I am so pleased to be this year’s advisor to the UGA Rotaract Club.  It’s a great group of students who have a keen eye on their future as not only business leaders but also good citizens.

Last weekend some of the members spent a Sunday afternoon doing community service by picking up roadside trash at the Alumni Association’s Adopt-A-Highway site in Athens.  As you see from the picture, they didn’t seem to mind.  It actually looks like they were having fun.  Thanks to the UGA Rotaract Club for this unselfish act as they promote the Rotary International motto of “Service Above Self.”

Miss UGA 2010, Laura Lyn McLeod ‘11, joined the Association’s Executive Committee  meeting last week to update us on her platform, “Hunger Doesn’t Take the Weekend Off.”  The Pineview, Ga. native is working to make sure at-risk kids don’t go hungry during the weekend when they are away from school.  Her platform partners with local schools to help identify children who might not eat until they come back to school.  This is something Laura Lyn has been championing for quite some time.  She began “Bakpak Buddeez” in 2005 in neighboring Cordele.  We are pleased to be associated with the Miss UGA program by providing funds to promote the winner’s platform.  Here you see Alumni Association President Vic Sullivan with Miss UGA.  Congratulations, Laura Lyn.

The University community will remember those students, faculty and staff who died in the past year at a candlelight memorial service this evening.  President Adams will lead the 7  p. m. service which will be held on the steps of the University Chapel.  Names of each of the 14 students and 12 faculty/staff members who died since May 2009 will be called out, followed by a toll of the Chapel bell.  Also, members of the Arch Society will light a candle as each name is read aloud.  This a solemn event and it serves as a reminder of just how precious life really is.  Click here for a listing of the names.

What a wonderful day on campus Friday.  We honored four very deserving alums and dear friends of UGA at our annual Alumni Awards luncheon.

This year’s Friend of UGA recipient is The Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc., an organization dedicated to preserving education in the American South through its many and generous scholarships.  Tad Brown is the grandson of founder, Walter J. Brown, and serves as the foundation’s executive director.

Atlanta businessman and long-time UGA supporter John McMullan ’58, ‘60 is this year’s Alumni Merit Award recipient.  John, an Athens native but Atlanta resident, is CEO of Camden Real Estate, a company he founded in 1990.

The family of Craig Barrow III of Savannah is this year’s Alumni Family of the Year.  Craig and his wife, Diana, graduated from UGA in 1965.  The Barrows date back to the founding of Georgia when it was just a colony.  Craig’s ancestor, Nobel Jones, accompanied Gen. James Oglethorpe and laid claim to the Barrow home site, Wormsloe, around 1730.        

We honored Dr. Arnett Mace Friday with our Faculty Service Award.  He’s been on campus for 19 years, first as Dean of the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources then as Sr. Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.  He retired from his Provost post in December. 

Congratulations to all!

Those who know me know that I love to talk with alums.  I also really enjoy interacting with students.  I had the opportunity recently to address a group of undergrads learning about UGA traditions.  Traditions, you say?  I could talk all day about the University and its storied history.  From the classroom to the gridiron, from the Arch to the brand new nano-bio clean room, UGA is rich in history.  For 225 years, our mission has remained the same, and that’s teaching students.  Now that’s a tradition!

Just two months ago I was delighted to report here that Lady Antebellum won its first Grammy Award.  And just this past weekend Lady A scored big again at the 45th annual Academy of Country Music Awards.  The trio won Top Vocal Group, Single of the Year and Song of the Year (for “Need You Now”) at this year’s awards ceremony in Las Vegas.  Two of the the three members are UGA grads.  Dave Haywood ‘04 and Charles Kelley ‘04 are from Martinez, Ga.  In 2009, they were named Top New Group by the ACM and the Country Music Association.  Congratulations!

Former Bulldog football standout and professional wrestler Bill Goldberg ‘89 has been inducted into The National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.  While at UGA, Bill starred as an All-SEC and All-American nose guard, then went on to the ranks of the NFL and played for the Los Angeles Rams and the Atlanta Falcons.  He’s used his star power in sports to obtain movie and TV roles, most recently on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice.  He also hosts Bullrun, a Speed Channel reality series.  Congratulations, Bill.

Hard to believe but it’s time again for nominations for our 2nd annual Bulldog 100, a program we created in 2009 to spotlight the fastest-growing companies owned or operated by UGA alums.  Last year we had more than 400 nominations, and from that group Hitson Land and Timber Management, Inc. was the fastest-growing business with a three-year growth rate of more than 370%.

Greg Hitson, a 1994 Forest Resources major and owner/president of the Port Orange, Fla., company, is all smiles as he poses for a picture with President Adams at last January’s banquet.  Click here for all the details about the Bulldog 100 and here to nominate a business.  How about nominating yours?  Maybe a UGA classmate’s company.

We couldn’t have had a more beautiful day Saturday for our 2010 Ring Ceremony, where we present juniors and seniors with the class rings they’ve purchased through our ring program.  Nearly 75 students, along with their families and friends, gathered at the Georgia Center where they proudly walked across Mahler Auditorium stage to receive their rings.

I want to thank all those involved for making this a lifetime memory for our wonderful students.  A special thanks goes out to Alumni Association President Vic Sullivan who accompanied me in the presentation.  Here you see Vic standing with a happy Kaysie Patterson, a senior Family and Consumer Sciences major from Evans.  Congratulations to all!  Click here for more information about our Class Ring program.

A UGA College of Education graduate has become the first Israeli Arab women to be appointed as an associate professor at an Israeli research university.  Fadia Nasser-Abu Alhija earned a Ph. D. from UGA in educational psychology in 1997.  She heads up the department of cirriculum and instruction at Tel Aviv University’s School of Education.  This is a major breakthrough for Fadia, and she gives a lot of credit to UGA.  “The UGA faculty and my two dissertation mentors provided me with the state-of-the-art professional knowledge, skills and training,” she said in a news release about the appointment.  Fadia said there is a “growing awareness among Arab women in Israel of the need and benefit of higher education.”