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Upcoming Activities and Events in
the college of Arts & Sciences:

printable PDF of A&S Events 2011-12

December 3, 2011
Science Saturday

This event will be from 9 a.m. to noon in Nevins Hall and will feature fun activities for area children. For more information, contact Dr. Jason Allard at jmallard@valdosta.edu or Dr. Perry Baskin at pbaskin@valdosta.edu .

December 6, 2011
10th Annual High School Mathematics Tournament

Sponsored by the Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, this event goes from 9 a.m. to noon. For more information, please visit http://www.valdosta.edu/~alazari/highschool/highschool.html or call at 229-333-7154.

February 2, 2012
Contemporary Writers Series: Willis and Tony Barnstone, poets

These father and son poets will read and discuss their poetry at 7:30 p.m. at the VSU University Center Theatre. For more information, contact the Department of English at 333-5946.

February 24, 2012
17th Annual VSU Mathematics Technology Conference

This event will be from 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. For more information, contact Dr. David Boyd at 229-333-5788.

March 24, 2012
Science Saturday

Sponsored by the Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, this event will be from 9 a.m. to noon in Nevins Hall and will feature fun math activities for area children. For more information, contact Dr. Greg Harrell at 229-333-5457.

April 3, 2012
Contemporary Writers Series: Todd Boss, poet

Boss will be reading and discussing his poetry at 7:30 p.m. at the VSU University Center Theatre. For more information, contact the Department of English at 333-5946.

April 12, 2012
Sonia Kovalevsky High School Math Day

This event for area high school girls will be from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Student Union, Ballrooms A and B. For more information, contact Dr. Denise Reid at 229-333-5784.

May 1, 2012
12th Annual Middle School Mathematics Tournament

Sponsored by the Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, this tournament for area middle school students will be from 8:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more information, please visit http://www.valdosta.edu/~alazari/middlegrades/middlegrades.html or call at 229-333-7154.

outstanding alumni by department
2011-2012

Last Thursday, Valdosta State University’s College of Arts and Sciences celebrated its inaugural Outstanding Alumni Dinner. Eleven alumni were honored, ranging from the class of 1961 to the class of 2002, each chosen from the respective program from which they graduated. Those honored were:

James Tunison, Jr., has been serving as a judge in Valdosta since January 1, 2009, after a distinguished 20-year career practicing law in Lowndes County. A graduate of VSU’s Political Science program, Judge Tunison went on to Mercer University and the Walter F. George School of Law, earning his Juris Doctorate. Tunison is a member of multiple state bars, the U.S. District Court, the U.S. Court of Claims, and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. He has also served as Board Member for the Valdosta Alumni Association, the Salvation Army, and America’s Second Harvest. Tunison also received the 2011 Valdosta State University College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Alumnus Award.
Graduating from VSU with a B.S. and a M.A. degree in Criminal Justice, with a minor in African-American Studies, Carter went on to graduate from Michigan State University’s Judicial Administration Program and now works as the Court Program Administrator for the Superior Court of GA, Fulton County, where he administers court for 37 judges and lawyers, including 21 Superior Court judges.	After graduating in 1994 from VSU with a B.S. in Biology, Gorman went on to work as a Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador and get an M.A. in international relations from Syracuse University. She is currently an Associate Director at the Stanford University Center for Latin American Studies and is serving on the Executive Committee of the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs.
A 1996 graduate of VSU with a B.S. in Chemistry, Dr. Carvalho-Knighton went on to get her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of South Florida in 2000. She is currently an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of South Florida and the Director of STREAMS, a National Science Foundation funded program designed to increase the number of bright, low-income underrepresented groups in the geosciences, environmental, and marine science disciplines.	Love is a 1994 graduate from VSU, with a B.A. in English. Since graduation, she has worked heavily in Georgia’s arts community, becoming the executive director of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2006 and is currently working for Georgia’s Film, Music, and Digital Entertainment Office where she leads efforts to retain, expand, and develop Georgia’s music industry. She has also founded and published several magazines over the years, including Down South Submarine, an entertainment guide to South Georgia, and Georgia Music Magazine, a quarterly magazine celebrating the state’s legends, landmarks, and unsung heroes.
After graduating in 1961 with a Bachelor’s of History, Pearson went on to the University of Alabama, earning his Ph.D. in History. In the 38 years that Dr. Pearson spent teaching history at VSU, he specialized in researching the Spanish period of the American Southeast and 15-16^th century archival Spanish-language sources and served as dean of the Graduate School. He retired in 2003.	Graduating from Duke University in 2007 with a Master’s degree in Medical Physics after earning two bachelor degrees from VSU, a B.A. in mathematics and a B.S. in applied mathematics, Jessica now works as a Medical Physicist at the Southeast Georgia Health System. Along with her work, Jessica finds time to participate in community service and returned to VSU in 2005 as a guest speaker at Sonia Kovalevsky Day, an event designed to encourage high school girls to pursue education in mathematics.
Dr. Allbritton is currently serving as Assistant Professor of Spanish at Colby College, having completed his B.A at VSU, his M.A. from Syracuse University, and his Ph.D. in Spanish Film Studies from Stony Brook University in 2001. His work focuses on metaphors of illness and masculinity in contemporary Spanish film. He has been published in Studies in Hispanic Cinemas, Post Script, and has written a chapter in a forthcoming Blackwell anthology on Almodovar.	Dr. Reddick is the Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, GA. After getting a B.A. in Philosophy from VSU, Reddick went on to earn a Ph.D. in the Humanities with an emphasis in Literature and Psychology. He has written and published a collection of short stories, Road Kill Art and Other Oddities, as well as a novel, Lead Me Home.
After earning a B.S. in Environmental Studies in 2002 and a Master’s of Public Administration in 2004, both from VSU, Davenport went on to work as the Environmental Planner for the Southern Georgia Regional Commission. After five years there, she went on to work for the City of Valdosta in the Utilities Department, being promoted in 2011 to Stormwater Manager in the Engineering Department where she is working to streamline the city’s entire stormwater program.	Gaining her undergraduate degree in 1996 and her M.S. in Sociology in 2010 from VSU, Ms. Myers has, for the past fourteen years, been working as Executive Director of the Cook County Family Connection. Under her direction, the Connection has experienced tremendous growth in its annual budget thanks to Myers’ grant writing abilities. She has also developed House of Grace, a community of previously homeless men, and is the author of “Dancing with the Dragon: An Honest Look at Addiction.”

Welcome to the College of Arts & Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences provides a wide array of exciting majors, minors, and individual courses offered by ten departments and four interdisciplinary programs housed in the College. In addition, the College is responsible for a substantial portion of the general education component for all undergraduates at Valdosta State.

Through the Core Curriculum, the College helps to provide students with the academic foundation upon which they will build successful lives and careers. That foundation includes a mastery of strong communication and critical thinking skills, the development of quantitative reasoning, a thorough understanding of the historical and cultural heritage of world civilization, an appreciation of a diverse and multicultural society, and a solid grounding in the natural sciences. In working toward this end, the College of Arts and Sciences is dedicated to educating students to meet the challenges of an ever-changing, complex society and to value the strengths of the past as well as the opportunities of the future.