VOLUME XLVII ISSUE 37 APRIL 6, 2009

Spring Choral Concert Thursday

The ABAC Con-cert Choir under the direction of Dr. Susan Roe, Associ-ate Profes-sor of Voice, will perform a variety of choral music at the spring concert at 7

p.m. on Thursday in Howard Auditorium on the campus of Abraham Baldwin Agricul-tural College. The concert is open to anyone who would like to attend at no charge.

The choir’s selections for the evening will begin with “The Star Spangled Ban-ner” followed by “How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place” from “Ein deutsches Requiem” by Johannes Brahms and “Psalm 23” by Paul Basler.

“The Awakening” by Joseph Martin will be sung by the tenors and basses of

The First Tuesday Concert at ABAC on Tuesday will feature Dr. Brian Ned-vin, tenor; Dr. Matthew Hoch, baritone; and piano accompanist Ben Harris. They will perform classical pieces from Bach, Strauss, Bizet, and other composers.

The concert will take place at 7 p.m. in the ABAC Chapel of All Faiths. Tickets for the performance can be purchased at the door. The cost is $3 for adults and $1 for stu-dents. ABAC students are admitted free with ID. Patrons of the Arts and

Entertainment Series can attend at no charge. An art exhibit and refresh-ments will be held in the ABAC music

Bonn Stadt Opera, and the Dortmund Opera.

Hoch is also an Assistant Professor of Music at Shorter College, where he teaches applied voice and vocal lit-erature courses. He earned his Bachelor of Music de-gree, summa cum laude, from Ithaca College with a triple major in vocal per-formance, music education, and music theory; his Master of Music degree from the Hartt School with a

double major in vocal performance and music history; and his Doctorate of Mu-sical Arts degree in vocal performance and literature from the New England Conservatory. Hoch is active as a solo performer in oratorio, opera, art song, chamber music, and musical theatre.

Harris is an Instructor of Music at Shorter College, where he also serves a

vocal coach and accom-panist. He received his Master of Music degree in accompanying from Baylor University, his Bachelor’s of Music de-gree in piano perform-ance from Oklahoma Baptist University, and his Associate of Arts degree

in piano and organ performance from Frank Phillips College. He served as ballet accompanist for the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute. Harris has also served as a staff accompanist for the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) summer program in Graz, Aus-tria. He has been heard as a chamber

musician on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” program.

The First Tuesday Concert Series takes place on five selected first Tues-days during the academic year. Dr. Susan Roe, associate professor of voice at ABAC, directs the series. For more information, contact Roe at (229) 391-4943.

building immediately after the concert. Nedvin is an Assistant Professor of

Music at Shorter College, where he teaches applied voice, dic-tion, and opera role prepara-tion. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Buck-nell University, his Master of Music degree from Eastman School of Music, and his Doc-torate of Musical Arts degree at the University of North Texas. He has appeared as a leading tenor at the New York

City Opera, Washington Op-era, Pittsburgh Opera, Edmonton Op-era, Arizona Opera, Cincinnati Opera,

Dr. Matthew Hoch

Ben Harris

the concert choir. The sopranos and altos will follow, singing “I Am Not Yours” by David N. Childs. The ABAC Chamber Singers will perform

Eric Whi-tacre’s “Seal Lullaby” followed by the ABAC Jazz Choir who will perform a number of jazz favorites by Duke Elling-ton and George Gershwin. The evening will conclude with “Soon Ah Will Be Done” by William L. Dawson and “Swing Low” arranged by Tifton’s own Zoe Hobby, who is an adjunct professor for ABAC in the music department. The final song of the evening will be “Why We Sing” by Greg Gilpin.

For more information, interested per-sons can contact Roe at (229) 391-4943.

First Tuesday Concert in Chapel at 7 p.m.

Dr. Brian Nedvin

All Hail Breaks Loose at ABAC!

Hail accumulates on the Pedestrian Mall near ABAC Place during a storm Sunday af-

ternoon. There was some damage, particularly to the greenhouses. This picture was

submitted by Dean of Students Bernice Hughes.

Juniors Visiting

Campus April 18 A Stallion Day recruitment event

aimed strictly at high school juniors will take place on April 18 at Abraham Bald-win Agricultural College from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Registration begins at 9 a.m. in the Donaldson Dining Hall with campus tours to follow.

Admissions Counselor Brooke Jernigan said the event will include con-versation corners, lunch, and informa-

tion sessions throughout the day. “Two separate programs will be held

during the day, one for students and the other geared toward their parents,” Jernigan said.

The student program will begin at 10 a.m. with a welcome from SGA Presi-dent Nate Carney and ABAC Ambassa-dors President Lindsey Roberts. A stu-dent information panel will follow. At 11 a.m., students will relocate to the Health Sciences building to attend conversa-tion corners on college life with topics ranging from student success to athlet-ics and intramurals.

The parents’ program will begin at 10 a.m. in the dining hall with a welcome and discussion on the topic of “Student and Parent Perspectives”. At 10:30 a.m., parents will reconvene in Conger Hall and attend two conversation corners in subjects ranging from transitions to col-lege life to health and wellness.

Lunch will be served from noon – 1 p.m. in the dining hall. Lunch is free for all prospective students attending Stal-lion Day. The cost for parents, friends,

and relatives is $5.35 each. The day will conclude with informa-

tion sessions for both students and par-ents from 1 p.m. – 2 p.m. Stallion Day participants will then have the option of attending the ABAC baseball and soft-ball games. Anyone interested in Stal-lion Day should register on line at www.abac.edu/stalliondays or call (229) 391-5004.

Spring Band Concert on April 14 The ABAC Concert Band under the

direction of Woody Leonard will pre-sent its 2009 spring concert on April 14 at 7 p.m. in Howard Auditorium at Abra-ham Baldwin Agricultural College.

A variety of selections will be per-formed, including two premiere pro-ductions. Billy S. Martin will serve as the guest conductor on one number. The event is open to anyone who would like to attend at no charge.

The 80-member group will begin the night’s program with “The Star Span-gled Banner” followed by Nicholas Rim-

sky-Korsakov’s “Procession of Nobles.” “First Suite in F”, written by composer/arranger Thom Ritter George, is the next performance piece. This selection was dedicated to the United States Navy band in honor of its 50th anniversary.

Martin will conduct “Bugles and Drums March” by Edwin Franko Gold-

man. Martin, a music educator for over 40 years, is the retired director of The Georgia Bridgemen at Lowndes High School and is currently director of bands for Lanier County High School.

Harry King, president of the Abraham Baldwin Concert Band and director of the ABAC Gospel Choir, will be the fea-tured soloist on the premiere perform-ance of “Return of the Diver”. Origi-nally composed for jazz ensemble by Matt Harris, this concert band arrange-ment was written by Leonard and should be a crowd favorite.

“El Relicario”, written by Spanish composer Jose Padilla, will conclude the program. This Paso Doble incorporates a fiery tempo along with castanets and maracas.

For more information, interested per-sons can call Leonard at (229) 391-4944.

Young Can Assist with ABAC Web Pages Alma Young, who coordinates the ABAC Information Center, can assist you in designing web pages for your ABAC academic area or department. You can contact her at 5001.

ABAC Team Third At Wildlife Conclave Students from Abraham

Baldwin Agricultural Col-lege went toe to toe with 19 major colleges and univer-sities to finish third in the recent Southeastern Wild-life Student Conclave in Little Rock, Ark.

ABAC finished second in the Quiz Bowl competition and third overall out of powerful lineup of univer-sities including Auburn University, University of

Florida, Clemson Univer-sity, North Carolina State University, Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University, and the University of Tennessee. The University of Georgia (UGA) won the competition, and Arkansas State Univer-sity finished second.

“Given that this is only the third year we've competed, and given the fact that we have freshmen and sophomores competing against juniors, seniors, and graduate students, the students performed phenomenally,” said Dr. William Moore, Assistant Pro-fessor and one of the advisors along with Dr. Doug Waid to the Forestry-Wildlife Club members who competed.

“We received high praise from many of the faculty at the other universities, including UGA,” Moore said. “Most of the other schools were pulling for us in

the Quiz Bowl finals, especially since our first match against them was the first time they'd lost a Quiz Bowl match in five years.”

Several team members placed high in individual events. Casey Arnett placed first in the freeform art category and wild turkey calling competitions. David Freeman finished third in Sport-ing Clays with Jason Davis receiving fourth place in Archery. Brian Shockley finished fifth place in Fly Casting, and Jenni Smith placed fifth in the Essay

competition. This marks only the third year in which ABAC has participated in the event after forming a Wildlife Society Student Chapter in 2006. “The students competed hard in all of the different events, which was also made tougher since our team was relatively small, requiring individuals to participate in more than one event,” said Moore.

The Wildlife Conclave is an annual competition in which colleges and univer-sities from all over the Southeast face off in a vari-ety of academic and skill competitions. Teams from most universities are pri-marily comprised of upper-classmen and graduate students. Historically, the

Quiz Bowl and a Team Competition have always been the focal points of Conclave and count the most toward each team’s overall score. The Team Competition is a comprehensive test covering a variety of wildlife and for-estry knowledge and abilities.

Other skill and individual competi-tions include Orienteering, Wildlife Telemetry, Dendrology, Canoeing, Archery, Obstacle Course, Sporting Clays, Fly Casting, Art, Photography, and Game Calling.

Students representing ABAC at the Wildlife Conclave took third

place overall against a very powerful lineup of universities.

Tennis Teams at Home on Wednesday & Friday Coach Alan Kramer’s ABAC tennis teams will be at home on Wednes-day and Friday this week. ABAC will host Georgia Southwestern on Wednesday and Central Alabama comes to town on Friday. Both matches begin at 2 p.m. ABAC will host the Region XVII tournament at the Red Hill Tennis Center on April 25 beginning at 8:30 a.m.

Subconnection Now Open

Subconnection is now open for business! We are inviting the fac-ulty and staff so you may see, taste, and experience it FIRST! The daily hours are 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.

The FOCUS is a weekly electronic publication produced by the Abra-ham Baldwin Agricultural College Public Relations Office . Ashley Williamson Mike Chason Ashley Williamson Mike Chason Ashley Williamson Mike Chason Ashley Williamson Mike Chason Writer and Layout Writer &Editor

Please submit any information to Ashley Williamson at awilliam-son@abac.edu by Thursday at noon for inclusion in the next FOCUS.

Dr. David Bridges appeared on the WALB-TV noon show in Al-bany on March 24 to talk about the Rural Studies degree.

Dr. Niles Reddick appeared on the WSST-TV noon show in Cordele on April 3 to talk about the Rural Studies degree.

Dr. Maggie Martin and a team of counselors from other colleges across the state presented "Developing a State-Wide Crisis Response Network" on April 1 at the National Association of College Personnel Association's annual convention in Washington, DC. Phil Hightower, laboratory technician with the School of Science and Mathematics, attended the 6th annual Southeastern Ecology and Evolu-tion Conference (SEEC) in Gainesville, Fla., on March 28. Hightower presented a poster containing part of the information from his completed master's thesis, "The life history of the crayfish Procambarus spicu-lifer in the Alapahoochee River".

Dr. Paul Foote escorted 25 State & Local Government and Political Sci-ence club students to the state capitol for a meeting with the governor and three state representatives (Austin Scott, Jay Roberts, and Penny Houston)on March 12. Dr. Paul Foote and the Political Science Club sponsored guest speaker Sam Collier of the “Climate Control Project” on March 26. He spoke with 50 ABAC students about the dangers of climate change and possible solutions.

ABAC Birthdays

6 Wanda Golden 8 Amanda Bridges 10 Diantha Ellis 10 Bernice Hughes

Job Opportunities • Director of Institutional Research & Planning

• TRIO Programs/Tiftarea Upward Bound Coordinator

• Overnight Desk Clerk

• Assistant Director of Financial Aid

• ABAC Police Officer

• Part-time Credentialed Faculty

Mark Your Calendar: Honors Day April 15 This year’s Honors Day will be a little

different than in the past, as we will be including our Service Awards and Retiree Recognitions during the ceremony. We do not expect the ceremony to last any longer than usual. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. on

April 15 in Gressette Gym. Classes will be dismissed at 10:30 am and will re-sume at 2 p.m. Everyone is invited to attend as we recognize our talented and dedicated students, faculty, staff, and retirees!

ABAC Receives Clean Campus Award The Tifton Council of Garden Clubs awarded ABAC with the Clean Campus Award for the month for April. Congratulations to all Sodexo groundskeepers for their hard work in keeping our campus looking great.