Coca-Cola New Century Scholar transferring to SPSU
A young man admitted to SPSU for the fall after graduating this spring from Gainesville State College is the university’s first student to have earned recognition as Georgia’s Coca-Cola New Century Scholar.

David Spencer was awarded the prestigious New Century Scholar honor for finishing first among Georgia students in the All-USA Coca-Cola Community College Academic Team competition. Judges consider grades, extracurricular activities and how a student applies his or her knowledge outside the classroom.

Spencer maintained an outstanding grade point average of 4.0 while earning dual degrees in computer science and communications at Gainesville State. He served in a number of clubs and organizations there, organizing fundraising events in some of those organizations.

The New Century Scholar program is sponsored by the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation and the Coca-Cola Foundation and administered by Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. There are 52 New Century Scholars chosen each year, one from each state, one from Canada and one from outside of North America.

New students get a Jump Start on college this summer
While many of their peers are lolling by the pool or earning a few extra bucks this summer, 40 SPSU students newly admitted for the fall term will be gaining an edge by getting down to business.

They’ll be checking out Stinger’s at the X, getting introduced to key campus officials, services and procedures, and also cracking the books through a five-week workshop called Jump Start. When the fall semester begins in mid-August, these students will have already earned up to seven credit hours, gotten acclimated to college life and formed some supportive friendships that will help get them through their first year.

At the urging of Dr. Julie Newell, chair of Social and International Studies, a pilot Jump Start program was launched last summer with 12 participants. The idea was to help new students ease into college at a more relaxed, informal pace than they would experience in the fall.

The retention rate of the original Jump Start participants is 100 percent, compared to 78 percent for all first-time freshmen at the end of the first year.

This year’s program, scheduled for June 13 through July 14, has been expanded from three to four classes. In addition to SPSU 1001 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to SPSU, Jump Start students will be offered the following core courses with no prerequisites: English 1101; Political Science 1101 - American Government; and Political Science 2401 - Global Issues. Also new this year, half of the participants will live on campus.

For more information, contact Gary Bush, director of Admissions, at ext. 5501 or gbush@spsu.edu

Dr. Siddiqi participates in ACE Mentoring event
Earlier this spring, Dr. Khalid Siddiqi, professor and chair of Construction Management, took part in the Atlanta ACE (Architecture, Construction and Engineering) Mentor Program “College Day at ACE!” event, along with representatives from Auburn University and Georgia Tech.

The goal of the ACE Mentor program is to encourage and guide high school students in pursuing careers in the disciplines of architecture, construction and engineering. Participating in the program gives students a chance to earn scholarships and grants after graduating from high school.

The program is a partnership between schools serving minority students and construction industry professionals, who work closely with the students. Students are guided in choosing an area of study that leads them to their desired career. In return, these industries benefit from a much-needed boost of new talent.

Dr. Siddiqi’s participation in the College Day event and the ACE Mentor Program gives SPSU greater visibility among local high schools and helps to spread the word about SPSU’s programs in architecture, construction and engineering.

Mock fraud trial gives SPSU accounting students eye-opening experience
The grades earned by the 16 students in Prof. William Beecken’s Fraud Examination accounting class this spring hinged on a mock trial involving allegations of financial fraud held in a real courtroom in Smyrna, Ga.

Two of the students served as expert witnesses in the trial, grilled on the stand by real court officials to simulate actual conditions fraud examiners and forensic accountants face on such occasions. The rest of the students, working behind the scenes in two teams, used the skills they had learned over the spring semester to examine the evidence and build a case either from the perspective of the defense or the prosecution.

Nationwide, more than 400 schools offer fraud examination in their accounting curricula. Southern Polytechnic State University is one of only four institutions that incorporate a mock-trial experience into the course, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the others being West Virginia University, Utica College (N.Y.) and Stevenson University (Md.).

Why are mock trials not commonly conducted? “Because it’s a big undertaking. It takes so much effort to pull this off,” said Prof. Beecken, who, in addition to teaching part-time, is a certified public accountant and a certified fraud examiner in private practice. He is also a retired supervisory auditor and investigator for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and senior forensic auditor for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).

Prof. Beecken said his course is encouraging SPSU accounting students to look at forensic accounting and fraud examination as career options. Two of the 10 students who participated in his first mock fraud trial last spring now work in the field, and several students in this year’s class have expressed interest in fraud examination as well.

Honors Composition II class raises $125 through photo exhibition
The fifth annual photo exhibition and sale held by the SPSU Honors Composition II class recently raised $125 for Second Harvest Japan, which will use the money to help with Japan’s disaster recovery efforts. This is the most money the class has raised for a cause since fundraising was added to the course activities four years ago. Thank you to all who participated!

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 20
June 1, 2011