones he has created.

“These instruments have been evolving for centuries,” explained Hill. “The electric guitar is not just part of music, it’s part of popular culture. People constantly bring it with them into whatever the new modern era is. These days you can go online and learn so many ways to modify them and make something new.”

The Moveable Feast series is an immersive learning experience by bringing lectures into spaces relevant to their topics. Hill’s presentation will take place among the many guitars displayed as part of “That Great Gretsch Sound!” collection in the District Live lobby within Savannah’s Plant Riverside District. Hill is the curator of the collection that is maintained by the Georgia Southern Museum.

The event is free and open to the public. 

The Fred and Dinah Gretsch School of Music at ����Vlog will celebrate its fifth anniversary with two feature concert performances by student and faculty musicians.

The concerts will showcase two renowned campus musical groups – The Sound and The Symphonic Wind Ensemble. Both groups will perform Oct. 15 at the Performing Arts Center on the Statesboro Campus and Oct. 16 at the Fine Arts Auditorium on the Armstrong Campus in Savannah.

The Sound is an audition-only ensemble made up of student performers from the Armstrong Campus that focuses on modern performance techniques and musical styles from pop, rock, hip-hop and more. The group is directed by Benjamin Mathews, DMA, the Gretsch Distinguished Scholar of Guitar and Music Industry for the Fred and Dinah Gretsch School of Music. 

The Symphonic Wind Ensemble is the most select of the University’s concert bands, with a membership limited to 50 to 55 of the most accomplished woodwind, brass and percussion student performers on the Statesboro Campus. Members of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble perform repertoire of the highest caliber, representing all musical style periods from the Renaissance through the modern day, featuring works created by the finest composers for the historical and contemporary wind bands. The Ensemble is conducted by Darrell Brown, DMA, director of bands.

Jayson Brown, a junior music major and member of The Symphonic Wind Ensemble, is excited to be a part of the fifth anniversary celebration concerts. 

“I am most excited to be able to play in a different environment with musicians from the Armstrong Campus,” Brown said. “Educationally, I think it is beneficial to be exposed to various genres of music as well as many playing scenarios. I am also excited for the challenges and focus that will come with a shorter rehearsal cycle. The rehearsal process thus far has been incredible. There is so much great music-making going on in the rehearsal room. Dr. Brown is a great conductor, educator and mentor, and the way he meticulously dissects the music always results in beautiful music.”

In February 2021, Georgia Southern received a transformational gift from Fred and Dinah Gretsch. Their $3 million pledge, along with their personal Gretsch Collection of historic guitars, drums and archives, led to the creation of the Fred and Dinah Gretsch School of Music, named in their honor. 

“What began as a partnership rooted in a shared passion to, as Fred often says, ‘be musical,’ has grown into a legacy that continues to shape the future of the Fred and Dinah Gretsch School of Music,” said Georgia Southern President Kyle Marrero. “Fred and Dinah Gretsch believed in our students and in the promise of what we could build together. Five years later, that vision lives on in every note played, every new music educator entering our schools, and in the nationally celebrated reputation of our program.”

“​�ċThe Gretsch family is incredibly supportive of music education,” Mathews said. “Our partnership is generating unprecedented opportunities for music students. Thanks to these gifts and the Gretsch family’s continued involvement, we can provide modern music education at an incredibly high value for students, collaborate and network in innovative ways, and help students jump-start real-world music industry careers​�ċ.”

Along with the gift, the Gretsch family also donated a collection of instruments, which is included in “That Great Gretsch Sound!” museum, housed in the Plant Riverside District in Savannah. It showcases more than a century of iconic Gretsch instruments, from banjos and early drums to guitars played by legends like George Harrison and Malcolm Young. The Gretsch family also donated three major additions to the archives to the Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections, including Gretsch Company Records, Gretsch Audio-Visual Collection and Musical Industry Reference Collection. 

For the Gretsch family, it’s all about building a legacy that will stand the test of time.

“In the years ahead, we look forward to continuing to develop and mature the community music program here and being a beacon to the whole U.S. and worldwide as well,” said Fred Gretsch. “There are well known schools of music across the country. The one at ����Vlog, a hundred years from now, will absolutely be number one in the world.”

“We wanted a partner that we could work with to leave our legacy and Georgia Southern has been wonderful to work with,” said Dinah Gretsch. “We’ve built a lot of programs and continue to increase what we do today.”

The Fred and Dinah Gretsch School of Music creates an environment rich in musical diversity with endless opportunities. The School of Music offers a variety of ensembles ranging from bands, choirs and orchestras to commercial music, jazz, opera and chamber ensembles. 

“With their gift, the Gretsches enabled a historic Department of Music to look forward to a greater future, with the finest faculty, students and facilities,” Chair of the School of Music Terre Johnson, Ph.D., said. “As a result, in the last five years, the Gretsch School of Music has seen record growth on both the Statesboro and Armstrong campuses, as well as international recognition for its ensembles.”
Both concerts are free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Fred and Dinah Gretsch School of Music homepage.

A new symbol of Eagle spirit stands at the entrance of after ����Vlog unveiled “Freedom to Soar,” a life-size bronze statue honoring Freedom, the University’s beloved bald eagle mascot who passed away in March 2025. 

The sculpture has a wingspan of approximately eight feet and weighs 385 pounds. It sits atop a custom cast and polished concrete pedestal that weighs 6,000 pounds. The inspiration for the final look is one that Eagles football fans will find familiar.

“The plinth is designed to reflect Freedom flying over the stadium,” said Jason McCoy, studio technician in the Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art. “It has the terracing of the seating inside the stadium, and Freedom is flying at an angle and soaring down to the field. So, it’s designed to mirror the stadium and Freedom’s Flight over the stadium.”

For more than two decades, Freedom was more than a symbol on game days. He embodied strength, pride and the True Blue spirit of Eagle Nation. His story inspired thousands of alumni, students, faculty, staff and fans, and his presence at community and University events uplifted generations of Eagles. As an ambassador for Georgia Southern, wildlife and as a symbol of our nation, Freedom inspired thousands annually at , the in Savannah, , community events and other appearances across the State of Georgia and the .

“There’s this continuation of Freedom’s legacy that is connected and ingrained into the Georgia Southern community,” said Jeff Garland, associate dean of faculty affairs and research. “That’s the legacy of this sculpture. It’s a great way to show that legacy and show we will have him forever.”

Restoration and preparation of the statue began in April 2025, and were carried out by an eclectic team from all corners of the Georgia Southern community. Students, faculty and staff from the BFSDoArt, Master of Fine Arts student Tanner Maxey, Associate Professor Matt Mogle, in addition to Garland and McCoy, contributed work to the monument. Steve Hein, executive director of the Center for Wildlife Education, served as consultant throughout the project. Additionally, Georgia Southern’s Division of Facilities Planning, Design and Construction, led by Project Manager Sandi Wilkinson, was supported by Dabbs Williams General Contractors to help with the landscaping and installation process.

Designers wanted even the smallest details included in the piece, all the way down to counting the number of feathers along the edges of the wings.

“You want all parties involved to agree on what’s happening so that everybody’s happy with the final outcome,” said McCoy. “It takes a lot of people to get stuff like this done. It’s a memorial piece for the University mascot, so it’s going to mean a lot to a lot of people.”

The statue stands alongside the Erk Russell statue in the plaza at , which will unite two enduring symbols of Eagles football.

Friday’s ceremony featured the unveiling of the statue, as well as speeches and stories from those who worked closely with Freedom and the Wildlife Center. Speakers included Hein, Garland, ����Vlog President Kyle Marrero, Alumnus David Ball, Hein’s longtime mentor Steve Layman, Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives Jon Burns, Georgia State Senator Billy Hickman and Athletics Director Chris Davis.

“Freedom wasn’t just a mascot,” said Marrero. “He was a symbol of strength, of unity and of that True Blue pride that defines Georgia Southern. In true Eagle fashion, he grew into something bigger than anyone expected. As we unveiled this new statue in Freedom’s honor, we celebrated not only his life but the tradition and spirit he leaves with us.”

The , ����Vlog’s premier choral ensemble, continues to reach new heights in international competitions. The group took third place in the in the Netherlands, which was held from May 29 through June 1. The prestigious festival featured 10 choirs from eight countries, including the U.S., Sweden, Slovenia and other European countries. 

“I could not be prouder of these students,” said Shannon Jeffreys, D.M.A., director of Choral Activities at Georgia Southern. “They sang with such passion, musical precision and sincerity. Every note came from the heart. On that stage, they weren’t just performing music; they were telling stories, sharing their souls and lifting up the very best of what choral music can be.”

Jeffreys said each student brought something unique and beautiful to the experience, but two students made special additions by having their own songs featured in their performances. Ryan Fruchtl and James Rowell are both in their third year with the group. Motivated by Jeffreys to write their own works, the students’ European debuts are the results of years’ worth of effort.

“We had been talking in her office one day about writing something,” Rowell said. “We were brainstorming what could be used during the competition, and we settled on something that could be sung in a cathedral. I showed her a piece, and she said, ‘Let’s go with it!’”

Rowell’s song, “Somnambulism,” which means “sleepwalking,” served as the prelude to their other competition pieces. And as fate would have it, it would eventually be sung in a cathedral while on the tour.

Fruchtl’s piece, “My Faith Still Holds,” features two male solo parts, but neither of them are performed by Fruchtl himself. As Jeffreys auditioned students, everyone had an opportunity to try out for the roles. 

“I’m really good friends with the soloists,” said Fruchtl. “If I’m being honest, I really had Paul and Bret, who ultimately performed the piece, in mind for the solos when I wrote it. They’re just incredible.”

Chorale, made up of 35 students, has been performing in competitive and noncompetitive venues for the past week throughout the Netherlands and Belgium. Between performances, the students have explored local historic and cultural locations across Amsterdam and other areas.

“Opportunities like this one—where students engage at the highest level on an international stage—are transformative,” said Jeffreys. “They grow as artists, as musicians and as people. It builds confidence, deepens their understanding of other cultures and shows them just how powerful music can be in connecting people across the world. I have so much love and admiration for each of them. What they achieved together is something they’ll carry for a lifetime—and so will I.”

The trip was supported and sponsored by the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost and College of Arts and Humanities Office of the Dean.

In 2022, in Berlin, Germany. Their global success also earned the singers national recognition as named a in 2024.

Elise Aleman, a ����Vlog Master of Fine Arts (MFA) graduate, spent much of her adult life in South Florida working as a graphic artist. She moved to Savannah, Georgia, in 2017 to pursue a new calling in painting. After receiving a bachelor’s degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design, Aleman decided she wasn’t done yet.

Aleman dreamed of becoming an art teacher, and she wanted to have a graduate degree to boost her applications. While looking for a master’s program, she was recruited by a friend to look at Georgia Southern. Shortly thereafter, she became a member of Eagle Nation.

As she developed her portfolio in the graduate program, she found herself going to a familiar source.

In the 1960s, there was a wave of immigration from Cuba into the U.S. This pattern of immigration was called the “Freedom Flights.”

When she was just seven years old, Aleman and most of her family were on one of those planes in July of 1967. 

The Communist regime believed all who left the island were deserting their nation, and they took many of the families’ belongings in retaliation. 

“When people would get on the flights, the military was at the airport,” she said. “They would go through all your bags, they take anything  that either they wanted to keep for themselves or just to be spiteful. A lot of the time, they would take photographs and just throw them out.”

To avoid losing their family pictures, Aleman’s mother left their photos with relatives in Cuba.

After landing in the U.S., they settled in a small community in New Jersey where they learned a new language and way of life.

Over time, deliveries began arriving in their new home in the Garden State. They held the family photos they had left behind, sent by relatives who had been protecting them.

“I use the photographs from Cuba that were sent to us when we came in,” she said. “There’s a series in my scope that I did that is about those photographs and immigrating here. I wanted to make people see them and really connect with it in their own way.”

Those paintings were featured in a recent art exhibition, “Theopoetics Prothesis,” on the University’s Armstrong Campus in Savannah, which explored the intersections of her faith, exile and transformation through two parallel yet interwoven bodies of work. One aspect reflected on her family’s immigration from Cuba, and considered how cultural displacement shapes identity, memory and faith. The other engaged directly with biblical themes, using scripture as a foundation for conceptual exploration.

“My goal was to make both scripture and personal history compelling and relevant,” she said. “The Bible is more than just a religious text—it’s a multidimensional tapestry of history, poetry, prophecy and metaphor. Likewise, the story of exile and displacement is not just my own but a universal narrative of survival, adaptation and faith. I wanted viewers to engage with these layered meanings, finding connections between the sacred, the personal and the collective.”

As Aleman prepares to graduate this week, she’s reflecting on the journey her family took to make it possible. She’s also grateful to the Georgia Southern community for welcoming her, despite the age gap between her and other MFA students.

“Those students, especially in the grad program, they just embrace you,” she said. “I never felt like an outsider. ‘Oh, there’s the old lady,’ you know? We have a very tight group in the fine arts program.”

“I am never going to Georgia Southern,” graduating senior Whitley Gatch recalls saying as a high school student. 

Before the coronavirus pandemic set Gatch on a track to earning her undergraduate degrees in history and at ����Vlog, her mind was firmly set on attending any other school. She’d spent enough time on campus already, she insisted, drawing on memories from her childhood when she toddled around the office of her mom, Delena Gatch, Ph.D., an associate professor and the associate vice president of institutional effectiveness and accreditation. But when the crowded hallways of Gatch’s high school raised the risk of bringing infection home to her aging grandparents and an immunocompromised family member, she knew she needed to reconsider the university she’d once ruled out.

This led Gatch to consider dual enrollment at Georgia Southern, where she could get a head start on college credits while fulfilling remaining requirements for her high school diploma without sacrificing the safety of her family. At Georgia Southern, Gatch was relieved by the virtual and hybrid course model during the pandemic, which helped maintain social distancing without slowing down educational opportunities. Before committing, though, she sat down to have a talk with her mom.

“My mom and I agreed that if I was going to start dual enrollment, I should take a subject I enjoy,” she explained. “I found a course in anthropology that fulfilled a social science requirement for high school, and the rest is history – literally.”

History and anthropology have always interested Gatch. Her family often traveled with her mother when she attended conferences across the country, and they made a point of visiting historical battlefields. From their visits, Gatch became fascinated by the Civil War era, and has made the era her academic focus since graduating from high school and enrolling as a full-time college student.

“I absolutely ate my words,” she laughed, reflecting on her decision to stay at Georgia Southern. “I realized there’s no better place to be.”

The opportunity to center her studies on conflict archaeology sealed the deal for Gatch. Now, when she visits historical sites like , one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps in the Civil War, she has a trowel in hand to dig up bullets and other artifacts. With her findings, she can construct an archeological lens for understanding the social aspects of the time period and the implications of violence and warfare.

One of Gatch’s projects is currently on display in the Henderson Library on Georgia Southern’s Statesboro Campus. Having noticed the lack of representation for African American soldiers based in southeast Georgia, Gatch worked with Professor Brian K. Feltman, Ph.D., her classmates and staff in the Library’s Special Collections department to build “,” an exhibit that displays letters written by local soldiers along with military gear and books related to the time period. Among the artifacts are a gas mask and helmet that Gatch was entrusted to collect from the University of Georgia.

“It was so fun because you’ve got to think about applying the aspects that you learn in your history classes,” she said. “You can write a paper, you can read the books, you can learn it, but what are you going to do with it? Creating that exhibit meant a lot because it’s a hundred years later and those soldiers are finally getting the commemoration that was given to the white soldiers who died in the same war.”

Having grown up in Bulloch County, Gatch has worked on additional projects related to the area. This included , which experienced a major environmental crisis in 2011. Meanwhile, , examining the historical markers in Georgia’s Coastal Plain and low country that commemorate Sherman’s March to the Sea.

Other highlights of Gatch’s college experience include , receiving multiple academic scholarships through the Honors College, leading clubs on campus and studying abroad in Wexford, Ireland. After graduating and completing a summer internship at Ocmulgee National Park as an archaeological technician, she’ll attend Yale University, where she will earn her master’s in archeology. With her graduate degree, she hopes to build more exhibits like “More than a Name” and intends to become a professor so she can share her knowledge and enthusiasm with the next generation.

“One of the taglines I was always given in my classes was that, as archeologists and historians, we are supposed to give a voice to the voiceless,” she said. “People like you and me will die one day, and nobody will remember us, so it’s really what’s left of people, those artifacts, that tells you about them. I like helping curate that memory.”

Wednesday will begin a nearly thousand-year-old tradition. After the recent passing of Pope Francis, who served as pope for 12 years, the Catholic Church is looking for his successor. Soon, the doors to the Sistine Chapel will be locked, signifying the beginning of the papal conclave – the secretive balloting process where the College of Cardinals, who are among the highest-ranking members of the church, elect a new pope.

Kathleen Comerford, Ph.D., at ����Vlog, specializes in Catholic history in the 16th and 17th centuries. She is also an associate editor for the , which focuses on the work of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), a religious order within the Catholic Church. Pope Francis was the church’s first Jesuit pope.

With the global significance and rarity of the conclave, Comerford answered frequently asked questions about how the conclave works, how the conclave process has evolved over time, and what the passing of a pope means for the Catholic Church and the world. 

Question: What does the passing of a pope mean for the world?

Comerford: Multiple things! First of all, there are 1.4 billion Catholics in the world scattered in many different countries. The pope is a unifying figure for all of the Catholics. He represents something immediate in the sense that he’s the head of the church and is a recognizable figure.

The pope is also a monarch. I was just talking with my classes about this. He is the head of the government of the Vatican City State, which is the smallest independent state in the world. It has a very long history itself. Pretty much everybody who lives in Vatican City works for the Vatican. The pope is one of the few elected monarchs in history. He is responsible for financial and political decisions, and he has ambassadors around the world as a result of his role in global policy.

Question: How is a new pope selected?

Comerford: The College of Cardinals will meet for an election called a conclave, and they actually stay in a dormitory-like place in Vatican City for it. They are sequestered from the public, and they take some time to meet,  pray and vote. The cardinals aren’t supposed to be sitting around talking about who would be a really good pope, but we don’t know whether they do because they’re sequestered and nobody is supposed to talk about it.

They will likely take a vote on the first day, but that’s not required. Every subsequent day, they can take a maximum of four votes; two in the morning and two in the afternoon until a candidate gets a two-thirds majority.

Question: What does the voting look like?

Comerford: There are ballots, and the cardinals write their preferred candidate on the ballot, and then they put their vote in a chalice. To count the votes, there’s a group of three people who are in charge of counting and then announcing the results to the fellow cardinals. There are 252 cardinals, but only 135 of them are eligible to vote because anyone over the age of 80 is ineligible. 

The procedure where only cardinals can elect the pope dates from 1059. The secret ballot and the two-thirds majority requirement is from 1621. The sequestration for the process dates from 1271 because they argued about who the new pope would be for two years and nine months; a total of 33 months. And so, they decided that the only way to make sure that this didn’t happen again would be to create this scenario with the cardinals locked in a room with a key.

Question: When one of the candidates receives a two-thirds majority and becomes the next pope, how will it be announced?

Comerford: Well, this is kind of fun, because they have four votes every day until one of the candidates receives a two-thirds majority. After they take the votes, the papers used to vote are burned. How the news is shared to the crowds outside is based on the color of smoke. If the smoke is black, that means no one received the majority and there’s no new pope yet. If there’s white smoke, it means there’s a new pope.

This practice really only dates to the early 19th century. At first, it was just if there was smoke, there was no pope; if there was no smoke, then there was a pope. In 1914, they changed this aspect of the election so that black smoke means “no pope” and white smoke means “new pope.”

Question: It’s expected that the next pope will be one of the cardinals in the room when they vote, yes?

Comerford: Yes, but it doesn’t have to be. There have been a lot of popes, but in the last 200-300 years, there hasn’t been somebody who wasn’t in the conclave that was elected. Theoretically, they could nominate somebody who’s not a cardinal and the whole room could say, “yes, that’s the person we want as pope.” However, they don’t vote by acclamation anymore. They stopped doing that in the 19th century.

Question: Pope Francis appointed 108 of the cardinals, so that’s a total of 80% of those eligible to vote for the next pope. How likely is it that we see a pope similar to the late Francis, considering he provided the electorate for his successor?

Comerford: First of all, he deliberately went out and created cardinals in places where there had never been cardinals before. And he didn’t do that by saying, “I’m going to find somebody who’s like-minded to me.” He just said, “There are a lot of Catholics in Myanmar and they’ve never had a cardinal. So I’m going to make sure that there’s a cardinal now.” Most of these new cardinals are in places like Rwanda, Cape Verde, Tonga, Myanmar, Mongolia and so on. So these are non-European cardinals.

Now, less than 40% of the voting cardinals are European. So to speculate on how similar they are to Francis, you have to break down what Francis was. There has been his entire pontificate about how he’s the first American pope, but his parents were born in Italy. He didn’t grow up speaking Italian, but it was a dialect of Italian as well as Spanish, because he grew up in Argentina. He was the most European you can get and still be an American.

Another part of the question is, will the new pope be somebody who is of a similar mind to Francis in terms of his governance, which was very devolved. He introduced this idea of “synodality,” which is about fairly consistent communication with groups of people. Pope Francis was not particularly monarchical or hierarchical. 

There is also the aspect of his thinking that leans more to the left than the right on a number of social issues like immigration, women’s rights, the rights of minorities and immigration. He opened a lot of conversations, which the very right leaning portions of the church have been very uncomfortable with.

����Vlog Professor Matthew Hashiguchi has won a for his documentary, which focuses on rural health and the services provided by a single doctor in southwest Georgia. 

The Peabody Awards are prestigious accolades in storytelling across television, radio, streaming and other digital mediums. Categories for winning a Peabody include journalism, social video, interactive documentary, gaming and more. The nearly hour-long feature received the award in the Public Service category, which recognizes projects that address or respond to public health concerns, enhance public engagement or educate the public. 

For Hashiguchi, the award represents a personal and career accolade. 

“This award isn’t just a professional achievement, but also represents a moment in my life where I became a father,” said Hashiguchi. “I started filming right before my first daughter was born, and finished right after the second. While this award is an incredible acknowledgment of my work, it means even more to me as a priceless moment from their childhood.”

The documentary focuses on Karen Kinsell, M.D., the sole physician serving 3,000 citizens in Clay County, Georgia, near the Georgia-Alabama border. The film spotlights the plight of a community in need of medical assistance and the dedicated doctor fighting to keep her clinic’s doors open. Hashiguchi delves into Kinsell’s sacrifices for her clinic’s operations, revealing her commitment to her patients.

“Dr. Kinsell gets calls at home at all hours of the day and night,” Hashiguchi said. “She, at times, has had to pay the bills from her own bank account. But I’d say the biggest sacrifice is that she’s a doctor who does not have breaks.”

The final cut of “The Only Doctor” is a bit different from the angle Hashiguchi took when he began work on it several years ago. He initially started the project to better understand the risks associated with maternal health care and childbirth when he and his wife were expecting their first child. Through his work, he learned of a more complex issue of health care access in rural communities.

The documentary first premiered on the PBS program and is now available internationally on Al Jazeera’s documentary series

Hashigchi’s work earned him a 2019 Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund award and a 2021 American Stories Documentary Fund award from Points North Institute. The film’s world premiere took place at the 2023 Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto, Canada, and was awarded Best Documentary Feature at the 2024 South Georgia Film Festival, Best Feature at the 2023 Newburyport Documentary Film Festival and Award of Merit at the 2023 University Film and Video Association Conference.

His rise to media prominence wasn’t on his radar early in his academic career. He described himself as a “C student,” and still sees himself as that young boy struggling with math and science courses. With one of the nation’s highest media honors, he can show his students new paths to success as well as the skills it takes to win a Peabody.

“I want my students to know how I failed and know that I struggled,” he said. “I tell them that if they want to excel, they really have to put in hard work. That’s very much who I am now as I devote myself to these films.”

Third time’s the charm for one ����Vlog student, who recently earned national accolades in the world of theatrical performance. Over the weekend, Gabby Burton, a senior theatre major and Honors College student, won the Voice and Speech Trainers Association Excellence Award and a $500 scholarship at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Washington, D.C.

“I would have never imagined four years ago that I would be celebrated on a national level like that,” she said. “My hope now is that other students from my program feel like they are capable artists who should always believe in themselves and share what they have to say.”

Burton earned a trip to Washington, D.C., after winning the organization’s Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship, which provides recognition, honor and financial assistance to outstanding student performers wishing to pursue further education. The regional award not only made her a qualifier for the national competition, but also provided her with another $500 scholarship. She credits her Georgia Southern Theatre community and her stage partner, fellow theatre student Jordan Applin, for her success.

This is the third year Burton has been a contender for the Kennedy Center festival. Before leaving for the nation’s capital, Burton said she was excited about finally getting a chance to perform at the Kennedy Center. However, she knew there was more work to do.

As this is her final year, the Augusta, Georgia, native said it gave her more creative freedom to pursue pieces she was more attached to, and that may have given her the edge in her preparations.

“I knew it was the last time no matter what,” she said. “I felt more compelled to just do whatever pieces I wanted to because these pieces came from me and my own interests. I was able to tell stories that I actually care about to really one of the most engaging audiences you’ll ever find.”

The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival bestows two national prizes each year to support outstanding student performers wishing to pursue further education.

Burton, who graduates on May, will be pursuing a master’s degree next fall.

More than 70 students in ����Vlog’s College of Arts and Humanities (CAH) showcased their talents at the annual CURIO Symposium, a hybrid event featuring research presentations and fine arts performances.

Students weren’t only provided an opportunity to show off their skills and research, but also competed for cash prizes. Held on the Statesboro and Armstrong campuses, there was a potential to win $250 in 10 categories, totalling nearly to $2,500 in awards.

Among the winners was senior Whitley Gatch, a double major in anthropology and history, who won for her research on the ecological health of her own backyard.

Gatch grew up along the Ogeechee River, which experienced a major  environmental crisis in 2011 that led to a massive fish kill and changed how the community used the waterway.

“You couldn’t swim for a bit,” she recalled. “You still don’t really eat the fish out of the water. But before that, there are these oral interviews that talk about how people would drink the water from the river, how it was a clean stream, how it provided food sources and really cared for that population there.”

Increased industrialization of the area inspired her research about the long-term health of those natural landscapes.

Following graduation in May, Gatch will attend Yale University to pursue a masters in archeological studies with the intent to become a professor.

Other winners from this year’s CURIO were:

• Performing Arts/Original Creation: Eva Jones and Jacob Talevski
• Research & Analysis: Whitley Gatch, Jenna Glenn, Olivia Forrest and Bari Kponi and  
• Research-Based Creative Projects: Reagon Padget and Taylor Woodard
• Original Creations: Kelly Bauer and James Rowell
• Research Poster: Christian Cotten-Dixon and Aaron Murphy

Eileen Ponich didn’t win a cash prize, but was excited to showcase her music at the symposium. Ponich, a lifelong music lover especially fond of the tunes of her youth from the 1960s, found CURIO the perfect place to showcase her passions.

“I’d really like to keep these songs alive for future generations,” Ponich said. “There are so many underrated and undervalued female singers of the 20th century. I want people of the younger generation to know about and appreciate them.”

After a career in information technology, she and her husband retired in Savannah to be near the ocean. It didn’t take long for Ponich to realize she wasn’t ready to slow down just yet. She was inspired to follow her passion for music to create a deeper connection to the music she loves. Ponich took private singing lessons in the past, but she felt there was a gap in her education that could be filled with an understanding of music theory.

She decided to give it the old college try again. After earning a bachelor’s degree in business from a small Massachusetts college a few decades ago, she returned to the classroom on the Armstrong Campus in Savannah for a diploma of passion. Ponich will graduate with a degree in music with a music industry concentration in May.

For all of the participating students, CURIO provided them with an opportunity to improve their public speaking skills, promote their undergraduate studies and connect with colleagues and other industry professionals.

“CURIO provides the opportunity to present and defend research and creative presentations, performances and exhibits to peers and faculty,” said David Owen, dean for the College of Arts and Humanities. “Preparing a presentation for this public setting and then explaining and defending one’s research deepens critical thinking skills, draws on inspired creativity and polishes communication skills. All of this prepares our students to succeed in whatever future career path they find themselves on.”

CURIO, an annual symposium held by CAH since 2008, is a hub for undergraduate students to apply their knowledge, develop new skills and contribute to their academic community through research and creative activities.  It is an annual symposium held by the College of Arts and Humanities, and has been held each spring since 2008.