College of Education

Despite life’s obstacles, Seticia Smith, ’10, ’12, ’17, has given 110% in the classroom. And the Baldwin County School District noticed. She’s the 2022 Baldwin County Teacher of the Year, a seventh-grade mathematics teacher, department chair and family engagement coordinator at Oak Hill Middle School. Smith is also a survivor of breast cancer and a heart attack. Yet, she puts her students first.  The Baldwin County School District nominated six teachers for Teacher of the Year. Smith...

Lucas Newton, ’12, believes outdoor education is more important than ever, considering most students were stuck learning behind a computer during the COVID-19 pandemic.  He is the director of Kanuga’s Mountain Trail Outdoor School—a 1,400-acre outdoor classroom located in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Newton is in charge of their educational programs, budgeting, risk management and hiring and training of staff. He has facilitated outdoor experiences for students/campers since 2003...

Northview High School 2020-2021 Teacher of the Year Meredith Meaders Evans, ’12, ’13, believes in giving her students real-world learning applications. She projects a passion for journalism to her students, who benefit from her lessons to become self-starters.  Evans teaches American literature, journalism and broadcast journalism—a new class that she created this year. “I’m loving this class,” she said. “We're learning how to create podcasts, film them and do different styles of broadcast...

Incoming freshman Nina Schwelm enters Georgia College as an award-winning playwright. Although she’s pursuing special education, writing holds a special place in her heart. “I’ve always loved writing,” Nina said. “I just never considered writing for the stage. So now my eyes are completely open to this new possibility.” Nina and playwriting are an unlikely duo, she said, but that didn’t stop her from becoming one of three student winners of the Georgia Film Academy’s (GFA) Dramatic...

Brian Butler, ’07, ’13, always loved science and the weather. When he was young, Butler recalls looking out the window just waiting for the first snowflakes to fall. If there was a storm, he was glued to the window, watching the lightning strike. Later, as a meteorology student at the University of Oklahoma, he was a storm chaser. “If you love weather, there's no other place on earth that displays the incredible power of nature like a thunderstorm in Oklahoma,” he said. “I think that...

Diondra Franklin What first sparked your interest in Poetry?  In seventh grade, my teacher at the time taught the poem, "Song of Myself: 52" by Walt Whitman, and I fell in love with it. I asked her for more poetry by him and ever since then I've had a love for reading and writing it. Have you taken part in any other groups on campus during your college tenure? If so, which ones and why? I was a part of the Latino Student Association (LSA) and sat on the board as the Community Service...