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[Michael Shannon, Ph.D. - President of ̨Íåswag] - Hello, I am incredibly excited today to talk about the future of the University of North Georgia, and I'm excited because of the opportunity we have in our region, in our state and in our nation. Now more than ever, Georgia, Northeast Georgia and America are calling on us to deliver like never before. And so today we are launching seven strategic bets pushing forward the direction of the University of North Georgia. And we are calling these "Bold Forward: Running into our Calling." Because, you see, we are being called to do something we have never done, and we are running into that calling because we want to answer and deliver for America, for the state and for our region. So I ask you to spend a few minutes as we unpack each one of these bets so that you can hear about the future direction of the University of North Georgia. Thank you for spending some time with us and hearing about our work.

Leadership is everything, and I would argue leaders aren't born. They're made. We are incredibly proud here at the University of North Georgia of the success of our scholarship programs, and with that is our Ascend program. And Ascend sets the stage and allows all of our students to be successful. Anastasia, why don't you tell us about it?

[Anastasia Lin, Ph.D. - Assistant VP for Academic Affairs & Dean of Honors] - Sure. Our programs help our students excel both within and beyond ̨Íåswag through national scholarship opportunities, undergraduate research and leadership programs. So, for example, our Honors Program helps students learn, lead and serve in an innovative academic community, while our McNair Scholars Program mentors students to graduate school. Finally, our undergraduate research office supports students through undergraduate research programming, funding and our ever-popular Annual Research Conference where they get to present their own research and get feedback on it. Lastly, national scholarships, that's really where it's at. Our students are excelling above and beyond on the national stage through earning great awards like the Goldwater, the Fulbright, the Boren, etc. And this sets them up to become leaders nationally both in public service and the private sector.

[Michael Shannon, Ph.D.] - One of the things I am incredibly excited about at the University of North Georgia is the undergraduate research experiences we afford our students and then the ability of our students to leverage that for graduate school. Tell us about that.

[Anastasia Lin, Ph.D.] - We have amazing mentors across all five of our campuses who are supporting our students in doing great research projects, but then our students move them beyond just ̨Íåswag. So we've had students win paid research opportunities in places like Stanford, Harvard and the Department of Energy, which has set them up to go on for success. Some of our students have earned full funding for graduate school at places like Yale, Berkeley and Johns Hopkins. It's pretty amazing.

[Michael Shannon, Ph.D.] - Yeah, that is so exciting, and you see, these programs are made possible by the leadership work we do here. Today we are very excited to launch a strategic big bet where we will build and develop a leadership foundry, and the idea of a foundry is refining. And so through refinement, students will learn agency, resilience, self-awareness, self-reflection, and so many other skills. And so we want to make this available to all of our students on all of our campuses. We are making a big bet to deliver leadership at the University of North Georgia like never before. The arts and entertainment industry in Georgia is booming. Last fiscal year, over $4 billion has been invested in bringing and developing content here in our great state. And now we're seeing the opening of Athena in Athens. We're seeing BlueStar. We're seeing Tyler Perry and Trilith and several other studios all across our state. So with that environment, Zechariah, tell me about why you're excited about how we can serve here at the University of North Georgia. 

[Zechariah Pierce, Associate Director, Theatre] - Well, absolutely, I mean as you said, the since the film and TV industry has spent over you know $4 billion in our state, it's so crucial that our arts departments and all of them continue to train students from all walks of life in that industry, whether it be directors, actors and technicians coming out of theater and film, recording artists and engineers and musicians coming out of music or animators and CGI artists coming out of visual arts, all of them are well poised to enter that booming market. And upon graduation, our students not only are ready for those entry-level jobs, but they are taking the top-tier leadership positions in their careers.

[Michael Shannon, Ph.D.] - So today we are here to launch a strategic bet in fine arts and entertainment technology. Really in three areas: in film technology, in sound and content around sound, and finally in virtual entertainment and virtual technology. As Georgia continues to grow, we are very excited at the University of North Georgia. Georgia, by census data, is growing at the same rate as some of the largest states in America. And so is our region, Northeast Georgia, with so much growth in logistics with the Inland Port coming to our region, as well as the electric vehicle marketplace and several other projects. Our populations continue to grow, and with that comes needs for accelerating our workforce, teaching teachers, teaching healthcare providers, teaching business professionals. And so today we're going to provide some context on that. So when we think, Sheri, about accelerating the workforce in education, what do you think about?

[Sheri Hardee, Ph.D. - Dean, College of Education/Professor] - So our approach in the College of Education is to encourage our students to be bold, and by be bold I mean be engaged in bridge opportunities for leadership development. So our approach to develop leaders is to bridge the academic classroom with the workforce. For example, with our teacher candidate residency program, our students can be hired as seniors in college as the teacher of record, so they are full-time teachers, they're benefited, they're getting paid, and they're part of the Teachers Retirement System, all prior to even graduating from college. We also have several paraprofessional-to-teacher models so our students can be paraprofessionals while they're working on their undergraduate degrees. We have a fully online option for that in our elementary and special education program, which is our largest program, and special needs is a critical needs area across the state and the nation. And then we have some district-specific models so students can be hired as a para in a certain district, then they transition to a full-time teacher in that same district upon graduation, all while getting their tuition and fees and books completely covered. So these are just a few of the ways in which our competency-based and innovative programs are challenging our students to be bold as future educators and leaders.

[Michael Shannon, Ph.D.] - Fantastic, and of course, since the pandemic healthcare has changed dramatically. So, Carolynn, how are we accelerating getting healthcare professionals into these situations faster?

[Carolynn DeSandre, Ph.D., CNM, FNP-BC, Dean of College of Health Sciences & Professions] - Great. In the College of Health Sciences and Professions, historically, we know there has always been a healthcare provider shortage, and we are accelerating our efforts to increase the number of healthcare providers across the state of Georgia by offering innovative new tracks. For example, our accelerated nursing track, which began this year. This is going to allow a second-career nurse to complete that study faster because they already come to us with a bachelor's degree in place. That'll allow us to get those nurses out in the region of North Georgia working more quickly and addressing the shortage need. In addition, we're looking at the key areas and initiatives of the state legislature, including a mental health initiative, so creating additional credentials so that healthcare providers can be certified in mental health. And that way they add to the workforce helping to address the mental health needs in Georgia. 

[Michael Shannon, Ph.D.] - That is so exciting. So today the University of North Georgia is committed to accelerating the workforce. Today we're launching a strategic big bet accelerating workforce development in education, in healthcare, in our business school, as well as in agriculture. And we believe that we will deliver to Georgia like never before through this big bet. So what we're seeing in Georgia and Northeast Georgia is a boom for the economy. We're seeing the development here of an Inland Port, the development of an electric vehicle marketplace, as well as the future of supply and logistics not only for the state of Georgia, but for the entire nation. What we're also seeing is a boom in industry, in the industry producing food, agriculture, poultry, and in many other areas. So this is a really exciting time, and with all of that comes population growth, more people who need more services and need better communities to live in. And so with that, John, could you just tell us for a moment how the interdisciplinary work of the University of North Georgia fits into this equation?

[John Leyba Ph.D., Dean of the College of Science & Mathematics] - Sure. The College of Science and Mathematics has been anticipating these explosions really in all these different areas for quite some time. In fact, in 2015 we began to transform our STEM curriculum by establishing a very novel transdisciplinary STEM laboratory course. We then expanded that from one semester to two. We then planned on moving the course from just Dahlonega to Dahlonega and Gainesville, this campus here, and because of this course we've been able to drastically increase the number of undergraduate students involved in research projects, especially at the freshman and sophomore levels. On top of all that, we were able to get a $1.5 million, six-year National Science Foundation grant. With that money the first thing we did was establish a freshman seminar course aptly named Success and STEM, and this course is currently taught both on this campus, Gainesville, and in Dahlonega. We plan to also teach it in Oconee in the future, and with the funding that we got from this grant, we get to award, my favorite part, up to 30 scholarships per year up to $10,000 per scholarship to STEM majors. And finally, we are well down that fundraising path for a brand-new, state-of-the-art STEM building in Dahlonega.

[Michael Shannon, Ph.D.] - Well, that's exciting. So today we are really proud to announce a strategic bet where we're going to change the value proposition in STEM. The world we live in today is as complex as it's ever been before, and here at the University of North Georgia we are educating our students to simplify that complexity. In all areas of national security, we deliver programs that bring context and clarity to these very difficult and complex problems.

[Steven Fleming, Ph.D - Professor with Institution of  Environmental and Spatial Analysis] - You know, national security and more broadly global security is something that we've been doing as a nation and more broadly as a world for the better part of three centuries. Here at the University of North Georgia, we've been provisioning security experts since our inception. And it's not easy work, never has been and never will be. Many of the programs that we've been building here at the University of North Georgia and continue to develop have been building security experts. These subjects include the spatial sciences, strategic studies, criminal justice and now our cybersecurity experts.

[Bryson Payne, Ph.D. -  Coordinator, Student Cyber Programs] - Because of our relationship with the NSA as a center of academic excellence in cyber defense and the Army as a senior military college, ̨Íåswag can offer internships scholarships and job opportunities for both civilian and military students that other schools just can't. We send students to industry conferences like Defcon. We help them get industry certifications, and we send them to competitions that better prepare them to be a cyber professional and leader and prepare them for national security roles both as civilians and as military leaders. 

[Michael Shannon, Ph.D.] - So with that context, today we are launching a big bet for the University of North Georgia to get into the national security game where we curate programs that'll allow our students to operate at the intersections, as my colleagues have outlined areas such as cyber, global security, strategy diplomacy, geospatial information, criminal justice, as well as foreign languages. We are really excited about this work, and over the coming months we're going to do more to bring this to bear as we set the conditions to boldly move forward at the University of North Georgia. For over 150 years the University of North Georgia has been delivering for America, and we've done this through our military development programs as one of the six federally designated senior military colleges and the Military College of Georgia. We stand today as the Army senior military college. We are extremely proud of the opportunity we get here on our Dahlonega Campus to build leaders not only for America but for corporate America, and I'm really excited today to hear more about what the corps of the future looks like. Jacob, want to share a little bit?

[Cadet Lt. Col. Jacob Lyons, Brigade Commander] Absolutely, sir. Thank you. For me, sir, the corps of the future looks at taking our recruits in their first semester, putting them through a series of tests throughout their four years here to make them the best leaders not only for the Army as commission officers but for the private sector as well. Our leaders here in the corps perform at the highest level both in the Army and in the private sector, and we have a longstanding tradition of making great leaders for the future.

[Michael Shannon, Ph.D.] - So with that, I'm very excited to announce our big bet developing the corps of the future in which we will like never before deliver the finest officers for our military and the finest leaders that can go into corporate America and serve our nation and our communities. We have a long tradition of athletics at the University of North Georgia. For the past 50 years, our athletic programs have been making a difference for our university, and today I'm really excited to talk about how we will take that to the next level. When you think about elite athletics, you think about elite performance. Mary Rob, tell me what that means to you.

[Mary Rob Plunkett - Athletics Director] - So elite performance at the University of North Georgia is unique because we have a value proposition unlike anybody else in this country where we're able to perform at the highest level because of our connections with our Corps of Cadets and our College of Health Sciences and Professions coupled with our professionals from coaches, athletic trainers, support staff and our Department of Athletics. But we're preparing our student-athletes to battle on the field of competition, in the classroom and in our community. We'll be elite in everything we do.

[Michael Shannon, Ph.D.] - So today we are really excited to announce our strategic bet where we are going to deliver elite performance, elite competition and the most value-adding Division II athletic program in America. Go Nighthawks! Hopefully you've just seen all of the exciting work and opportunities in store for the University of North Georgia. I am incredibly excited about our seven strategic bets where we will deliver for our region, our state and our nation like never before. I am really excited about the work we're going to do in the arts, in science and engineering and mathematics, in our STEM areas as well as in national security and as well as accelerating the workforce. I am equally as excited about creating a leadership foundry based upon the pedigree and history of the University of North Georgia as a state leadership institution. The future of our Corps of Cadets as we deliver the corps of the future is as bright as ever, and finally as we bring and accelerate and elevate our world-class athletics programs. So with that, I hope you are excited about the work we're about to do. I hope you would want to get involved, and I hope you join us on this journey as we move bold forward and we run into our calling. Thank you and get excited about the work of the University of North Georgia.

Office of President - Bold Forward: Running Into Our Calling