DEAN’S WELCOME
DR. ERIC TENBUS, DEAN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
While students were working or gallivanting their summers away, the dean’s office remained busy with enrollment related activities, especially hiring faculty. For the second year in a row, Georgia College welcomed around 1,800 first-year students, an excellent marker of success in today’s difficult enrollment environment.
As fewer students matriculate to college in the coming years, colleges and universities will face increasing challenges in filling seats and collecting tuition.
We are very lucky to have a fantastic team here at Georgia College working tirelessly to combat this issue. Our dedicated faculty and enrollment personnel labor to ensure no seats remain empty. Director of the Science Education Center Dr. Catrena Lisse brings in motivated high school students to the Young Scientists Academy every summer.
This year, we also hosted college students from around the world in the Summer Science Program, led by Dr. Donovan Domingue, professor of physics. And one of our star attractions for elementary-to-high school students, as well as visitors from around the region, is the William P. Wall Museum of Natural History, located on the first floor of Herty Hall.
Administered by the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, the Wall Museum opened in 2004 and is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. In this newsletter, you can learn more about the history and
operation of this natural history marvel, currently managed by museum coordinator Dr. Bruce Snyder, associate professor of biology. Please enjoy this micro-focus on the hard sciences.
Elsewhere in this issue you will find a piece on someone many of you may have had an opportunity to learn history from at Georgia College—Dr. Craig S. Pascoe—who recently retired after over 20 years teaching students about southern U.S. history, including the history of southern food and, specifically, BBQ. You can also read about the wonderful philanthropy of Dr. Maidana Nunn, who has steadfastly supported Georgia College and the Department of Music for many years. She regularly attends Music and Theatre events on campus, so be sure to say hello when you see her.
Now, after discussions with my family, and after nearly seven years of serving as dean through the trials and tribulations of COVID-19, I have decided to return to that place that means so much to me: the college classroom.
As such, I have made the decision to step down as dean at the end of this year. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time leading this amazing college and it has been a true pleasure to work alongside such talented people. It is now time to pass along the baton to someone else. I’ll be in Beeson Hall, so please stop by to say hello!
FROM
THE EDITORS
A beloved community resource, the William P. Wall Museum of Natural History celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The museum is a beautiful look into the paleontological history of Georgia, and boasts a collection of over 45,000 fossils and artifacts—many collected by Georgia College students.
A&S is proud to use this issue of our magazine to highlight the museum’s educational contribution to Middle Georgia and thank the dedicated staff who make the museum possible. Our special thanks to Dr. Ashley Quinn, who has loved the museum since its inception.
This issue is one of passion. It showcases the very best of who we are in A&S, and reminds us of everything that we have to be proud of. So many people come together to give our students the best public liberal arts education they can get: our devoted faculty, staff, students and the generous hearts of others.
Thank you for reading this fall’s issue of the A&S Newsletter, and we hope you enjoy all we have in store.
4 | A&S SUCCESS
⊲ Summer science immerses high schoolers in space
⊲ Controlled burns for healthy forests
⊲ Axel Hawkins named GCSU's second-straight Truman scholar
⊲ GCSU's herbarium fills the gap for Middle Georgia
⊲ Rising sophomore making films in Italy
⊲ Bruce Gentry reflects on decades studying Flannery
⊲ Internship to geothermal wonderland
⊲ Student's winning logo design used by North Georgia business
⊲ GCSU's ISC renamed to honor beloved biology professor
12 | HIGHLIGHTS
⊲ GCSU students study coral reefs abroad in Okinawa, Japan
⊲ Stay humble, do good work
⊲ Southern history by BBQ 16 | COVER STORY
⊲ Fossils, Fieldwork and Fascination
20 | ALUMNI ACCOLADES
⊲ Bobcats unite to achieve success in the workplace
⊲ Recent alumna finds niche helping other through the justice system
23 | DONOR APPRECIATION
⊲ Honoring Colonel Maidana Nunn, DNSc
ACCESS THE FULL NARRATIVE
All shortened stories featured can be read in full on Front Page.
ARTS & SCIENCES SPRING 2025 NEWSLETTER
DR. ERIC TENBUS
EDITORS
DR. WINSTON TRIPP KRISTEN SIMPSON
A&S SUCCESS
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY, PHYSICS, AND ASTRONOMY
SUMMER SCIENCE IMMERSES HIGH SCHOOLERS IN SPACE
This program comes with complicated formulas filled with symbols, letters, numbers and shapes. It requires knowledge of Newton’s laws, Maxwell’s equations and Einstein’s relativity.
To 36 high school students who participated in Georgia College’s inaugural astrophysics summer
program with SSP International—it’s pure celestial heaven.
Georgia College is one of three new schools in partnership with SSP, which has provided stimulating and extensive science research opportunities for motivated high school students since 1959. Currently, there are 12 Summer Science Programs at eight U.S. universities focusing on astrophysics, biochemistry, genomic or synthetic chemistry.
“When you see a bunch of 16- to 18-year olds working on Lagrangian Mechanics on a Friday night, it truly makes me hopeful about the future,” said Dr. Hasitha Mahabaduge, associate professor of physics.
without controlled fire, it’s all going to literally go up in smoke.
— DR. BRUCE SNYDER
DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CONTROLLED BURNS FOR HEALTHY FORESTS
According to USA Today, fires were burning in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico this summer. Before summer began—almost 90,000 acres of Californian grassland burned—15 times more than a year ago.
Fortunately, no wildfires are currently burning in Georgia.
Students who took Dr. Bruce Snyder’s fire-ecology class last semester know why.
The bi-yearly, upper-level biology and environmental science course teaches the importance of purposeful planning; prescribed fires prevent unnecessary destruction.
Students took notes, sketched evidence of overgrowth and measured impact on wildlife. They noted weather, considered the role of wind and predicted how fire would move through the area.
“That really gives you a leg up—not only to get the coursework, but to get actual field experience to further your career,” said recent biology graduate Amber Stubbs. “That’s a big, big plus at Georgia College.”
Alumna Molly Hooks at a controlled burn with the U.S. Forest Service last spring.
AXEL HAWKINS NAMED GSCU’S SECOND-STRAIGHT TRUMAN SCHOLAR
Axel Hawkins, a history major from McDonough, Georgia, is Georgia College’s second Truman Scholar in as many years.
Established in 1975, the Truman Scholarship awards scholarships to exceptional college juniors who demonstrate outstanding leadership potential, a commitment to public service and academic excellence.
Hawkins’ receipt of the scholarship makes back-to-back winners and four Truman finalists in the last five years from Georgia College.
“We are thrilled that Axel has been named a Truman Scholar. She represents Georgia College & State University so well as a student leader and has already shown such commitment to public service. This will be a tremendous opportunity for her continuing journey on that path,” said GCSU President Cathy Cox.
In an herbarium, plants are documented with their location like books in a library. This resource allows researchers and enthusiasts to monitor the environment and see if the same plants remain or change over time.
GCSU’S HERBARIUM FILLS THE GAP FOR MIDDLE GEORGIA
The variety of plants surrounding Athens, Georgia, are well documented and cataloged. This isn’t the case for Baldwin County and Middle Georgia.
The herbarium at Georgia College is working to change that.
“The majority of our samples are from Georgia, and mostly Baldwin County,” said Dr. Gretchen Ionta, retired associate professor of environmental science and founder of Georgia College’s herbarium. “A student could go through here and write a publication with all the different county records.”
Almost all the specimens in the Georgia College herbarium were collected by students. They document plant location, create botanical labels, press specimens and
mount the specimens on acid-free paper for easy retrieval.
“You can see how beautiful their work is,” Ionta said. “They’re doing a great job— incredible.”
Dr. Gretchen Ionta
Environmental science senior Sydney Irons
KRISTEN SIMPSON, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
RISING SOPHOMORE MAKING FILMS IN ITALY
Mass communication major Avery Jones jumped hurdles and tons of paperwork to make her study abroad dreams come true.
She took a month-long trip to Florence, Italy, where she was immersed in learning filmmaking techniques and directing films with the New York Film Academy.
“I learned everything from shot sizes, screenwriting, setting up a camera, lighting a scene and everything in between,” Jones said. “I learned I’m pretty steady when it comes to camera work, and I can pick up on languages pretty fast.”
“I’m so incredibly grateful for this experience,” she added. “It’s one I’ll never forget.”
i’m so incredibly grateful for this experience.
— AVERY JONES
BRUCE GENTRY REFLECTS ON DECADES STUDYING FLANNERY
With dozens of academic publications to his credit on the subject of Flannery O’Connor, ’45, you would never know that Dr. Bruce Gentry had a negative reaction the first time he read the famous author’s work.
“I didn’t immediately fall in love with this author. But I couldn’t forget ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find,’” Gentry said.
Gentry’s colleagues at Georgia College say his importance to the university and O’Connor scholarship cannot be overstated.
“I think, in the future, my role in O’Connor studies is going to be to read manuscripts for other people, encourage them and continue to do my book club meetings…I think I did my bit and now we want to see the next generation take over and take charge with me, you know, cheering on the sidelines. Maybe correcting a comma here and there for them,” Gentry says, laughing.
O’CONNOR INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES
DEPARTMENT
OF BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
INTERNSHIP TO GEOTHERMAL WONDERLAND
John Hollis’ three-part internship was an adventure.
Think trekking past hot springs; vast fields of spikey purple flowers, forests of towering pines, barren ravines, rocky-cliff beaches and spectacular waterfalls. He even visited the volcanic eruption site that caused the town of Grindavík, Iceland to be evacuated in November 2023.
DEPARTMENT OF ART
STUDENT’S WINNING LOGO DESIGN USED
Hollis is a junior environmental science major from Flowery Branch, Georgia. He transferred to Georgia College & State University in 2022 because he heard about the university’s certificate program in sustainability and opportunities in recycling.
He interned with Global Treks & Adventures LLC based in Michigan, which offers travel expeditions to Iceland and Spain for environmental research and anthropology.
“While I was only in Iceland a week,” Hollis said, “I was on the trails pretty much the whole time, collecting information for my publication. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
BY NORTH GEORGIA BUSINESS
City officials in Hiawassee, Georgia, held a competition for graphic art students enrolled at any of Georgia’s public and private colleges and universities. By doing so, they lowered their own costs while giving students a real-world experience: an opportunity to design a logo used by an actual business.
Georgia College junior art major Maryellen Hagberg of Dalton, Georgia, won the grand prize of $1,000.
Her logo—a circular design with a yellow, lightbulb sun coming up over rolling green mountains—was chosen by the Paris Business Center in Hiawassee.
“This is the first logo I ever did. I’ve never actually had anything commercial reproduced. The fact that it’s going to be used by a real company—yeah, it’s pretty exciting,” Hagberg said.
GCSU’S ISC RENAMED TO HONOR BELOVED BIOLOGY PROFESSOR
The Integrated Science Complex at Georgia College is now the Dr. Kenneth S. Saladin Integrated Science Complex— named after the distinguished professor emeritus of biology for the lasting impact he has made on science and students.
Under a glorious, if windy, blue-sky day— about 150 people gathered to honor Saladin and witness the unveiling of the building’s new sign.
Saladin was an outstanding and dedicated educator at Georgia College. He began publishing a textbook in 1997 that’s now in its 10th edition and has become the single largest selling textbook in the history of McGraw-Hill Education. He generously contributed royalties earned from his publishing successes that benefit the university and students in numerous ways.
“An honor of such a magnitude gives me paradoxical feelings of pride and humility, and that’s a tricky emotional balancing act,” Saladin said. “This is the first time in 52 years that Georgia College has named a new building for someone—that was the Maxwell Student Union. This day is truly the capstone of my career.”
GCSU STUDENTS STUDY CORAL REEFS ABROAD IN Okinawa, Japan
Not threatened by a typhoon promising to skirt the country, Associate Professor of biology Dr. Kristine White led a team of students to study the coral reefs of Okinawa, Japan, this summer.
Amid the pristine, blue-green waters were fish and corals of many colors, all part of vibrant reefs full of life.
“I love the water, I love the ocean, and so being there was my favorite part,” said senior biology major Kali Holierhoek, who has a concentration in marine biology. “Swimming around and finding things like Nemo and Marlin in a little anemone—there’s nothing like it. The reefs there are so healthy, it’s cool to see.”
Students attended lectures by night, snorkeled by morning and explored the greater city of Okinawa in between.
Four teams of two students were assigned a type of organism—fish, algae, corals or echinoderms, like sea urchins—to identify and draw. Each morning, they put lecture into practice by snorkeling through Okinawa’s reef sites.
“The idea was to see new things each day to highlight that a coral reef isn’t just coral,” White said. “Learning the information, you can do, but to really remember it, I think you have to go do it.”
So, they did. Even recent Georgia College & State University graduate Angelina Cofrancesco, ’24, who walked in May before leaving for Japan. She studied biology at Georgia College with a pre-med focus and is now applying to medical schools.
“It never felt like work, because it was so enjoyable to be in the water. It was so warm, and we got to see so much,” Cofrancesco said. “I really love traveling to other countries, because it really shows you how we’re all caught up in one way of life. By going to Japan, it opened my point of view. You just need to know that there’s way more out there than just what you’re doing in that moment.”
KRISTEN SIMPSON, UNIVERSITY
I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO GO TO JAPAN, AND I DID IT. I DID IT BECAUSE PROGRAMS LIKE THIS ARE OFFERED AND FUNDING IS OFFERED. YOU JUST HAVE TO TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY AND DO IT BECAUSE, TRULY, IT WILL CHANGE YOU.
— HOLIERHOEK
STAY HUMBLE, DO GOOD WORK
COVERDELL SCHOLAR FOLLOWS HISTORY TOLD BY ART
When you’re not given the gift of majority voice, where do you turn to share your perspective? How do you record your history? When your history is destroyed, how can your story endure?
Dr. Autumn Cockrell-Abdullah would say “it’s in the art.”
She’s the Paul D. Coverdell Visiting Scholar this year, who’s helping students examine the intersection of conflict, international relations, human rights and Middle Eastern politics—all through the expression of art.
“The art remains a reflection of the people, and looking at the Middle East and Kurdistan through art is a perspective we don’t get to see here,” Cockrell-Abdullah said. “I think it’s a perspective that humanizes people, so now I’ve gotten into this place of advocating for the arts and artists.”
Living in Egypt by way of artistic industry, Autumn met her now husband—a “wonderful Kurdish man.” He introduced her to Kurdistan’s vibrant and dynamic art scene through his creative extended family. The rest is history.
Now, Cockrell-Abdullah researches Kurdish history and art alongside Kurdish activist-artists in Northern Iraq or Iraqi
Kurdistan. She writes about contemporary Kurdish art and its connection with conflict and politics. As a consequence of politics and society there, she is one of the first people to do so.
“This topic hasn’t really made it into academic literature outside of the region,” Cockrell-Abdullah said. “I had no idea when I started that it was an untapped field, or that it was so highly political. I just kept following the art.”
Cockrell-Abdullah is visiting from Agnes Scott College, where she is a visiting assistant professor of political science. She teaches Middle Eastern politics, human rights and international relations there.
This semester, she’ll be facilitating book talks and film screenings that provide a fresh lens on culture and society in the Middle East through a Kurdish perspective. CockrellAbdullah is also teaching Politics and Societies of the Middle East, a GC2Y course.
“If you read my work, my hope is that you’ve enjoyed the art and, through it, gotten to meet another human being trying to make their way in the world,” she said. “It’s time for us to create that sea change where human dignity is the thing we value, and we demonstrate that through foreign relations and foreign policy.”
SOUTHERN HISTORY OF
Hands-on learning has an expanded definition for Dr. Craig Pascoe, recently retired professor emeritus of history at Georgia College.
It might’ve meant a field trip, studying abroad in Italy or Greece, a class day spent in front of a stove or a lecture with flying produce.
Whichever he decided to deploy, Pascoe’s methods endeared hundreds of students to his philosophy of teaching over his 22-year career.
“I live by the attitude that I have to love what I’m teaching. I have to know what I’m teaching and that love and enthusiasm needs to come out in the classroom,” Pascoe said.
“I have to exude something that says, ‘This is really important to me, this is fun and something you can like too.’ That was the focus of how I taught at Georgia College.”
For Pascoe that means throwing potatoes and tomatoes to the class while discussing the Colombian Exchange or teaching the history of mac and cheese while students prepare it in a fully functional kitchen-classroom.
“It’s a great thrill to know someone has learned something, that has enjoyed learning something and that has changed their life in some way or
I REALLY FELT LIKE THAT WAS THE HIGH POINT IN MY STUDENTSCAREER-WATCHING LEARN SOME- THING THEY WOULDN'T IN A CLASSROOM.
manner,” he said. “I’m not asking them to become saints, but it’s great to see the transformation that some people had during those trips and in the classroom.”
The bridges he’s built between Southern history, cuisine and culture culminated in the Global Foodways Studies program at Georgia College, a certificate designed to immerse its students in food history and culture.
“What does barbeque mean?” Pascoe said. “If you look at it, it’s mundane. But if you ask who’s eating at the table, what they’re doing at the table, who’s serving it and who’s cooking it, you’re learning so much more about a culture—about a society.”
“You have to make it real, something that they can see and understand and learn from without them even knowing they’re learning something,” Pascoe said. “I really felt like that was the high point in my career—watching students learn something they wouldn’t in a classroom.”
Since retiring, Pascoe moved to Seneca, South Carolina, with his wife and lives on their horse farm.
“The history and geography department was an excellent place that really supported the faculty there, and I appreciate Dr. Aran Mackinnon’s effort in making the foodways certificate a success,” he said. “Thanks to the students I’ve had in the past that made it a joy to teach there. The department with Dr. Mackinnon was an excellent place to work, and I really appreciate the time I spent there.”
FOSSILS, FIELDWORK AND FASCINATION Two decades in the making
It’s been there 20 years—off the beaten path, away from the spotlight, in the basement of Herty Hall. It’s not celebrated or revered as much as it should be—except by those privileged to walk through its doors.
Yet, it’s one of Georgia College & State University’s biggest outreaches to the public.
The William P. Wall Museum of Natural History has given free tours to more than 96,000 visitors since opening in November of 2004. This includes more than 37,000 visits by public school children and nearly 26,600 by GCSU faculty and students.
More than 33,000 local and statewide residents also dropped by.
“That’s a lot of impact for such a small space,” said Ashley Quinn, collections manager of the museum. “We’ve come a long way— from a room with tables showing specimens to school children to something that’s permanent, impactful and tells an important, educational story.”
One of few paleontological exhibits in the state, the gallery is the only university museum of its kind in Middle Georgia. It also contains one of the largest assortments of fossils in the Southeast, covering the last 500 million years.
Between exhibits and storage areas—the university has a collection of more than 40,600 specimens. Unlike larger museums, which display mostly copies or replicas, up to 90% of Georgia College’s bones and fossils are real.
More than 160 Georgia College students have used museum collections for undergraduate and graduate research over the years. Some helped dig up specimens. Others studied new angles on fossils. About 200 students have published research papers.
“Our collection puts us on the map nationally and on the world stage,” Quinn said. “This huge collection is right here in Middle Georgia, kind of in the middle of nowhere in some people’s minds, but impressive to global researchers.”
Quinn got a recent phone call from scientists in India, who wanted to use pictures from the university’s collection of 36-millionyear-old sea snake fossils from the Eocene period. Marine fossils included whale teeth and spines of sea snakes dug from kaolin mines in Wilkinson County when Dr. Dennis Parmley taught here in the late 1980s to 2018.
Other scientists and Georgia Bureau of Investigation officials often call for assistance identifying bones and fossils. Museum staff and faculty also work with the National Park System.
CINDY O'DONNELL, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
“Yet, it’s still a surprise to most people this museum is here. People seem to accidently find us,” Quinn said. “These collections are very important, because they record the entire timeline of evolutionary life on Earth from invertebrates found in the sea at the beginning of life 500 million years ago to fossils of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.”
“Nowhere else can you go to see history and specimens like this in Middle Georgia,” she said.
Quinn is a bit of a hidden gem too.
It’s not an exaggeration to say she came to Georgia College and never left.
From Putnam County, Quinn started as an undergraduate, getting her Bachelor of Science in biology in 2000. She stayed on to organize the university’s fossil collection and got her masters in 2005.
In 2018, Quinn founded the Paleontology Association of Georgia. Archeologist and historian Stephen Hammock asked her to be president of the Ocmulgee Archaeological Society in 2020. This led to an invitation to join and chair Fort Hawkins Foundation, Inc. in Macon.
museum’s future. Mead prepares fossils, stabilizing them with consolidating agents, plaster or storage jackets for display. Joslyn works directly with school children on fieldtrips, giving ageappropriate information about exhibits.
It’s Quinn’s job to organize the museum collection and catalogue specimens into a digital database. She also makes sure faculty, students, staff and the public have ready access to fossils and information.
In addition to 40,600 catalogued specimens, much more is backlogged, waiting to be processed. Only a small fraction is displayed in the museum.
It’s a matter of personnel, time and space.
In previous years, 5,000 specimens were stored in a professor’s office upstairs. Today’s overflow is kept in a large collection room with moving aisles of shelves. Fossils are found in the biology department prep lab, comparative anatomy lab and herbarium. More is at the Lake Laurel bio-station.
About 100 large buckets of dirt-encrusted materials wait for processing, Mead estimates. The work requires meticulous “micro sifting” to find tiny bone fragments and larger relics that need stabilization.
“This is one of the most dynamic ladies I know,” Hammock said.
Quinn studied with the museum’s visionary and founder Dr. William Wall, who retired in 2012. She was there as Wall accumulated the university’s first collections in rhinoceros fossils. She was there when the first tabletop, interactive lessons on fossils were given to school children.
At the museum since its opening, Quinn helped develop exhibits and grow public outreach programs, which now include online educational resources for K-12 teachers and a page Just for Kids.
“Ever since then,” she said, “we’ve been adding to the collection, whether it’s invertebrate and vertebrate paleontology, mammalogy, herpetology, ichthyology or ornithology. We have a growing entomology collection and herbarium now too.”
Joining Quinn in the operation of GCSU’s Museum of National History are Dr. Bruce Snyder, ecologist and associate professor of biology and environmental sciences; fossil preparatory technician Heidi Mead, ’95; and museum interpreter Rick Joslyn.
As faculty coordinator, Snyder guides efforts and plans for the
Students often drop by the lab to observe or acquire preservation skills.
“It’s crazy. You can’t describe it. It’s euphoric,” Mead said, “and it doesn’t matter if you find something big or a little rabbit skull. It’s just as exciting. Knowing you’re the first human to see this fossil from a creature that lived millions of years ago is just great.”
All this stuff—invertebrate and vertebrate fossils, rhino bones from South Dakota, mammals from Australia and Africa, bird skulls and skins from South America—come from faculty and student research.
The collection began 43 years ago, when Wall first took students to the barren Badlands of South Dakota. Heidi went with him as a student in 1994 and Quinn in 2006, when summer trips also included stops in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. They’d bring back “truckloads of specimens,” Mead said.
Over the years, other professors added their collections. Ornithologist Dr. Robert Chandler worked at Georgia College in the mid 1990s to 2016. He took students to the Santa Fe River in Ginnie Springs, Florida, scuba diving for remains of the terror bird Titanis walleri.
For 20 years, paleomammalogist and biology professor Al Mead has taken students to the swampy forests of Brunswick, Georgia, to excavate 60,000-year-old bison and mammoth bones. The on-going project now includes scientists from other universities.
Their personalized attention leaves an impression. Like the two brothers who found the bison bone—some youngsters visit the museum, then choose Georgia College for their undergraduate and graduate degrees.
Quinn would like to bottle this enthusiasm. She wants visitors to “remain excited.”
“I try to be personable to reach people and tear down the wall of separation between the public and science, especially for kids,” she said. “When they come to museums or see paleontology on TV, I want them to know this could be a dream of theirs.”
The molding of future scientists is also what keeps Snyder involved with the museum.
“There’s the collections-based work happening behind-the-scenes,” he said. “But then, all these exhibits and the thousands of students we bring through here are helping to get this information out to the public, encouraging the next generation of researchers.”
In addition to hosting visitors, Quinn also does public outreach in classrooms and libraries around the state. Recently, she showed fossils to residents in Macon County.
Faculty bring their biology, environmental science, mammalogy, anatomy, history and museum studies classes. English students are assigned writing tasks there. Art classes use specimens for drawing. Students even stopped by once for a class on interpretative dance.
From 5,000 specimens and a few public visitors to more than 40,600 specimens and 6,500 visitors a year—Georgia College’s Museum of Natural History has made significant strides.
“Seeing the museum grow and become popular is exciting,” Quinn said. “We have a much broader reach and impact than one would think.”
“We want this to be a place where communities come together and share ownership,” she said. “We’d like the museum to be a place people in Baldwin County and Middle Georgia want to take care of and be proud of—a place they can treasure.”
For those planning to visit, hours at GCSU’s Museum of Natural History are Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or by appointment for groups
COOL TREASURES INCLUDE:
The skull of a six-foot, flightless “terror bird” (Titanis walleri) that lived 3 million years ago
A gaping jaw loaded with authentic teeth of a “megalodon shark” that died out more than 2 million years ago and was three times larger than today’s Great White shark
Skulls and horns of a furry, odd-toed prehistoric rhinoceros (Titanotheres) that date back 50 million years ago in the Eocene Age and, of course, the crowd-pleasing favorite—a realistic replica of a massive T-Rex dinosaur head jutting from a ferned area of the museum with an almost-crooked smile of gigantic but disarmingly friendly teeth.
BOBCATS UNITE TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN THE WORKPLACE
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION
MARGARET SCHELL, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Mass communication major and senior Sophia Clark put what she’s learned at Georgia College to work as a marketing intern at Blue Cypress Consulting this summer.
She did it with a little help from fellow Bobcat Monica Klinkmueller, ’20, senior marketing coordinator for Blue Cypress Consulting.
The company is a women-owned, small business providing community planning and utility management services with headquarters in Decatur, Georgia.
“At Georgia College, I constantly juggled a lot of responsibilities, including hosting a morning show on WGUR 95.3,” Clark said. “It's the same thing in my current role. I have multiple tasks each day that need to be done within certain timeframes. Learning to manage my time at the university prepared me to meet these needs.”
She’s learned to use new software, databases and other tools useful for working in the marketing industry. Although they’re all new to her, Clark’s not intimidated by these tasks, as her Georgia College professors continually provided her with new challenges which nurtured her problemsolving skills.
Clark’s enjoying her work environment, a team of 21 employees where everyone knows each other. Clark and Klinkmueller can especially relate as fellow Bobcats.
“It's awesome,” Clark said. “When you go out into the working world, it can be intimidating. But having a connection with someone from GCSU makes that world feel a bit smaller and less intimidating.”
IT'S IMPORTANT TO ENJOY THE WORK YOU DO. IT'S THE REASON YOU GET OUT OF BED MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. COMING TO A WORK ENVIRONMENT THAT’S POSITIVE WITH PEOPLE YOU ENJOY BEING AROUND WHERE YOU FEEL A SENSE OF ACHIEVEMENT AND CELEBRATED BECAUSE OF THE GREAT WORK YOU'RE ACCOMPLISHING; I HOPE SOPHIA HAS ALL THIS AND MORE AS SHE GOES FORWARD WITH HER CAREER.
— MONICA KLINKMUELLER
RECENT ALUMNA FINDS NICHE HELPING OTHERS THROUGH THE JUSTICE SYSTEM
DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT AND SOCIOLOGY
MARGARET SCHELL, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
As a teenager, Grace Cooper, ’22, was intrigued by the “X-Files” TV series. She thought it would be cool to work with the FBI. When she took her criminal justice classes at Georgia College, she quickly learned the fiction behind the television series depicting law enforcement.
“I once thought it would be so cool to be an investigator,” said Cooper, transitional case manager for the Continuum of Care program at Riverbend Correctional Facility in Milledgeville. “Then, I learned the big differences between TV and real life in the justice system that I never expected.”
In Dr. Alesa Liles’ Inside Out class, 15 Georgia College students met with 15 incarcerated students at Riverbend Correctional Facility to discuss the different aspects of the justice system and share their perspectives.
“I loved this class, because I saw prisoners are not like what movies and TV shows portray,” she said. “I truly believe that some of the best individuals I've ever met were in that class as incarcerated people.”
Cooper now works at the same facility with many of the incarcerated students she worked with as a student. She enjoys her duties so much that she even got the Employee of the Month Award after being there for just four months.
“It felt really cool to get that recognition,” Cooper said. “I’m doing my job, and they recognize that. It made me feel more confident in what I'm doing.”
“It’s absolutely mind blowing how our experiences differ,” she added. “My involvement with my Inside Out class made a big impact on me and in getting this job.”
And it’s clear to Cooper one mistake does not define a person. It’s all about who they’ve become while incarcerated. Working with her clients, Cooper sees the hope many of them have for the future.
“It feels good to see people who see themselves as having the potential to be successful. That helps me know I’m doing something that matters,” Cooper said.
“Eventually, I want to work with at-risk youth. So, now I’m intervening, only at a later stage,” she said.
Honoring Colonel Maidana Nunn, DNSc
She’s a nurse, an educator and a retired United States Air Force Reserves colonel. She’s a philanthropist, patron of music and constant volunteer.
She supports her extended family and is a shepherd to others. She’s strong, passionate and curious.
She’s Colonel Maidana K. Nunn, ’57, DNSc. She’s been to almost every country in the world and operates with four main passions: faith, her country, children and animals.
“I was just curious,” Nunn said. “These opportunities were to come about and I’d say, ‘Well let me try and see what I can do.’ I was always busy doing something—I think I’ve had a rich, full life.”
Nunn was born December of 1932 in rural Barnesville, Georgia, and bounced around Middle Georgia with her mother after her father perished in a 1936 auto accident. She grew up all over the state and eventually graduated from Butler High School in 1949.
This is where her nursing career began. Nunn graduated from the Macon Hospital School of Nursing in August 1952 and became a registered nurse.
“I’ve always wanted to be a nurse ever since I could talk on it,” she said.
Chasing a job, Nunn ended up in Milledgeville at Central State Hospital— and she didn’t intend to stay. But after her uncle, who was contracted with the college to tune pianos, convinced her it was “the best school in the state of Georgia,” Nunn began studying social science at what was then Georgia State College for Women.
“I thought they always had very good professors over there,” Nunn said. “It was just a fun place to be.”
With class only available during the day, she attended morning lectures and walked to work at the hospital from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. “I allowed myself the luxury of a
baccalaureate education,” she said. “It was sheer frustration, but I finally got a Bachelor’s of Arts degree.”
Nunn jumped from opportunity to opportunity, chasing her curiosities and furthering her education. She ended up getting her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the Medical College of Georgia in 1958, a Master of Science from the University of Maryland in 1963 and a Doctor of Nursing Science from Boston University in 1970.
“I just have so much curiosity, so I wanted to learn as much as I could,” Nunn said. “I think sometimes children can be frightened of trying to get into something and you have to say, ‘It’s not all that bad, c’mon, let’s see what you can do.’”
When she heard Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Georgia, was trying to form a reserve unit within their hospital, Nunn jumped at the chance.
The opportunity kickstarted her 21-year career in the military, where she studied flight nursing, rose to captain, major and then colonel rank. The whole time chasing training and education opportunities within her field.
“Education is what you need so you can be independent,” Nunn said.
While she’s never been in combat, Nunn participated in downrange missions to Panama, hauled people from European country to European country on weekends and ran hospital units.
“We’d go through Germany, Spain and England—that’s a lot on one weekend,” she said, laughing. “You were supposed to take clothes for all seasons, because you never knew where in the world they would take you, or what they were going to do with you.”
For about 12 years, she continued working part time in some outside nursing capacity.
She was stationed in Myrtle Beach, Florida, during Operation Desert Storm for four months, and afterward traveled back to a familiar place, Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. She remained there until her retirement in 1992, concluding what she considers her favorite part of her career.
For the last five years, Nunn has lived at The Cottages in Milledgeville, where she often attends musical productions and continues to volunteer in what capacity she is able.
She’s benefactor of the Dr. Maidana Nunn ’57 Scholarship, a $25,000 endowed fund for GCSU music students, champion of children, the community, and pillar for The Department of Music.
“When I attended GSCW, the cost was $45 per quarter for 17 quarter hours with a $5 student activity fee,” Nunn said. “I was fortunate, so I don’t mind helping anybody who needs help.”
“I like most every kind of music,” she said. “I’m not a scholar or anything like that, but I like seeing other people achieve their dreams.”
Some quotes courtesy of Robin Grantham with the Women in Military Service for American Memorial