Brother 2 Brother awarded national chapter of the year
Georgia Highlands College started its Brother 2 Brother chapter in fall 2009 on the Floyd campus with only 7 students. Today, the membership has grown to around 120 students on all five campuses. At the end of March, GHC’s B2B won the Outstanding Chapter of the Year Award for the third time in four years.
The annual award is presented to any one of the nearly 300 chapters across the country by the national organization called the Student African American Brotherhood (SAAB) and is determined by the strength of the enrollment, retention and graduation rates of its members, as well as by the activities and dedication of the chapter during the year.
B2B students and advisors attended the conference in Detroit, Michigan, where they accepted the award.
The B2B group has also seen a lot of success on the state level, winning the African American Initiative (AAMI) Leadership Award.
“We have done this because we have been consistently strong, and have created a successful multi-campus model,” GHAME and Brother 2 Brother Director Jon Hershey said.
Hershey explained that on top of the growing membership rate, B2B has members taking on several leadership positions at GHC, from student newspaper editors to presidents of the Student Government Association. Many faculty and staff also volunteer their time to the program, he added.
“We are fulfilling our mission,” Hershey said, “but [we] have room to grow and intend to improve our numbers every year.”
Hershey, who also serves as GHC’s dean of humanities, stated that the B2B initiative grew out of the University System of Georgia’s concern with low enrollment, retention and graduation rates of African American men in college in the state.
The USG’s initiative is the AAMI. GHC worked with the state AAMI to begin GHAME (Georgia Highlands African American and Minority Male Excellence) in 2008. GHC decided to include Latino males in its program, as well.
Brother 2 Brother is under the umbrella of the GHAME initiative.