IMMEDIATE JUNE 3, 2004

VEAL HELPS ESTABLISH STUDENT HONORS ASSOCIATION

TIFTON—A new organization will be soon be added to the list of Abraham Baldwin College activities thanks to Mary Veal, a student from Ocilla. Veal has helped to establish the Student Honors Association under the advisement of Dr. Luke Vassiliou.

Veal, an early childhood education major, spoke at the InterActivities Council meeting in order to get the organization founded. “The goal of the Student Honors Association is to educate students on the high school level about the program at ABAC,” she said. “Students have a difficulty between high school and their first year of college. I want to try and make that transition easier.”

Veal plans to attend the first meeting of the organization. “I want to see the program get off the ground,” she said. “We need it. It’s also a way for the two honors seminars to come together.” She said conventions are also in the works for the organization.

Veal initially majored in English. “I wanted to be an English teacher and had received a scholarship through Auburn,” she said. But when she and her family moved to Ocilla from Memphis, Tenn., she changed her major. “ABAC just seemed to fit,” she said.

As far as her choice of major, Veal said, “I always wanted to educate children. I didn’t choose it; it chose me.” She is the new President of the Georgia Association of Educators Student Program at ABAC for the 2004-2005 year. Veal currently resides in Ocilla with her husband, an Ocilla native, and her two daughters.