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Almost 30% of adults in the U.S. lack basic numeracy skills, meaning they don’t understand simple processes like counting, arithmetic and calculating percentages. Two professors from Georgia Southern University’s College of Education (COE) are part of a collaborative effort, funded by a $3 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, aimed at improving that number for upcoming generations. Sam Rhodes, Ph.D., assistant professor of elementary mathematics education, and Antonio Gutierrez de Blume, Ph.D., professor in curriculum, foundations and reading, were awarded almost $400,000 of the overall sum. In collaboration with researchers from the University of Minnesota and the University of Pennsylvania and CueThink, an online application focused on improving math problem-solving and collaboration skills, they will help middle school students better understand numerical and mathematical concepts. “The grant is important to me because I am passionate about helping students improve their abilities to engage in mathematical problem solving,” said Rhodes. “Collaborating with peers to tackle challenging problems is one of the most exciting parts of learning and doing mathematics. I want to work to bring these experiences to all students in ways that are engaging and that effectively support their learning of mathematics.” The four-year grant is part of NSF’s Discovery Research preK-12 program. Georgia Southern’s COE offers students multiple program opportunities, including undergraduate and more than 30 graduate program options that span campus locations in Savannah, Statesboro and Hinesville, and online. Programs offered by the COE prepare future teachers, school psychologists, counselors, school library media specialists, instructional technologists, researchers and leaders through intensive field experiences, cutting-edge technology and research-based instruction. Interested in knowing more? To arrange an interview with Sam Rhodes or Antonio Gutierrez de Blume simply connect with Georgia Southern's Director of Communications Jennifer Wise at jwise@georgiasouthern.edu to arrange an interview today.
The National Science Foundation announced a $2.5 million award supporting Georgia Southern University researchers in addressing high-demand workforce needs in information technology and computer science fields. The funded project, “Enabling Lifelong Success in an Information Technology Workforce,” adapts and evaluates evidence-based student support activities within the IT Department, one of the units in the Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Computing. The goal of the project is to identify a group of highly qualified students and to render 161 scholarships over a six-year period in an effort to increase student retention and graduation rates. “This is great news for the IT program at Georgia Southern, and it will provide a positive impact to the surrounding area as businesses’ needs for IT professionals increase,” said interim Vice President of Research and Economic Development Chris Curtis, Ph.D. Georgia Southern Professor and Department of Information Technology Chair Yiming Ji, Ph.D., is taking the lead on the grant, which, he noted, has the potential to have a profound impact on students. “This project will train a pool of talented students, especially those with financial needs, and prepare them for successful careers in IT,” said Ji. “With scholarships from the grant, students will have time to focus on studying, instead of having to work to make ends meet. These students will also receive dedicated support, including academic advising, research opportunities, internship and career service and much more. The result is that these students will become confident and have a greater future in IT careers.” The project involves four researchers, including Lei Chen, Ph.D., (co-PI), professor of IT; Hayden Wimmer, Ph.D., (co-PI), associate professor of IT; Elise Cain, Ph.D., (co-PI), assistant professor of leadership’ and Kania Greer, Ed.D., (external evaluator), program coordinator of the Center for STEM education. The project also received support from the Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) and the Georgia Southern Office of Research. The national and regional demand for computer and IT professionals remains high. “This project will directly benefit our local, regional and national economies,” said CEC Dean Craig Harvey, Ph.D. “High-tech industries are already in and being attracted to the Savannah area, and the locations of Georgia Southern University’s campuses provide unique opportunities to train high-quality computing and IT professionals who are in high demand.” The Department of Information Technology offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate computer and IT programs at Georgia Southern, in addition to a new Ph.D. program in applied computing. This grant is the first of its kind to be received by the IT department. The department hopes that through the use of this grant, they will build stronger partnerships with businesses and federal or state government organizations, among others. Interested in knowing more? To arrange an interview with Yiming Ji or Chris Curtis, simply connect with Georgia Southern's Director of Communications Jennifer Wise at jwise@georgiasouthern.edu to arrange an interview today.
Back to School: Experts Available to talk ChatGPT, Food Insecurity and Education Leadership
With the school year starting very soon, the University of Delaware media team have rounded up some education stories, experts and research to consider for feature/publication. Experts: Gary Henry is dean of the University of Delaware’s College of Education and Human Development and professor in the School of Education and the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy & Administration. He specializes in education policy, educational evaluation, educator labor markets, and quantitative research methods. Gary can lend context and steps to take to reverse/adapt to this new educational landscape. Allison Karpyn is an associate professor who can speak to topics related to hunger, obesity, school food, supermarket access, food insecurity, healthy corner stores and strategies to develop and maintain farmer’s markets in low-income areas. She has spoken extensively about food in schools and can offer context to those subjects. Joshua Wilson is an associate professor and has been featured in WaPo for his AI/ChatGPT knowledge in the past. His research broadly focuses on ways to improve the teaching and learning of writing and specifically focuses on ways that automated writing evaluation systems can facilitate those improvements. Stories: UD professor partners with Sesame Workshop to create Stories with Clever Hedgehog Among the casualties of the Ukraine war are 2 million-plus children. In an effort to restore some sense of normalcy to their education years, University of Delaware professor Roberta Golinkoff—a nationally recognized expert in childhood literacy—has partnered with Sesame Workshop and others to develop Stories with Clever Hedgehog, a website with free interactive e-books, games and other resources. Books are available in both Ukrainian and English, prompting a global experience for readers of any background. There are photos and video ready for this coverage. Golinkoff and Sesame Workshop leadership are open for interviews. Research: Study finds teachers’ anxiety in mathematics and science was associated with the mathematics and science anxiety of their low-SES students To reach out to specific experts, please click on their "View Profile" button.
Optical research illuminates a possible future for computing technology
Nathaniel Kinsey, Ph.D., Engineering Foundation Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), is leading a group to bring new relevance to a decades-old computing concept called a perceptron. Emulating biological neuron functions of the messenger cells within the body’s central nervous system, perceptrons are an algorithmic model for classifying binary input. When combined within a neural network, perceptrons become a powerful component for machine learning. However, instead of using traditional digital processing, Kinsey seeks to create this system using light with funding from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. This “nonlinear optical perceptron” is an ambitious undertaking that blends advanced optics, machine learning and nanotechnology. “If you put a black sheet outside on a sunny day, it heats up, causing properties such as its refractive index to change,” Kinsey said. “That’s because the object is absorbing various wavelengths of light. Now, if you design a material that is orders of magnitude more complex than a sheet of black plastic, we can use this change in refractive index to modify the reflection or transmission of individual colors – controlling the flow of light with light.” Refractive index is an expression of a material’s ability to bend light. Researchers can harness those refractive qualities to create a switch similar to the binary 1-0 base of digital silicon chip computing. Kinsey and collaborators from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, including his former VCU Ph.D. student Dhruv Fomra, are currently working to design a new kind of optically sensitive material. Their goal is to engineer and produce a device combining a unique nonlinear material, called epsilon-near-zero, and a nanostructured surface to offer improved control over transmission and reflection of light. Kinsey’s prior research has demonstrated that epsilon-near-zero materials combine unique features that allow their refractive index to be modified quite radically – from 0.3 to 1.3 under optical illumination – which is roughly equivalent to the difference between a reflective metal and transparent water. While an effective binary switch, the large change in index requires a lot of energy (~1 milli-Joules per square centimeter). By combining epsilon-near-zero with a specifically designed nanostructure exhibiting surface lattice resonance, Kinsey hopes to achieve a reduction in the required energy to activate the response. The unique response of a nanostructure exhibiting surface lattice resonance allows light to effectively be bent 90 degrees, arriving perpendicular to the surface while being split into two waves that travel along the surface. When a large area of the nanostructure is illuminated, the waves traveling along the surface mix, where they interfere constructively or destructively with each other. This interference can produce strong modification to reflection and transmission that is very sensitive to the geometry of the nanostructure, the wavelength of the incident light and the refractive index of the surrounding materials. The mixing of optical signals along the surface can also selectively switch regions of the epsilon-near-zero material thereby performing processing operations. A key aspect of Kinsey’s work is to build nonlinear components, like diodes and transistors, that use optical signals instead of electrical ones. Transistors and other traditional electronic components are nonlinear by default because electrical charges strongly interact with each other (for example, two electrons will tend to repel each other). Creating optical nonlinear components is challenging because photons do not strongly interact, they just pass through each other. To correct for this, Kinsey employs materials whose properties change in response to incident light, but the interaction is weak and thus requires large energies to utilize. Kinsey’s device aims to reduce that energy requirement while simultaneously shaping light to perform useful operations through the use of the nanostructured surface and lightwave interference. The United States Department of Defense sees optical computing as the next step in military imaging. Kinsey’s work, while challenging, has potential to yield an enormous payoff. “Let’s say you want to find a tank within an image,” Kinsey said, “Using a camera to capture the scene, translate that image into an electrical signal and run it through a traditional, silicon-circuit-based computer processor takes a lot of processing power. Especially when you try to detect, transfer, and process higher pixel resolutions. With the nonlinear optical perceptron, we’re trying to discover if we can perform the same kinds of operations purely in the optical domain without having to translate anything into electrical signals.” Linear optical systems, like metasurfaces and photonic integrated circuits, can already process information using only a fraction of the power of traditional tools. Building nonlinear optical systems would expand the functionality of these existing linear systems, making them ideal for remote sensing platforms on drones and satellites. Initially, the resolution would not be as sharp as traditional cameras, but optical processing built into the device would translate an image into a notification of tanks, troops on the move, for example. Kinsey suggests optical-computing surveillance would make an ideal early warning system to supplement traditional technology. “Elimination or minimization of electronics has been a kind of engineering holy grail for a number of years,” Kinsey said, “For situations where information naturally exists in the form of light, why not have an optical-in and optical-out system without electronics in the middle?” Linear optical computing uses minimal power, but is not capable of complex image processing. Kinsey’s research seeks to answer if the additional power requirement of nonlinear optical computing is worthwhile given its ability to handle more complex processing tasks. Nonlinear optical computing could be applied to a number of non-military applications. In driverless cars, optical computing could make better light detection and ranging equipment (better known as LIDAR). Dark field microscopy already uses related optical processing techniques for ‘edge detection’ that allows researchers to directly view details without the electronic processing of an image. Telecommunications could also benefit from optical processing, using optical neural networks to read address labels and send data packets without having to do an optical to electrical conversion. The concept of optical computing is not new, but interest (and funding) in theory and development waned in the 1980s and 1990s when silicon chip processing proved to be more cost effective. Recent years have seen many advancements in computing, but the more recent slowdown in scaling of silicon-based technologies have opened the door to new data processing technologies. “Optical computing could be the next big thing in computing technology,” Kinsey said. “But there are plenty of other contenders — such as quantum computing — for the next new presence in the computational ecosystem. Whatever comes up, I think that photonics and optics are going to be more and more prevalent in these new ways of computation, even if it doesn’t look like a processor that does optical computing.” Kinsey and other researchers working in the field are in the early stages of scientific exploration into these optical computing devices. Consumer applications are still decades away, but with silicon-based systems reaching the limit of their potential, the future for this light-based technology is bright.
Inspired by Palm Trees' Resilience, Florida Tech Researcher Seeks to Strengthen Made Materials
Inspired by the tiny, circular vessels in the trunks of palm trees that allow the iconic plants to bend but not snap in strong winds, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering is researching how to recreate Mother Nature’s handiwork in additive manufacturing. Mirmilad Mirsayar received a three-year, $200,627 research grant from the National Science Foundation’s highly competitive Mechanics of Materials and Structures program under the Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation to study the mechanics and physics of crack propagation in functionally graded cellular structures made by additive manufacturing. That’s the process of creating an object by building it one layer at a time. Mirsayar is the sole principal investigator of the project, “Understanding Mixed-Mode Fracture Mechanics in Additively Manufacturable Functionally Graded Microcellular Solids.” His research is inspired by cellular patterns seen in palm trees and butterfly wings. For example, unlike oak trees and some others, the palm tree’s center contains those vessels, distributed non-uniformly throughout the trunk, that help it survive in Florida’s windy environment. Other biological systems, such as bone, honeycombs and marine sponges, also serve as inspirations from nature. “I’m enjoying this research because I’m learning from nature and I’m applying fundamentals of physics and mathematics to solve a very important engineering problem while training the next generation of engineers and researchers,” Mirsayar said. Materials with cellular structures, such as aircraft wings and artificial bones, are widely used in industries such as aerospace and biomedical. As additive manufacturing has advanced, materials with cellular structures and increasingly complex geometrical patterns can be precisely manufactured. Mirsayar is looking at ways to optimize these strong and light cellular structures made by additive manufacturing to achieve the highest resistance against failure under complex operational loading conditions, such as bending tension, compression and torsion. What could this mean for additive manufacturing? How could stronger materials change what or how we build? Contact Florida Tech Media Communications Director Adam Lowenstein at adam@fit.edu to schedule an interview with Dr. Mirsayar.
#Expert Insight: US Firms 20 Years Out of Date on Customer Diversity
Diversity, equity, and inclusion have steadfastly risen to the top of corporate agendas in the U.S. and elsewhere over the course of the last few years. From 2022, all 100 of the Fortune 100 companies had clearly-defined diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives outlined on their websites—good news for their workforce, suppliers, and distributors. But what about their customers? A landmark new study by Goizueta Business School’s Omar Rodriguez-Vila finds that while intra-organizational DEI efforts are robust, many U.S. firms are lagging behind societal reality when it comes to fully representing diversity in their marketplace actions. Rodriguez-Vila finds that in terms of skin type, body type, and physical (dis)ability, actions by the top 50 American brands are a good 20 years behind the current demographic makeup of the country. Rodriguez-Vila, who is a professor in the practice of marketing at Goizueta, has teamed with Dionne Nickerson of the University of Indiana’s Kelley School of Business, and Sundar Bharadwaj of The University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, to measure brand inclusivity; a term that he and his colleagues have coined to describe how well brands serve underrepresented consumer communities. Inclusive brands, he says, are those that “enhance consumers’ perceptions of acceptance, belonging, equity, and respect through their actions and market offerings.” To assess how well some of the biggest firms are doing in terms of this kind of marketplace inclusivity, Rodriguez-Vila worked with a team of full-time MBA and undergraduate students[1] to assess the 50 most valuable brands across 10 consumer-facing industries. Using machine learning and human coders they analyzed these brands’ social media posts on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, looking for patterns of representational diversity across four measures: skin type; body type; hair type; and physical ability. Altogether, they processed just short of 11,000 social media posts made between June 2021 and July 2022. What they find is stunning. “We used our data to apply the Simpson’s Diversity Index (SDI) to the population of social media posts by the largest brands in the United States. The SDI is a commonly used equation to measure the diversity of a population,” says Rodriguez-Vila. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the racial diversity index of the country is 61 percent, and has been consistently increasing over the past 20 years. Applying the SDI calculation to measure the diversity in social media messages is a novel idea and one that provides clarity on the state of inclusion in brand communications, he adds. We found that the racial diversity index of social media messages by the top U.S. brands was just 41%. The last time the racial diversity index was in that range was in the year 2000. Omar Rodriguez-Vila In other words, the racial diversity these brands are collectively representing in their messages is 20 years behind the reality of the country. Interestingly, this lag between representation and demographic reality is common to brands in virtually all of the industries studied—from airlines to fashion, consumer packaged goods to financial services, hospitality to retail. The only sector that bucks the trend in any substantive way, he says, is beauty; even then this is likely only because beauty firms have come under fire for underrepresenting Black and non-white customers in the recent past. “Brands’ social media is typically more nuanced and comprehensive than advertising, so it’s more telling as a measure of what they prioritize. And by this measure, we’re seeing systemic bias across a majority of industries,” says Rodriguez-Vila. “Some, like beauty, fare better than others, but then beauty arguably has the strongest business case for diversity.” That being said, there is a robust business case for organizations across all industries to do better in marketplace inclusion. Not only does representational diversity have the potential to open up new markets, new customer bases, and areas for expansion, but “Feeling represented and included matters to everyone,” says Rodriguez-Vila. “To understand the importance of inclusion to customers we used a discrete choice model where people made trade-offs between price and a collection of product features in order to understand the factors that motivated them to make a purchase,” he explains. “We tested a sample of consumers looking to buy sportswear, and we added representation of diversity and inclusion as a characteristic, to see if it had any impact on their choices.” Again, the results are stunning. On average, 51 percent of customers took inclusion into account as a primary driver of athletic apparel choices. Inclusion was a priority driver of choice among 38 percent of consumers in historically well-represented communities—slim, white, able-bodied people. When Rodriguez-Vila and his colleagues expanded the analysis to other historically under-represented groups they found a significantly greater impact. Here, inclusion was a primary driver among 61 percent of plus-size, Black consumers and for 87 percent of consumers that identified as non-binary. In other words, inclusion can be a critically important factor to a majority of customers who are making decisions about whether to purchase products and services, or not. The marketplace is changing, says Rodriguez-Vila, and brands need new ways of understanding their customer base if they are to avoid missing out on opportunities. To this end, he, Nickerson and Bharadwaj are working with three of the firms in their study, piloting a range of interventions designed to accelerate marketplace inclusion. They have partnered with Sephora, Conde Nast, and Campbells to roll out specific practices both in the workplace and the marketplace—from advocacy to communication and commercial practices to things like greater diversity in marketing operations, and in talent recruitment practices. Early indicators are promising, says Rodriquez-Vila. “Our work is set to deliver tools that will help firms normalize and institutionalize marketplace inclusion as a function of their day-to-day operations. And it’s exciting to see a shift in thinking about DEI—from an exclusive focus on the workplace and how you eliminate bias within the organization, to practices that are geared also to eliminating bias in the way you serve markets.” Looking to know more? Connect with Omar Rodriguez-Vila today. Comply click on his icon now to arrange a time to talk.
CorpusCast with Dr Robbie Love: Dr Miloš Jakubíček on Sketch Engine
The latest episode of the Aston Originals podcast, CorpusCast with Dr Robbie Love, offers listeners a peek into the remarkable evolution of Sketch Engine, the ground-breaking corpus query and management system developed by Lexical Computing. In this episode, Dr Miloš Jakubíček, the CEO of Lexical Computing, takes centre stage to narrate the fascinating journey of Sketch Engine. As an accomplished NLP researcher and software engineer, Dr Jakubíček’s profound expertise in the intersection of corpus linguistics, computational linguistics and lexicography promises to unravel the story behind one of the most widely used and celebrated corpus platforms in existence. For over 20 years, Sketch Engine has been a cornerstone of research in various domains, including lexicography, language learning and, naturally, corpus linguistics. This episode delves into the origins of Sketch Engine, tracing its growth from its inception to its current status as a trusted companion of linguists, researchers and language enthusiasts worldwide. Listeners will get an insider's perspective on the monumental impact of Sketch Engine in processing vast text corpora and deciphering morphologically rich languages. Dr Jakubíček sheds light on the tool's pivotal role in advancing research in these areas, reflecting on its dynamic journey from conception to its position as a game-changing resource for language professionals. Meanwhile Dr Love is thrilled to present this engaging episode, which coincides with the announcement made at the recent Corpus Linguistics Conference. With excitement resonating in his voice, Dr Love shared that Aston University, alongside Birmingham City University and the University of Birmingham, will co-host the upcoming Corpus Linguistics Conference in 2025. This exciting news, revealed during the conference in Lancaster, promises to gather linguists, researchers and enthusiasts in Birmingham for an event that is expected to be a milestone in the world of linguistic exploration. Don't miss out on this riveting episode, where the past, present and future of corpus linguistics converge through the lens of Sketch Engine. Tune in for an enlightening conversation with Dr Miloš Jakubíček, available here and on all major podcast platforms. Dr Robbie Love ? https://bit.ly/3Zcgo36 Dr Miloš Jakubíček ? https://bit.ly/3DHBgWF Aston Centre for Applied Linguistics ? https://bit.ly/3QKHcSF School of Social Sciences and Humanities ? https://bit.ly/3JCRAd1 Find out more about courses related to this show ? https://bit.ly/3pR705k #linguistics #corpuslinguistics #astonuniversity
Five Tips to Choose Sustainable Fashion
Getty Images Fast Fashion is the most popular trend in retail fashion today. Fast Fashion isn’t a specific style but rather clothing produced quickly and cheaply to respond instantly to consumer demand. Low prices and popular online retailers allow people to purchase clothing more often but at a devastating cost to the environment. According to EarthDay.org, the fashion industry is one of the largest global polluters, creating 4% of all greenhouse gas emissions, 40 million tons of landfill waste and 35% of microplastics in the ocean. According to fashion expert Jay Yoo, Ph.D., associate professor of apparel merchandising in the Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences at Baylor University, consumers are learning more about the environmental impacts of fashion and searching for better options. Fashion expert Jay Yoo, Ph.D., associate professor of apparel merchandising in the Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences at Baylor University Fashion expert Jay Yoo, Ph.D. Yoo’s research shows that purchasing apparel products that help reduce negative impacts on the environment has emerged as a lifestyle. “Fashion-conscious consumers are ready and willing to forgo fast fashion for more sustainable options produced in an ecologically and socially responsible way,” said Yoo. Yoo recommends five ways you can use your purchasing power to support sustainable fashion. Choose natural fibers - organic cotton, linen or hemp. Avoid clothing that requires dry cleaning. Donate to and shop at resale stores. Purchase from retailers that are committed to sustainability. Encourage your friends to join you in supporting sustainable fashion. Although fashion is often understood to center on apparel choices, fashion impacts nearly every aspect of human lives, Yoo said, including health, social responsibility and environmental issues involving consumptive behaviors. His additional research interests include appearance-related behaviors and their implications for individual and social well-being from consumer perspectives, from body-tanning behaviors, body image and quality of life among cancer patients, retail therapy and mental health, and irrational shopping and extreme body modification.
Post-pandemic, can America's kids catch up on lackluster literacy rates?
When COVID-19 hit, the education system nearly came to a halt. It went from in-person education in classrooms to virtual learning. Everyone knew there would be learning losses across the board. The question was how severe would they be and could those losses be mitigated? Literacy rates took a big hit, especially in younger students. Without in-classroom instruction, children started to fall further behind. According to the New York Times, about a third of children in the youngest grades are missing reading benchmarks, which is up significantly from before the pandemic. While every demographic has been affected, Black and Hispanic children and those from low-income families have fallen the furthest behind. Can anything be done to help students catch up? Betsy VanDeusen, PhD, director of the Augusta University Literacy Center, said a lot of research is coming out now and what’s being called “high dosage tutoring” is the way kids can catch up. “That just means you have to be able to see students more and more intensive,” said VanDeusen. “So we request for the kids that are at the lowest that we see them three times a week; one time a week won’t do it.” While that works on an individual basis, VanDeusen said there’s no magic bullet. While some schools here and there, and even a few states, may have found a way to help with literacy rates, the field continues to search for ways to implement needed changes across the entire educational system to support all students. She also added the decline in literacy actually started before the pandemic. “We’ve lost a tremendous amount. We lost 20 years of growth on the one national test that’s given. The achievement gap has been documented for decades and it has just been made worse.” This is an important topic and if you're a journalist covering education or how the impacts of COVID-19 are still being felt across the country, then let us help with your coverage. Betsy VanDeusen, PhD, director of Augusta University’s Literacy Center, is available to speak with reporters, simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.
Georgia Southern University opens doors to Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Center
Georgia Southern University’s Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Center officially opened its doors with a grand opening and ribbon cutting on June 19. Coinciding with the Center’s Juneteenth celebration, the public was invited to attend the afternoon festivities at 13040 Abercorn Street in Savannah. The ribbon cutting saw many local dignitaries in attendence, including Savannah Mayor Van R. Johnson, Georgia Rep. Carl Gilliard, Georgia Sen. Derek Mallow and Chatham County Chairman Chester Ellis, as well as Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Executive Director Victoria Smalls, Gullah Geechee historian and preservationist Queen Quet and Georgia Southern Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Carl Reiber, Ph.D., offered opening remarks. “This is a monumental occasion,” said Maxine Bryant, Ph.D., director of the Gullah Geechee Center. “To celebrate our grand opening on the nationally recognized Juneteenth is extremely meaningful. We will simultaneously honor the freedom of enslaved Black Americans and the Gullah Geechee culture that has preserved more African traditions than any other group.” The Gullah Geechee people of Coastal Georgia are descendants of enslaved Africans from plantations along the lower Atlantic coast. Many came from the rice-growing region of West Africa and were brought to the Americas for their agricultural and architectural knowledge and skills. The enslaved Africans were isolated on the Sea Islands. This isolation enabled them to create and maintain a unique culture steeped in remnants of Africa. This culture became known as Gullah Geechee and is visible in the people’s distinctive arts, crafts, foodways, use of waterways, music, dance and language. Much of the Gullah Geechee community today, which is estimated to be a population of 1 million, can speak the African Creole language or tell the stories of their ancestors who are credited with influencing southern and American culture. Local Gullah Geechee artists and the McIntosh County Shouters showcased their talent at the event. The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Center, established in 2019, honors myriad contributions made by Gullah Geechee people, provides educational resources for the public, promotes scholarship and research, and serves as a model for national reconciliation and reparations. It is part of the Gullah Geechee Corridor, which stretches across 27 counties in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida. If you're interested in learning more about Georgia Southern University’s Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Center - then let us help. Simply reach out to Georgia Southern's Director of Communications Jennifer Wise at jwise@georgiasouthern.edu to arrange an interview today.