GORDON STATE COLLEGE HOSTS VIRTUAL EVENTS PROMOTING STUDENT SUCCESS AND COLLEGE COMPLETION
Gordon State College (GSC) recently hosted 65 honors students who represented 11 institutions of higher education across Georgia for the 2021 Georgia Collegiate Honors Council Conference (GCHC). Nine GSC honors students created presentations for this year’s event, which was hosted virtually to ensure safety during the COVID-19 crisis. Local students Victoria Brack, Genevieve Chan, Alyssa Copeland, Emily Duncan, Emilee Goodwin, Alisha Landreth, Dequarious Loper, Lauren Peacock, and Hannah Rutledge created presentations ranging from The Perplexities of Archiving the Digital Age to The Impact of Social Distancing in Higher Education.
This is the tenth year GSC has participated in the GCHC, but it’s the first time the event was hosted by the Barnesville campus. Dr. David Janssen, the faculty coordinator of Gordon State’s Honors program says that while it was unfortunate that the college was unable to host students on campus, the situation aligned well with the event’s theme.
“Our honors students chose to theme this event ‘Innovation Through Adversity’,” Janssen said. “And I believe the fact that this was the first time this event was done virtually shows how we succeeded in living up to that motto.” “We were honored to be the host for this year’s GCHC,” Dr. Jeffery Knighton, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs added. “Dr. Janssen and the Gordon State honors students truly demonstrate the theme of “Innovation Through Adversity, not just in planning the conference, but also in their daily activities.”
One of GSC’s students earned special accolades at the honors conference. Each year, the GCHC holds a contest for the best papers in natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. GSC student Alyssa Copeland won the second-place honor for her humanities essay titled “Popular Graphic Novels are not Cheap Thrills: The Impact of the Gothic Sublime on Nineteenth-Century Romantic Works.
“Alyssa is one of the bright stars in our Gordon State galaxy of students,” Dr. Kirk Nooks, president of Gordon State College said. “We’re very proud of her and our honor students for putting together such an innovative conference during these challenging times.”