Summer commencement is July 30;
Speaker is State Atty. Gen. Sam Olens
Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens will serve as the keynote speaker for SPSU’s 101st commencement ceremony on Sat., July 30, at 10 a.m. in the Gymnasium.

SPSU will confer just over 200 undergraduate and graduate degrees during the ceremony, 157 of them to undergraduates and 45 to graduate students.

Olens, who chaired the Cobb County Board of Commissioners 2002-10, was sworn into office as the state’s 53rd attorney general in January. He served as chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission from 2004 through 2009 and vice chair of the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District from 2005 through March 2010. In addition, Olens was appointed by Gov. Sonny Perdue to represent the 6th Congressional District on Georgia’s Department of Community Affairs Board in 2003, serving in this capacity through 2010.

Olens graduated from the Emory University School of Law and is a registered mediator/arbitrator with the Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution. He has been admitted to the Georgia and U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit; the United States Supreme Court; and the District of Columbia.

Women in Electronics scholarship winners
Women in Electronics, a regional non-profit organization that provides a professional network for women involved in all aspects of the electronics industry, recently awarded scholarships to seven promising college students from Atlanta. Two of the recipients were from Georgia Tech, one from ITT Technical Institute and four from SPSU.

The SPSU recipients were: Thuy (Cindy) Nguyen, an Industrial Engineering Technology major; Tamara Torres, a Computer Engineering Technology major; Carol Njama, a Technical Communication major; and Shari Holness, a Computer Engineering Technology major.

The students were recognized at the Women in Electronics Annual Scholarship Banquet on May 12 in Atlanta. The organization promotes this scholarship program at 10 metro Atlanta institutions and received 50 applications this year.

SPSU to participate in regional college fishing tourney
SPSU’s fishing team, Hooked Up Hornets, will compete at the National Guard FLW Southeast Division Regional College Fishing Championship on Lake Harding in Auburn, Ala., Sept. 8-10.

Team members Zach Dixon and Ed Thomas advanced to the regional championship by finishing in the top five during a recent qualification tournament at Lake Eufala, Ala. The winning team in the Lake Harding event will take home a cash prize of $12,500 and a Ranger bass boat wrapped in school colors, in addition to $12,500 for the winning institution.

To prepare for each competition, the SPSU team studies maps and fishing reports to determine the best spots and sets up a pre-fishing trip a few weeks before competition day.

SPSU alum installed as president of statewide contractor association
Members of the Georgia Branch of the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) installed SPSU alumnus Patrick A. (Tony) Pellicano as chapter president during the organization’s 2011 convention in June. The Georgia Branch of the AGC is one of 95 affiliated chapters nationwide.

Pellicano, who graduated in 1972 with a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering Technology, is president of Albany-based Pellicano Construction, a full-service commercial contractor with projects in the health care, hospitality, commercial, industrial, faith-based, retail and financial markets. Founded in 1976, the company operates in 12 states throughout the southeastern U.S.

Pellicano has been actively involved in the Georgia Branch of the AGC for more than 30 years and served this past year as vice president of the chapter’s board of directors. 

“It is an honor to serve our state’s construction industry and to be in the company of such outstanding professionals,” he said.

Metro Atlanta Chamber honors SPSU alum as Emerging Entrepreneur
The Metro Atlanta Chamber and the Atlanta Business Chronicle recently recognized SPSU alumnus Hesam Lamei as an Emerging Entrepreneur during their 25th Annual Business Person of the Year Awards.

Lamei, who earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering Technology at SPSU in 2006, founded Aventis Systems Inc. as an eBay store and began selling computer hardware in early 2008. Soon it turned into a full-fledged Web-based business with a warehouse in Marietta for its ever-expanding product line and sales/marketing offices.

Lamei is president of the company, which was also honored at the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 15th Annual Pacesetter Awards in April for its rapid growth. Having increased its revenue by 279 percent from 2008 to 2010, Aventis Systems was ranked by the Chronicle as the 41st fastest-growing privately held company in the metro Atlanta area.

Bathtubs and rubber duckies in downtown Atlanta?
One of SPSU’s bathtub race vehicles shared star billing with hundreds of rubber duckies in a news story on WXIA-TV on June 28.

John Gerard, 11Alive’s “Commuter Dude,” used the SPSU bathtub racer as a prop in reporting that an army of toy ducks lining Peachtree Street in Atlanta that morning was promoting the opening of an unconventional new exhibit at the Museum of Design Atlanta. “Water Dream: The Art of Bathroom Design” opened June 26 across the street from the High Museum of Art.

The “Commuter Dude” had a team of SPSU students push him past the rubber ducks in the bathtub as he wrapped up the news segment on WXIA’s early morning program.

Kudos to Daryle Higginbotham, chair of the SPSU Foundation, for providing the bathtub racer and recruiting the students to show up at 5 a.m. for the filming of the news story on extremely short notice.

To view the story, go to 11Alive News.

Have news to share?
If your department has an upcoming event or other news to share with the campus community, please send an e-mail with all the pertinent information to Diane Payne (dpayne@spsu.edu). To be considered for use in a specific issue of the SPSU Hornet’s Nest, a news item must be submitted no less than four weeks before the date of the issue.

Volume 4, Issue 25
July 6, 2011