Counselors Are Honored

Jasper County High School counselors Amy Cox and Jessica Sanders were named Counselors of the Year during the second annual Move On When Ready (MOWR) Summit held June 14-15 in Milledgeville. The event, sponsored by Georgia Military College (GMC), has become an annual event since its debut last year.

The purpose of the MOWR Summit is to gather high school principals and counselors from schools across the state to educate them about the program that GMC provides to high school students who want to take college courses. Jody Yearwood, who organized the event, says the great feedback from last year’s summit prompted them to make this an annual event.

“What we want to do is make it an annual event to where the school’s partners and our future partners can come together and just talk about the past year, learn from one another’s experiences, and share ideas about how to move forward,” said Mr. Yearwood, GMC’s Vice President of Information Technology & Online Campus.

The Counselor of the Year Award goes to counselors at one of our partner schools who have gone above and beyond for their students. Their extreme organization has been an asset to GMC, their schools and their students. They know all of their students on a personal level and take strong consideration of each student when they work with GMC while advising a student.

Their professional demeanor and strong work ethic ensures each student they send to us is set up for a successful learning experience. They are involved in all aspects of being a partner school with Georgia Military College and utilize all resources provided to the student’s advantage.

Other award recipients named included Student of the Year as Mahi Patel, a rising sophomore at John Hancock Academy. She began MOWR classes as a freshman and has maintained a 4.0 grade point average. Partner School of the Year is Rock Springs Christian Academy The award is presented to the school that exemplifies a model partnership by consistently meeting deadlines, promotes GMC to its students, schedules testing dates and orientations to ensure students are prepared for success with GMC. Social Circle High School was named Rookie Partner of the Year for successfully maneuvering its first year with GMC program with ease.

Some 75 educators attended a series of six breakout sessions to help educate them on the structure and execution of the MOWR program. Jessica Van Beers, a school counselor at Union County High School in Blairsville praises the program and her school’s partnership with GMC.

“The program is very good,” said Ms. Van Beers. “Everybody has had a good experience with it.” A representative from Union County High School attended the summit last year and decided to return this year as they are looking to learn ways to improve through the MOWR program.

However, most of the representatives that arrived early to the summit were new and wanted to learn more about the MOWR program, such as Dr. Rick Tatum, a graduation coach at Lee Arrendale Women’s Correctional Facility. By attending the summit, Dr. Tatum hopes to have the MOWR program implemented at the women’s correctional facility by September.

“It is just a logical step for our students who are in a correctional facility, after they get their diploma, to go ahead and have some college credit because it will encourage them to move on and help them in their future endeavors,” said Dr. Rick Tatum.

Georgia Military College is an accredited public-independent liberal arts college with 13 college campuses throughout Georgia serving both cadet and non-cadet students. A primary focus of Georgia Military College is in awarding associate degrees and preparing students for transfer to four-year colleges and universities, as well as providing a pathway for AAS degree holders to attain their four-year bachelor of applied science (BAS) degree.

For more information about Georgia Military College, go to www.gmc.edu or like it on Facebook at www.facebook.com/georgiamilitarycollege or on Twitter and Instagram @GMCstory.