Education Briefs

Brooks Society to award 22 teacher scholarships

CAMILLA — The Brooks Society, based here, will soon launch an ambitious and generous teacher scholarship program that will benefit 22 highs school junior and seniors from poor counties who otherwise would not be able to afford to attend college.

The program will run for at least four years.

One student from each of the 22 counties statewide will be provided full tuition plus spending money to attend Valdosta State University. The hope is that, upon graduation from VSU, the students will return to their home counties and become teachers.

The students will be selected by a Brooks Society board in each of the 22 counties. Members have yet to be named.

The genesis of the program is Ruby Sullivan, the youngest of seven children born during the Depression in rural Mitchell County. The Sullivans could not afford to send Ruby to college, so she traveled to the local bank and asked banker J.E. Brooks for a loan so she goes go to Valdosta State.

According to Woodrow Brooks, the banker’s grandson, “My grandfather listened to her story, reached into his desk drawer and handed several checks to Ms. Ruby, telling her to ‘pay me back when you are able.’”

Sullivan attended and graduated from Valdosta State and, upon graduation, returned to Camilla, where she taught for move than 50 years. She purchased stock in the early days of AFLAC, amassing a fortune along the way. When she died, she left her entire estate and stipulated the money be used to educate poor children at Valdosta State and who might hopefully return home as teachers.

The Brooks Society is named in honor of J.E. Brooks, the man who gave her a hand up.

Student health fair set for Robert Harvey Elementary Friday

ALBANY — The School-Based Health Clinic at Robert Harvey Elementary School, which is operated through Albany Area Primary Health Care (located within the school), is providing a schoolwide health fair/activities for the entire Robert Harvey student body on Friday.

This health fair will feature health facts and other related events. It starts at 9 a.m. and will run until noon.

USG seek RFQCs to oversee student housing at five campuses

ATLANTA — The University System of Georgia has released a request for qualified concessionaires (RFQC) for a student housing public/private partnership for seven University System of Georgia institutions. The release of this RFQC begins a process to explore whether expansion of the student housing program would be a viable option for providing quality, secure and affordable housing for students at member institutions.

The RFQC seeks a private development firm to design, build, finance, operate and maintain approximately 12,064 beds at five institutions, of which approximately 1,376 would be new or renovated beds. In addition, the concessionaire would be responsible for operating and maintaining approximately 3,270 existing beds for three of the institutions in the RFQC.

In November 2014, Corvias Campus Living was selected for a $517 million agreement to develop 3,683 new beds and manage 6,195 existing beds of on-campus housing for nine institutions. The participating institutions and campuses in the current RFQC include Albany State University, Georgia Southwestern State University (Americus), Gordon State College (Barnesville), Middle Georgia State University (Macon, Cochran, Eastman), Savannah State University, the University of West Georgia (Carrollton) and Valdosta State University.

Albany State University to hold spring commencements May 5

ALBANY — Albany State University will conduct its spring commencement exercises on May 5 with morning and afternoon ceremonies at the Albany Civic Center.

The morning ceremony is set for 9 a.m., during which ASU officials will confer degrees in the colleges of Arts & Humanities, Education, and Sciences & Technology

The procession begins at 8:30 a.m.

The afternoon ceremony is set for 3 p.m., during which degrees will be conferred for the ASU College of Business and Darton College of Health Professions.

The procession begins at 2:30 p.m.

Lineup begins at 7:45 a.m. for the 9 a.m. ceremony and 1:45 p.m. for the 3 p.m. ceremony. No candidate will be allowed in the line of march after the procession has begun.