{"id":10063,"date":"2020-07-03T11:58:19","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T15:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/?p=10063"},"modified":"2020-11-16T09:28:42","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T14:28:42","slug":"ghc-student-organizations-overcome-pandemic-setbacks-successful-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/2020\/07\/03\/ghc-student-organizations-overcome-pandemic-setbacks-successful-year\/","title":{"rendered":"GHC student organizations overcome pandemic setbacks for a successful year"},"content":{"rendered":"
PICTURE: Disclaimer: Photos displayed on this website may have been taken prior to March 2020.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Although COVID-19 and the switch to remote delivery at the college caused some setbacks, Georgia Highlands College\u2019s student organizations overcame many obstacles to achieve a series of state and national first place awards and accolades.<\/p>\n

Chief among these are GHC\u2019s Alpha Psi Omicron chapter of Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) and the GHC student newspaper the Six Mile Post (SMP).<\/p>\n

Phi Theta Kappa<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For PTK, the chapter received the following awards: Top Distinguished College Project, Top 5-Star Chapter Status, Reach Rewards Status, being named a Top Regional Chapter, Regional Office Chapter, Regional Top 5-Star Status and Regional Award in Excellence for Scholarship. In addition, member Dalton Swanson received the Regional Hall of Honor and GHC President Don Green was recognized as Distinguished Administrator and PTK\u2019s 2020 Shirley B. Gordon Award of Distinction. Other chapter awards include Distinguished Honors in Action (HIA) Theme 2 Runner-Up and Regional Office Chapter.<\/p>\n

PTK officers Dalton Swanson, Madhavi Scharko and Dajah Dixon along with alumni Thomas Boylan, Lexii Daniel and Karishma Patel attended PTK\u2019s Fall Regional Conference at Atlanta Metro College in October and supported the regional service project which collected education and hygiene supplies for a Mozambique village for Mission Machangulo. During the conference, in addition to earning numerous chapter awards, the Georgia Regional Alumni Chapter was chartered and faculty lead advisor Karen Huggin was inducted as PTK\u2019s Associate Regional Coordinator.<\/p>\n

Huggin said the team has found ways to connect with members and other chapters around the country and are working on steps to achieve 5-Star Chapter Status for the new year, as well as attending PTK’s first International Catalyst Virtual Conference. In addition, GHC President Don Green was selected as a recipient of PTK\u2019s 2020 Shirley B. Gordon Award of Distinction.<\/p>\n

Six Mile Post<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The SMP was awarded a combined seven first-place awards by both the Southern Regional Press Institute (SRPI) and Georgia College Press Association (GCPA). The SRPI awarded the organization first place in Best Overall Print Newspaper and first place in Best Online News Site along with individual awards for Best News Reporting, Best Sports Writing and Best Feature Photography. The GCPA recognized the SMP with first place individual awards for Best Editorial or Editorial Series as well as the Impact award.<\/p>\n

Six Mile Post Editor-in-Chief and GHC student Olivia D. Fortner said she is proud of all the hard work the organization\u2019s staff has done to generate so many organizational and individual awards over the past year.<\/p>\n

\u201cReceiving first place in the Best Online News Site is a great accomplishment,\u201d Six Mile Post Editor-in-Chief Olivia D. Fortner said. Fortner said the Six Mile Post maintains its focus of being first and foremost a news outlet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am most proud of the overall improvement award,\u201d Fortner added, referencing the outlet\u2019s third place Improvement award granted by the GCPA. \u201cThis speaks volumes for the work our staff has put in. Most of us were inexperienced in journalism and design. We did a lot to learn the style of AP writing and building a newspaper. We worked together and produced a paper better than the last. I hope this continues and we improve with each issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The individual awards from the SRPI competition include; Best News Reporting \u2013 first place \u2013 Nick Whitmire; second place Best Feature Writing \u2013\u2013 Samantha Warner; Best Sports Writing \u2013 first place \u2013 Trevor Gonzales; Best Feature Photography \u2013 first place \u2013 Penelope Stephens; and Best Feature Photography \u2013 third place \u2013 Catie Sullivan.<\/p>\n

The GCPA recognized the SMP staff with awards for Layout and Design \u2013 second place; Improvement \u2013 third place; and Best Campus Community Service \u2013 Features \u2013 third place. Individual awards include Best Editorial or Editorial Series \u2013 first place \u2013 Jonah Peters; Best Editorial or Editorial Series \u2013 second place \u2013 Catie Sullivan; Best Photograph-Editorial\/Feature \u2013 second place \u2013 Emma Veale; Best Photo Essay \u2013 third place \u2013 Penelope Stephens; Best Column \u2013 third place \u2013 Mariah Redmond; Best Column \u2013 third place \u2013 Nathaniel Flahardy; Best Column \u2013 third place \u2013 Jonah Peters; Best Entertainment Feature \u2013 second and third places \u2013 Joseph McDaniel; Impact Award \u2013 first place \u2013 Julia Belew.<\/p>\n

Readers can go to www.sixmilepostonline.com to see the new look and visit Apple and Android app stores to download the free College News Source app for easier reading on mobile devices.<\/p>\n

All University System of Georgia institutions switched to remote delivery for courses in March and continued this way for the remainder of the spring and summer semesters to help stem the spread of the coronavirus. USG institutions are tentatively planning to return to normal on-campus operations for the fall semester should guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Georgia Department of Public Health allow it.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PICTURE: Disclaimer: Photos displayed on this website may have been taken prior to March 2020. Although COVID-19 and the switch to remote delivery at the college caused some setbacks, Georgia Highlands College\u2019s student organizations overcame many obstacles to achieve a series of state and national first place awards and accolades. Chief among these are GHC\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10063"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10431,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10063\/revisions\/10431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlands.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}