Georgia Southern University is home to many powerful women. From professors to department chairs to students, each of these women offer something extraordinary and special to the Georgia Southern campuses. Elizabeth Desnoyers-Colas  is just one of these accomplished, powerful women. Here is her story.

While she was in the military, Elizabeth Desnoyers-Colas, Ph.D, communication studies coordinator at Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus, had the opportunity to teach a speech class, and some people suggested that she become a full-time professor. 

However, Desnoyers-Colas said the caveat was that she had to go back to school and get her Ph.D.

Before she took early retirement to earn her doctorate—something that took four and a half years—Desnoyers-Colas was in the air force for almost 16 years. Desnoyers-Colas held the position of a Public Affairs Officer. 

“I did a lot of speech writing for senior military officials, served as a newspaper editor for military bases a couple of times,” said Desnoyers-Colas. “I went to Desert Storm. I went to Saudi Arabia for a few months. I did what we call community relations: a lot of base tours, a lot of special event planning, so anything that you could think of that had to do with public relations or any type of media relations, I did that.”

Desnoyers-Colas also set up press conferences and had the opportunity to meet a lot of famous people, including a lot of congressmen and senators and even George H.W. Bush when he was the vice president. 

She’s been awarded numerous medals, including the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, and the Humanitarian Service Award.

Desnoyers-Colas said she had a lot of unique opportunities when she was in the military, but she retired because she wanted to teach.

Desnoyers-Colas earned her doctorate in Communication with an emphasis in Intercultural/International Communication from Regent University, her master’s degree in Communication from Regent University, and her bachelor’s degree in Mass Media/Journalism from Central Washington University.

Desnoyers-Colas joined the Armstrong campus as an assistant professor in 2005 and has been a part of the university since.

“At the time when I saw the job listing, it was to develop undergraduate and graduate courses in communication because there wasn’t a communications program on the Armstrong campus, and they were starting a new grad program that was an interdisciplinary graduate program that has four tracks, and one of the tracks was going to be communication.”

Desnoyers-Colas thought the job listing was great and was drawn to Armstrong. She also thought coming back to Georgia was a good thing because she would be close to home with Georgia being her father’s home state and her mother living in Florida.

Desnoyers-Colas said the program is up to their second year, and they’ve doubled the number of students in the program at the Armstrong campus.

Desnoyers-Colas said she had the opportunity to be President of the Faculty Senate at Armstrong from 2014-2016. She describes this as one of her proudest achievements because she was the only woman and minority to do so.

Desnoyers-Colas was also Chair and Past-Chair of the University System of Georgia’s Faculty Council. Additionally, she also holds the position of Faculty Coordinator for Men of Vision and Excellence (MOVE), which is an African American Male FYE Initiative. Desnoyers-Colas also served as the National Communication Association Women’s Caucus Third Chair in 2017.

Even though she’s busy, she enjoys what she does.

She’s also proud of the communication courses she’s developed because they are the backbone classes of the communication studies program, and she continues to develop new courses every semester.

Additionally, Desnoyers-Colas is the author of the book “Marching as to War: Personal Narratives of African American Women’s Experiences in the Gulf Wars.”

Desnoyers-Colas said she grew up as a “ military brat” and traveled a lot because her dad was in the army.

She said it was great because she had the chance to meet a lot of great people, travel and see the world, but part of it also was tough because, since you’re traveling and moving so much, you don’t really have the opportunity to make the friends you really need to and hold onto them.

Desnoyers-Colas said she can walk into a room and talk with and meet people because she’s used to doing that, so she’s not tied to just one particular scene and has the opportunity to meet as many people as she can.

However, she attributes this to being a communicator—because she’s had to communicate with so many people.

“Growing up the way I did also gave me a great appreciation for what this country is all about or what it means to people all over the world,” said Desnoyers-Colas. “You know, people talk about the US and things that we do and things that we don’t do, but the most beautiful thing that you’ll ever see is driving from one end of this country to the other end.”

Desnoyers-Colas said she did this many times as a military kid and as an adult and that she has a great appreciation for who we are as Americans.

While Desnoyers-Colas wanted to teach, she wasn’t sure she wanted to be a professor full-time until she started teaching different courses and working on her Ph.D.

“Students would say things to me like ‘you know, you’re the first African American professor I’ve ever had,’ and these were African American students that said ‘I’ve never had an African American professor before’ and … so people would kind of encourage me to get into the field, and, knowing that in my career field there was only 2 percent [of] African Americans who had their terminal degree, I thought it would incumbent upon me to do something like this in order for more African American students to see people who looked like them and sounded like them, and, you know, worked in the discipline,” said Desnoyers-Colas.

Desnoyers-Colas enjoys teaching now, and no one could pull her out of it now, but she questioned herself her first couple of years teaching.

“I do believe teaching and being a professor is a life-long learning type of experience but not just with the knowledge but having the experiential relationship and being a lifelong advocate for the people that you teach.” 

Elizabeth Desnoyers-Colas

She said knowledge and passion are the most important things when it comes to her job.

“To me, the most important thing is for me to know my discipline, know the theories, know all of the scholarship, I think that’s important,” said Desnoyers-Colas. “Also, I have to show a passion for it. I think one thing students complain about a lot is that professors don’t show passion for what they teach, you know we spend a lot of time learning it, but we don’t necessarily show a lot of passion for it, so I try to show students how much passion I have for communication.”

Desnoyers-Colas feels it’s incumbent upon her to be the best communicator possible and to teach people to be the best communicator possible.

“I tell my students that communication is the fundamental building block of every discipline,” said Desnoyers-Colas. “You cannot go through any discipline and succeed without first learning how to communicate.”

Desnoyers-Colas believes her students would describe her as firm but fair, humorous and an advocate for them.

“I try to figure out ways to be able to help students, to make sure that their needs are met,” said Desnoyers-Colas. “I think they will feel that I actually care about them, which I believe is important.”

“But, also, I do think that students know that, way after they leave my classroom, if you call me four, five, six, seven years down the road and say you need a letter of recommendation or you need some advice about something, that you can call me and I’ll answer you, and thankfully I’ll be able to provide you with that information,” said Desnoyers-Colas.

Maya Harper, graduate assistant for the office of multicultural affairs, said Desnoyers-Colas pushed her to get more involved in different organizations on campus and was one of the professors who made Harper want to go into communication.

“The way she teaches and the way she motivates you makes you want to do more,” said Harper. 

Derenzo Thomas, graduate assistant for the office of multicultural affairs, oversees the MOVE organization. He said he saw a workshop for MOVE where Desnoyers-Colas talked about classroom readiness and college success while giving her personal experience of earning her undergrad, masters, and Ph.D degrees. 

“It really encouraged a lot of us within the Men of Vision and Excellence group to continue to further our education,” said Thomas. 

Harper said Desnoyers-Colas impacts the Armstrong campus by giving her time. 

“She doesn’t mind coming out to speak at different events or be on different panels because she wants to be able to affect students in a positive way,” said Harper. “She’s never not available for us.”

Harper added that, whenever they need her, she’s willing to be there for them, gives different advice and pushes them to do more. Desnoyers-Colas is also one of the reasons why she decided to work as a graduate assistant for the office of multicultural affairs–because she pushes her to want to do more. 

Takeshia Brown, director of the office of multicultural affairs, said Desnoyers-Colas was instrumental to launching the MOVE program pre-consolidation.

Brown said Desnoyers-Colas works closely with the gentlemen in the organization and that she teaches them academically how to interact with professors, how to advocate for themselves as students, how to make a space for themselves on campus and what that looks like in terms of being a successful student. 

Brown said Desnoyers-Colas celebrates the members’ good moments and supports them in their challenging moments. 

“Students love her,” said Brown. “They love the way she shows up for them, supports them and advocates them. They really see her as an asset and as someone who really cares about them.”

Desnoyers-Colas asked about Brown’s professional and personal goals when they first met. Desnoyers-Colas still asks about these goals and and challenges Brown in good ways to make sure she supports her goals. 

“The way she supports students is very admirable. Learning about her journey to becoming a professor and all the things she’s done in life and her service, and her bravery has really impacted me in several ways,” said Brown.

Mckenzie Peterman, assistant director of the office of multicultural affairs, met Desnoyers-Colas in 2012 when she started working at Armstrong and talked to her about how Desnoyers-Colas got her start and where she started from. Peterman also got to know Desnoyers-Colas more when working as assistant director for graduate admissions for Armstrong because Desnoyers-Colas was on her search committee. They talked and found out they had a similar bond in Public Relations. 

“She’s also very motivating. She always gives that nice gentle nudge when something’s not going the way that it probably should go,” said Peterman. 

Peterman added that Desnoyers-Colas is not afraid to let her know that she could probably be doing something in a different way. 

Desnoyers-Colas influenced Peterman to make sure she was holding herself and people she works with accountable and how to do it in an impactful way. 

Peterman said all MOVE members meet with Desnoyers-Colas, and she “helps them to navigate life on campus as far as the tough discussions and how to approach a professor if there’s an issue and about classroom etiquette and etiquette outside the classroom as far as … being impactful…and helping students advocate for themselves, and also she serves as an advocate for them.”

Desnoyers-Colas said she’s had to overcome many obstacles to become successful.

“I think, as a woman, you have to be able to overcome sexism. As a black woman, I had to overcome racism where people not believing that I either had the ability or the intellect to do something because I was black. And, of course, that doubles when you’re a woman.”

Elizabeth Desnoyers-Cola

Desnoyers-Colas said racism and sexism are the two biggest things she’s had to overcome. However, she’s also learned that you have to be able to believe in yourself. 

“You’ve got to believe in your abilities to be the best you can be,” said Desnoyers-Colas.

She also learned that she had to accept failure. While Desnoyers-Colas said it took her a while to accept that she wasn’t able to do certain things she wanted to, like not being as tall as she wanted to play basketball, she saw it as giving her the opportunity to do other things she wanted to do. 

Desnoyers-Colas had very supportive parents who believed in her ability to be whoever she wanted to be.

Her mother influences her the most. Desnoyers-Colas describes her mother as the greatest, spiritual, a prayer warrior and someone who supports and believes in her three kids 100 percent.

“She grew up during a time where, you know, the first two words in her life she learned how to read were white [&] colored,” said Desnoyers-Colas. “But she saw us past racism and saw us into believing in who we are as people.”

Desnoyers-Colas said, while she admires some celebrities and political figures, at the end of the day, her mom is her hero.

“Watching her go through life and having her tell us the stories of struggle she had where people didn’t believe in her as a person, you know, taught me that I didn’t really have anything to complain about,” said Desnoyers-Colas. “That, really, I stand on her shoulders being able to make myself strong, and so I think my mom is absolutely my hero of all.”

Desnoyers-Colas describes herself as a religious person and said her life philosophy is to treat people how you want to be treated and to treat people well.

She said she’s a living witness to this and doesn’t see a reason to be mean to people. Desnoyers-Colas said she will try to help whenever she can or find a way to help someone.

Desnoyers-Colas said her belief system is the most important thing when it comes to her life.

She said it keeps her rooted, grounded and focused. While Desnoyers-Colas said she doesn’t thrust her religious beliefs on people, she does say you need something to believe in: a core belief or core value.

“How do you keep yourself above the fray?” said Desnoyers-Colas. “You have to have something you believe in.”

Desnoyers-Colas offered some advice.

“If you cannot find yourself in one major, explore another major or explore a couple of minors. Try to find yourself in your passion of what you want to learn and what you believe. There are so many people on our three campuses that are living their parents’ dreams, that are living the dreams of people saying ‘oh, you should be this’ or ‘oh, you should be this’ … and so what is it at the end of the day you really want to be?”

Desnoyers-Colas said she knows this is a question people spend a lifetime asking you, but sometimes it take more time than others to grow up.

Desnoyers-Colas said to make all the friends you can, take classes, and become involved in different activities on-campus “and then once you walk across that stage, you’ll know that you’ve had the experience of a lifetime.”

“Treat your college experience as the greatest experience of your life,” said Desnoyers-Colas.

 Desnoyers-Colas described her proudest achievement.

“I think my proudest achievement is actually watching students walk across the stage … my achievements are invested within the students. I mean, there are so many success stories that I could tell all about student lives.”

Elizabeth Desnoyers-Cola

Photos by Noelle Walker

Georgia Southern University is home to many powerful women. From professors to department chairs to students, each of these women offer something extraordinary and special to the Georgia Southern campuses. Olivia Carr Edenfield is just one of these accomplished, powerful women. Here is her story.

Olivia Carr Edenfield grew up watching the Newton Building being built from her elementary school playground.

Now she teaches there.

Walking into Edenfield’s office is like walking into someone’s home: there is likely hot tea available, and there are pictures, books and knick-knacks warming the atmosphere. You’ll find pictures of author Andre Dubus and a young Flannery O’Connor along the walls and door, while photos of family and friends, including her son and daughter, line the tops of her full bookshelves. 

And Edenfield will always greet you with a smile. 

Georgia Southern has always been a part of Edenfield’s life. Growing up, she attended Marvin Pittman and would ride the bus through campus. 

“This university has been a part of my life all my life. I started first grade here, and so the whole time I was in school, I was aware of Southern. I went to elementary school on our campus.”

Olivia Carr Edenfield

Both of Edenfield’s parents were teachers, and Edenfield moved to Statesboro in 1965 when her father started working at Georgia Southern. She said that coming to Georgia Southern was like breathing. 

Edenfield has worked at Southern since 1986. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Georgia Southern before moving on to earn her master’s degree from the University at Iowa and her Ph.D in English with an emphasis in American literature from the University of Georgia. Her area of expertise is the American Short Story.

“Georgia Southern has been incredibly supportive of my career,” said Edenfield.

With the instrumental help of President Harry Carter, Ph.D, Edenfield received sabbatical for three years so she could work on her doctorate degree in 1995. GS provided one-third of her pay, kept all benefits and she was able to receive a scholarship.

In the past, Edenfield worked as Governor’s Teaching Fellow for 1995-1996 and a Faculty Development in Georgia Fellow between the years of 1996-1997 and 1997-1998. Receiving these fellowships allowed her to pursue full-time graduate study.

Edenfield finished her courses and took her exams, but she didn’t have her dissertation completed. She said that when it became apparent she wouldn’t finish without relief, she received another sabbatical: a full semester with full pay in Fall 2001. She completed her dissertation in 2002. 

All of Edenfield’s university career has been at GS, aside from the one year she taught high school before leaving for the University of Iowa to work on her master’s degree.

“I had actually signed a contract to teach high school again, but Georgia Southern was growing, and I was offered a position, and I’ve never looked back,” said Edenfield. 

Edenfield is extremely passionate about her chosen field, literature. She feels that when she and her students come together, there’s an energy in the classroom over the literature.

“It gives us the opportunity to live a thousand lives,” said Edenfield. “We get the opportunity to develop so many perspectives, and hopefully it makes us better people when we become more sympathetic and empathetic.”

Education has been a huge influence on Edenfield’s life. Her grandmother and both of her parents were teachers. 

“I’ve always been happiest in the classroom,” said Edenfield. “So, the way to keep going to school is to either keep going to school or start teaching, which is kind of like going to school because I learn stuff from my students every day, which keeps me doing exactly what I want to do, which is learn new stuff every day.”

Throughout her time at GS, Edenfield has earned a long and illustrious list of honors and awards for her work with students. In 2002, she received the Dorothy Golden Award for Teaching Excellence for the Department of Writing and Linguistics. 

Then, in 2016, she was awarded both the CURIO Faculty Mentor Award and the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Award of Distinction in Teaching. That same year, she received the Wells/Warren Professor of the Year Award at the GS 2016 Honors Day Convocation, an honor awarded to faculty by students each spring. 

In 2019, she was also awarded the Outstanding Advocate for First-Year Students.

Edenfield held the position of Associate Dean between 2004 and 2010. 

Under Edenfield’s leadership with Jane Hoodalk’s guidance, she started CURIO, the advisement center and the live and learn communities with the honors program. 

While she enjoyed her time as an administrator and felt challenged, Edenfield received a lot of research projects when she became author Andre Dubus’s authorized biographer. She said she realized that he needed more time than being a full-time administrator allowed her, so she came back to the classroom.

“I had obligations and commitments and needed to fulfill those,” said Edenfield. 

Being Director of the American Literature Association takes up a lot of her time as well, so Edenfield felt she had to come back to the classroom to be able to involve graduate students in that and also to be able to tailor her research to her presentations. 

“If everything works like it should, the things we teach lead to our research, which lead to our publications, which lead to our conferences, and all that kind of works in congress. If one of those things is taken out of the chain, it’s kind of hard to feel motivated.” 

This is why it works better for her to be in the classroom, said Edenfield.

“I had also witnessed my mother moving from teaching to administration and never going back, and she encouraged me, that if I felt called to go back, to follow it…She said follow what’s best for you, not what’s best for your bank account,” said Edenfield.

And Edenfield did feel that calling to come back and teach. 

“I really believe it’s a calling,” Edenfield said. “It was for me. I feel most comfortable in the classroom. I love to be with my students. They’re curious and just life-affirming. We have such dedicated majors, and every day, when I wake up, it’s the first thing on my mind. ‘What do we teach? What do we get to talk about today in class?’ I mean, that’s just a blessing to get up every day to that.”

Edenfield sets a high bar because she has bright students who want to be challenged. She noted that students rise to the level of expectation. 

Edenfield said the most important thing in her job is her students.

“Teaching has always been the most important thing at Southern. We’ve always been student-centered. I’ve seen a lot of changes in 33 years…but one thing I have not seen change is the commitment to students. You get that everywhere: from our department chair all the way to the president. Y’all are the most important thing. I don’t think I’d be happy at a university that stressed anything over students.”

Olivia Carr Edenfield

While Edenfield is especially proud of her work in creating CURIO, the advisement center and Miscellany’s “Evening of the Arts,” she is most proud of her students. 

“There’s nothing I’ve done that somebody else won’t pick up and probably do better than what I’ve done,” she says. “But I do believe I’ve had an influence on some of my students and that I’ve got students out there in the world doing good work. That I’ve maybe contributed a little bit to their success and their positive sense of self.”

Breanna Harris, a former student of Edenfield’s, said Edenfield changed her life. 

“I ended up doing my thesis on the short story because of her,” said Harris, now a temporary assistant professor in the Writing and Linguistics department at GS. 

She first had a class with Edenfield during her final undergraduate semester. 

“I didn’t know what I wanted to focus on with English until I took that short story class, and I just fell head over heels for short stories,” said Harris. “So, she 100 percent changed my life in that way.”

Harris also said Edenfield improved her all around and helped her gain confidence in her writing.

Konner Smith, a senior English and Religious Studies dual major, previously worked as a student writing fellow under Edenfield and currently works as her executive assistant for ALA. She expressed how much Edenfield influenced her.

“I’ve literally changed my entire career and education and life path because of her effect. She made me see how fun English is and how fun reading is and how fun it is to learn those things. Just her wisdom and her passion made me so excited as well.”

Konner Smith

Smith said it blows her mind how hard Edenfield works as a professor, director of the American Literature Association and as a mom and wife. Smith said Edenfield does them all so well and so joyfully.

Lillie Griffith, Informational Technology major and English minor, added her English minor after taking Edenfield’s world literature course. She said that it was the only course she enjoyed that semester, and Edenfield was so passionate about the works she taught.

“She’s just an incredible person, and she wants to take care of all her students as much as she possibly can—no matter if they’re an English major, minor or not—she doesn’t care about that,” said Griffith. “She just cares about her students and those individuals. She’s just honestly one of the best people of Georgia Southern in general.” 

Marci Warren, English major, said that Edenfield isn’t afraid to tell you how it is, which makes it easier to understand things, but that Edenfield is also open to seeing things from a different point-of-view.

When Warren had a hard semester, she had to retake Edenfield’s class.

“After I went to her and talked to her about how disappointed I was in myself, she basically just reaffirmed she believed in me,” said Warren. 

Edenfield said that so many people influence her, including her husband, Beth Howells, department chair of literature at GS and especially her students–where she believes her impact on GS lies. 

“I feel so blessed to get to come here every day. Now that I’m looking down the road toward retirement, it really makes every day special to be here. This might be the last day I’m going to be in class, so why not go try to have the best day?”

Olivia Carr Edenfield

What doesn’t sound great about that? 

To find out if it was for real, I added the feature on my Facebook app.

Here are my results: 

Pros

It has a lot of good things going for it. There’s a filter option that allows you to filter through more than just age and distance–you can filter by religious views, children (has, doesn’t have or open to any) and height. That’s right. All of you who don’t want to date someone under 6 foot tall? This feature is the answer to your prayers. 

Forget Tinder Unlimited. Facebook Dating lets you see who likes you at no additional cost. To top it all off, it also allows you to look back on matches you said “No thanks” to. Once again, for no additional cost. 

Under “conversations,” the app shows both your active and inactive messages.

You can also see suggested matches through your events and groups, which could possibly lead you to someone with the same interests as you.

Worried about your dating profile linking to your actual Facebook page? Or about people on the app finding your actual account? Don’t. 

The Facebook Newsroom said that you control who can see your profile, and your Facebook friends won’t see your profile. It also said they won’t share your dating activity to your Facebook profile or News Feed. 

Unless you use the “Secret Crush” feature. The add-on says you can add up to nine Facebook friends or Instagram followers, and they’ll only be notified of who you are if they add you back as a secret crush as well. 

Talk about a modernized version of passing notes that say, “Do you like me? Check yes or no,” without the fear of rejection. 

Cons

Here’s the crazy thing: There’s no swiping involved. 

Instead, you have to press “No Thanks” located on the bottom left corner or “Like” located on the bottom right corner. A.k.a., not like your typical dating apps. 

You also have the ability to message someone you haven’t “matched” with yet (whether or not you consider that a pro or con is up to you).

Also, you get a notification if anyone likes you–which can easily get annoying and fill up your notifications quickly. 

The caveat is that there aren’t, at least in my experience, nearly as many people on it as Tinder or Bumble. This means you can go through your suggested matches in two minutes–if that. 

If more people joined it, it could have a lot of potential.  

Overall

While it does have its flaws (what dating app doesn’t?), the app was honestly a nice change in pace. The layout is simple enough to figure out, and it’s presented in a nice, clean way. 

Have anything to add? Comment Below!

This seems to be party culture at colleges today. In the last five years, the university has on record a total of 1,054 social events by fraternities and 625 social events by sororities from Summer 2014 to Spring 2019. 

What is Party Culture? 

Culture is defined as the “ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society,” according to the Oxford English dictionary.  

Party culture would follow this definition, except it would involve the social group of people who attend parties. 

“Unfortunately I feel as if party culture challenges you to push your limits as well because you want to see how much fun you can have, how much you can drink with your friends, and a lot of it is sponsored by peer pressure,” said University Wellness Intern at Georgia Southern University Lauren Kiskunes. 

Party Culture at Georgia Southern

“Here at Georgia Southern, we are known as a party school, which drives me crazy because every school is a ‘party school,’ but, you know, you become 21 and you want to drink and that’s okay … but I feel like, unfortunately here and I don’t know if this is everywhere but if you don’t go out and drink or you don’t smoke or something that people look at you differently, or are like ‘you’re a goody two shoes,’ and that’s not necessarily the case,” said Kiskunes.

Kiskunes said one of the main activities the town offers is going to the bar, and eating and drinking together with friends. She said football season and also the stress of college is a contributor.

University Wellness Ambassador Keisha Lockhart said she thinks party culture includes drinking, drugs sometimes and going to kickbacks and clubs, such as the Blue Room

Alcoholism/Substance Abuse and Party Culture

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that “almost 60 percent  of college students ages 18–22 drank alcohol in the past month, and almost 2 out of 3 of them engaged in binge drinking during that same time frame.”

“About 20 percent of college students meet the requirement for Alcohol Use Disorder,” which is “is a chronic relapsing brain disease characterized by compulsive alcohol use, loss of control over alcohol intake, and a negative emotional state when not using,” according to the The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. 

“I feel like alcohol is the basis,” Kiskunes said. “Most people consume alcohol before they try drugs or other things. Whether it’s wine or whiskey, it all has the same effect eventually. I would say alcohol is the main culprit, now whether you choose to look at that negatively or positively is your choice in this situation … pretty much everyone drinks regardless of whether it’s legal or not.”

Brooks said what people expect college to be and what they think their peers are doing is also very important. 

Lockhart said she thinks that, part of the college experience, is that people expect you to do these types of things.

She said she feels that alcohol is easier to get to compared to drugs like weed and adderall. 

“Unfortunately, if you hear someone say they dont drink, it’s weird in today’s culture … it’s really just a common activity,” said Kiskunes.

Lockhart said sometimes people can be addicted and use alcohol or substances as a coping mechanism, and she said she’s heard a lot of people say substances such as weed or adderall allow them to escape from reality. 

“I’ve heard a lot of people say substances like weed, adderall, or whatnot allows them to escape from reality,” said Lockhart. 

How does party culture impact alcoholism and substance abuse?

Jessica Brooks is an assistant professor of clinical and counseling psychology. She has a doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Georgia, master’s degree in clinical psychology from North Dakota State University and her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Most of her research focuses on alcoholism and alcohol use behaviors. 

Brooks said heavy drinking in college may just be a phase of life for some students, but for others, it could become a diagnosable addiction.

On whether party culture leads to addiction, Brooks said the answer for some people is yes. She said there are a few factors that can lead someone to become addicted to alcohol, like people who use it to cope with negative emotions or to enhance already existing positive emotions.

“Those tend to be individuals more susceptible to long-term problems and heavier drinking in general because they are using it to manipulate their feelings versus people just who do it for more social reasons,” Brooks said.

Brooks said that people who use alcohol for socially motivated reasons have less of a likelihood of having problems. 

Other contributing factors are people who like to take risks because they are more impulsive and more prone to sensation seeking, which tends to be strongly linked with addiction, Brooks said. 

“There might be some genetic vulnerabilities underlining that,” Brooks also said. “Biologically, there’s vulnerabilities for some people to develop a substance use problem if they’ve had someone in their immediate family become addicted to something,” Brooks said. 

Trauma that may happen in a person’s environment and environmental stressors may encourage someone to seek out substance use, Brooks said. 

“Now there’s a difference between substance use and abuse,” said Kiskunes “If you’re using Adderall to study, and you’re prescribed that, well there’s not an issue with that, that is substance use but not in the negative sense.”

Kiskunes said some students might be spending money they may not have on drugs, facing addiction, getting criminal charges and getting kicked out of school.  

“It unfortunately opens up a lot of windows to a lot of negatives and cons rather than pros,” said Kiskunes.

Brooks said that, often, people are not going to think they’ll develop a problem. 

“Oftentimes, it’s a person who’s curious and open to those new experiences that tries it and might get hooked,” Brooks said. “Depending on the drug, it might happen fast.” 

She used the example of methamphetamine, talking about the campaigns where they say something along the lines of, “Don’t even try it once, not even once,” because it’s really addictive. 

So the physical properties of a drug can really shape a person’s need for it, Brooks explained. 

“The way that we define addiction is both the physical dependency that a person displays, and also the psychological dependency that a person might have for a substance that they need in order to function both physically and mentally and in the presence of not using the substance anymore,” Brooks said. 

She explained that there are dependency and withdrawal symptoms, and it differs based on the substance. 

“The way that a person becomes addicted depends on the person and then also factoring that in with the type of drug they use,” Brooks said. “In the work that I do, alcohol research, it develops a little slower sometimes just because of the way that the drug works and so a person may just use problematically for awhile, and that may come in the form of periodic binge drinking episodes, and then, slowly over time, it becomes their habit or their go-to way to cope with things.”

Brooks continued, saying that slowly but surely a person may think that is the most effective in the moment, and so all other types of habits kind of give way to that, and so their responses to things around them is so narrow that substance abuse becomes the one thing that they do to deal with things. 

Addiction has many different pathways to get there, Brooks said, “but the things that we look for are dependency on the substance, negative consequences of their use—is it impairing their functioning in work, school, their social lives—and then also do they have problems stopping use? And if they do, do they have withdrawal symptoms, and that’s how we determine if someone is addicted and to what level they are addicted.” 

Brooks said she doesn’t know if party culture causes misuse of substances, but she believes there’s a correlation with it. 

“I feel like in today’s world, drugs and substance abuse is a part of the culture, even if it’s not party culture, even if it’s you’re taking your friend’s adderall to study for a test,” said Kiskunes.

The sociology of addiction

Brooks said the norms of thinking of party culture that “perhaps you conjure up ideas of that it’s okay to drink, it’s almost expected to drink, but when you survey students, actually more people don’t engage in party culture than the people that do.”

Brooks said that not everyone in participating in party culture when you survey people.

“But when you have someone who buys into the myth of the party culture, thinks it’s okay because that’s what you expect out of college, they’re going to end up inadvertently surrounding themselves by people who have the same mindset,” Brooks said.

Brooks explained, saying everyone they know is doing it, but not necessarily everyone is, just the people they surround themselves with.  

“So I guess in that way it’s correlated because the people who buy into that might be predisposed to gravitate into that anyway,” Brooks said. “But party culture certainly doesn’t help.” 

Kiskunes said that you’re surrounded by people on Social Media that are partying, and, whether or not you do like to party, it can give you a fear of missing out.

She said there is still almost this mindset that ‘yeah, this won’t happen to me … I’m not going to develop a problem’. That mindset can also play in developmentally where people’s heads are at combined with sensation seeking and risk taking behaviors and seeking immediate gratification to manipulate a mood of some kind of creates this … a mixture for dangerous behavior.” 

Party Culture and its Effects on School

Brooks said she has worked at a number of university counseling centers providing therapy, she finds that party culture, when it becomes one of the focal points of a student’s life, can negatively impact a student’s mental health, physical health and ability to stay on track academically.

Lockhart and Kiskunes both said partying can take away from academics. 

About 25 percent of college students reported having academic consequences due to drinking, according to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. 

Kiskunes said partying can distract you and take away your time. 

“It’s not just that one night, it’s the next day,” said Kiskunes. “If you drink to [an] excess and it made you sick and you’re hungover the next day.”

Title IX Reports that have occurred on Olympic Blvd, according to a Freedom of Information Act filed to Georgia Southern’s record office.

Party Culture and Rape Culture

“About 97,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 reported experiencing alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape,” according to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. 

Brooks said she doesn’t know if rape culture stems from party culture—that it would be too strong to say—but she said that it does not help.

“I’ve had a number of clients really struggle with their decision to drink as much as they did, and they wound up being sexually assaulted,” Brooks said. “And so there’s this sense of responsibility that they did this to themselves, that they asked for it … and it doesn’t matter how drunk or high you are, you don’t ask to be sexually assaulted. And so I think that those myths around being responsible while under the influence can be really problematic.” 

Brooks said she thinks, systematically, rape culture in general is much bigger. 

Brooks said that, If you’re thinking about college-age students and party culture, “it’s still a time of development in emerging adulthood where there’s a lot of kind of finding your own way and so sometimes decisions are not fully thought through.” 

“I think it does contribute in a sense that it gives people a false sense of acceptance or consent,” said Kiskunes. “When you’re drinking you’re not aware of your surroundings as much. If you don’t stay in groups or watch your drink then unfortunately things happen as well.”

Positive Effects of Party Culture

“I feel like party culture invites everyone, it is a chance to relieve stress and let loose whether you are drinking or not,” said Kiskunes. “It typically involves some type of dancing, which is fun too, express yourself … and it also gives you a chance to hang out with your friends and meet new people so you develop social skills.” 

Kiskunes said that it can also help develop the economy, such as providing jobs for bartenders and bouncers. 

Student Opinions: Pros and Cons of Partying

Brandon Derricho, third year computer science major, said some positive aspects include outreach.

“A lot of people on campus or in college in general tend to find more friends when they don’t normally associate with when they go to parties and such,” Derricho said.

Derricho said a negative effect is peer pressure. 

“Sometimes, people can get roped into something that they don’t necessarily want to do just by the right variables being in place,” Derricho said. 

Imani Thomas, senior biology and Spanish major, said some negative impacts include damage to the liver and brain and impaired motor and judgement skills, while positive effects may include developed social skills. .

Sydney Hensel, sophomore early childhood development and special education major, said positive effects include hanging out with friends and having a good time, while negative effects include being tired all the time and hangovers. 

Caroline Stiles, sophomore early childhood development and special education major, said a negative effect could be less motivation for school. 

Ashley Avila, sophomore pre-med, said she’s not really a partier, but her brother prefers to party.

Avila said, “He just prefers to do that rather than like a test because a party’s going to happen once so he, I guess, just temptation and he just goes and the next day he pays the consequences.”

This article was previously published in the print Spring 2019 edition of The George-Anne Reflector.

If this is your first time visiting our website, welcome. The George-Anne Reflector is a premier student lifestyle magazine written by students, for students. Reflector strives to showcase the lives and culture of Georgia Southern University students. We cover a wide variety of content from the best restaurants in the Boro to binge-worthy TV shows to more in-depth features. At Reflector, college isn’t just a phase, it’s a lifestyle.

As the Fall 2019 semester begins, Reflector is already writing content that we hope you’ll love. Our campus and culture editors Aubrey Brumblow and Tony Ortega are setting the direction for this semester’s online and print stories. Ashton Christianson, our engagement editor, is working hard to increase our presence on campus and social media. Reporters Madeline Branch, Savannah Johnson and Jenna Wiley will contribute fresh content to the publication.

Last semester, Miscellany, the online magazine for arts and literature by Georgia Southern students, was revived. Miscellany editor Blakeley Bartee aims to showcase content in fiction, poetry, essays, visual art and more this year from the creative communities at GS.

Reflector also wants to showcase your content. I urge you to submit your stories to our community blog section. The mission of Reflector Community is to ensure that your voice may be shared and your opinions heard. Topics may include fashion, entertainment, fitness and more. For information on how to submit, go to “write a post” under the community section of our website or click here.

We are excited to see what the semester has in store for Reflector, and we hope you are, too.

Sincerely,

Noelle Walker

Editor-in-Chief

These factors convinced me to give the restaurant’s a try for the first time.

When I walked into the restaurant, I noticed that it had a small but homely environment.

Some tables were nestled around the walls, and there were decorative murals hanging on the walls, adding onto the homely vibe.

However, it was a little cramped, and one could easily feel overcrowded if large groups of people came in at one time.

The menu had a variety of options, including a Döner Kebab, Döner Kebab box, Döner, a variety of Döner Kebab plates and a Döner Kebab vegetarian plate. It was set up similar to Moe’s menu, so I could pick what I wanted on my food.  

I ended up ordering the Döner Kebab Pita with chicken and the garlic yoghurt sauce that the workers suggested. My food was cooked and bagged to-go in under five minutes.

While I thought the pita had too much of an onion-y taste, I may be biased, because I am not a huge fan of onions.

The garlic yoghurt sauce was definitely the right choice, though, because it added the needed extra flavor to the Döner Kebab Pita.

All together, the Döner Kebab Pita was pretty tasty and very filling. It cost $6.99, which is not bad for what I received. I rate the overall experience at three out of five stars.

Son’s Döner Kebab is located at 17 College Plz. in the College Plaza strip mall.

Do say something to make them laugh.

I don’t think there’s been a single time a funny opening line didn’t get a response. Trust me. Humor is the way to go.

Don’t say anything inappropriate

Honestly, this shouldn’t have to be said, but it needs to be. Speaking from personal experience, i can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve gotten a message only for me to end up the embodiment of this gif:

Side Note: Don’t say it in the middle of a regular conversation either

Do play off their bio

They like to work out? Mention how you’re a track-star. They like to read? Tell them your favorite book. They don’t have a bio at all? Tell them they must be a man/woman of few words. There are so many possibilities.

Need tips for your bio? Click here.

Don’t just say “Hey”

Okay, “hey” might be your safety net, but spicing it up a little will increase your chances of a response. If you’re dead-set on your “hey,” try to add on a “beautiful” or “handsome.”   

Don’t not message

If you wait for the other person to message first and they wait for you to message first, there won’t be any conversation at all. Take a risk. Message first.

These rules are short and simple, but they’re sure to do the trick.

Have any more to add? Comment below!

For guys in particular, take a look at these Tinder Do’s and Don’ts.

Jenna Morogiello is the injury prevention and care coordinator for the RAC at Georgia Southern University. She gave some safety and injury prevention tips for people working out.

General Injury Prevention & Safety Tips:

Morogiello said one of the most important injury prevention and safety tips is warming up, which consists of two components: general and specific.

A general warm-up gets the blood flowing in the body, said Morogiello.

“A general warm-up would be getting your heart rate up, so this could be a light jog, could be doing the elliptical, whatever gets the blood going, and the purpose of this is to warm the body because if the muscles are warm they’re less likely to tear,” said Morogiello.

A specific warm up prepares you for the movement you’re about to do.

She used lifting weights as an example, saying you would need to start with about 50 percent of the weight you are going to be lifting and work your way up to your actual weight.

Safety for Cardio

Morogiello said warming up is crucial when it comes to cardio.

“A lot of things that I see as an athletic trainer would be people are wearing improper footwear and then they’re also switching their training surfaces, so if you go from running on a treadmill and you start running on the pavement, that’s where you’re going to see a lot of shin splints or overuse injuries or people who run the same direction on the track all the time,” said Morogiello.

Morogiello said to make sure you switch your direction if you’re running a track or a course and to make sure you are consistent with your footwear, making sure it is comfortable and nothing hurts.

She also said running on a soft surface, such as on a track or on grass, is less wear and tear on the body, and that pavement is the most aggressive surface.

Breaking in Shoes

Morogiello said breaking in footwear should be done gradually unless it’s immediately comfortable with no issues.

“A lot of times what happens is people try to wear shoes all day everyday as soon as they get them … and then their feet hurt and what happens when your foot hurts is sometimes that can change your biomechanics,” said Morogiello.

She said that sometimes with new footwear, you start to favor a different side, lean one way or your foot rotates a certain way. This is called supination and pronation.

Morogiello also explained that new shoes change biomechanics which causes injury or irritation to tendons.

Injury Prevention for Weightlifting

Morogiello said to make sure you’re properly progressing your workouts. She said you never want to do the same workout multiple days in a row.

If you really want to work out chest one day you want to do bench but the next day you also want to do chest, you would want to switch your exercise to a different way to work out that body part.

“A lot of times we see people who get really excited about working out, which is great but then they overdo it, so they’ll do the same thing every day or they don’t give themself an adequate rest day. So proper overload and proper progression would be key to making sure that you aren’t injuring yourself,” said Morogiello.

Morogiello said there’s an introspective and mental aspect to lifting. She said that if you have a previous injury or if you’re tired, you need to be more mindful of what you’re doing in the gym to avoid injuries.

Rest Day

Morogiello said the amount of rest days depends how well someone is trained.

She said that beginners (defined as 2 or less months of training) lifting weights 2-3 times a week, intermediate (defined as 2-6 months), 3-4 days a week, advanced 4-7 days a week, but she recommends 6 days bc she thinks rest day is important.

“When I say rest day–if you’re someone who is very trained, so you’re very in shape, a rest day for you way be an active recovery day. And what that looks like is swimming, biking, low-impact activities like that.

“So it doesn‘t mean just sit there and do nothing–that’s what a lot of people think, but an active recovery is just as important, so it really just depends on where you are in your fitness journey as to how much rest is appropriate, but a good gage is if you’re not sleeping or if you’re in pain, or you’re overtraining ,because overtraining a symptom is not sleeping, so you can gage it by how you feel as well,” said Morogiello.

Other Tips

“Whether you’re using equipment or not, it’s really important to be in front of a mirror so that you can see if your form is good and you can see where you’re sitting in comparative to where your upper-body is,” said Morogiello.

She said to make sure you have an adequate space to work out in and to be mindful of spatial awareness.

A Quick Note on Abs

Morogiello said crunches are not the answer if you’re looking for abs. Diet and complex movements that move multiple parts of the body and joints lead to more core development.

She said that doing squats, lunges, deadlifts, bench presses or even running engages your core a lot more than just doing crunches.

“So just keep in mind the more complex the movement, the more engaged your abs will be,” said Morogiello.

What to Focus On

You don’t want to go three days without exercise to one body part to stay in a state of anabolism which is gaining muscle and not breaking it down, said Morogiello.

Morogiello said you don’t have to split different body parts on different days like shoulders, back or legs.

“As long as you’re working out that body part and not going three days without working it out, then you’re fine,” said Morogiello.

She said you could do upper-lower, you could do push-pull day, or even full body three days a week. She explained if you’re someone who likes to do full body, then to do it about three times a week with adequate rest or, if you like to break up your workouts, she would recommend an upper day and a lower day. Or if you’re into body-building, chest and triceps, back and biceps as long as adequate rest and not waiting more than three days.

Number One Thing to Prevent Injury: Listen to Your Body

“People aren’t really in tune to how much load they’re putting on themselves,” said Morogiello.

She used the example of a student who didn’t sleep the night before, had a really hard test and now is at the gym trying to lift a lot of heavy weight.

“The body doesn’t know the difference between stress at the gym and stress from whatever else you were doing that day so from a cellular standpoint that can be too taxing on the body,” said Morogiello.

She said that everything you do will affect your training, including stress, not sleeping and not eating enough.

“A lot of people are on this new diet – the Keto diet  – and they don’t get enough carbs to fuel their workout,” said Morogiello. “It’s really dangerous. We see a lot of people passing out from that.”

Morogiello said some important things to be mindful of are: Did I fuel my body properly? Do i have previous injuries? Am i currently in pain? Did I sleep the night before?

“Just being very reflective on your current state is going to help prevent injury and it’s going to help you be present in the gym which is going to give you a better bang for your buck,” said Morogiello.

Symptoms of overtraining:

Morogiello said in an email that over training is usually caused by a poorly designed training program (this can happen when people just copy workout plans from the internet that are too advanced. This is why it is important to have a personal trainer or certified professional helping you). Over training can occur secondary to a variety of factors but is commonly seen due to a lack of adequate recovery, too high of a training volume, intensity or frequency. It can also be due to a lack of proper nutrition and training through an injury or illness. Symptoms include:

• Decrease in performance
• Difficulty recovering from a workout that you normally would not have difficulty recovering from
• Altered resting heart rate and blood pressure (perhaps the most dangerous)
• Increased muscle soreness
• Decreased body fat percentage
• Alterations in hormones (such as testosterone, cortisol, and others)
• Increased stress response (may have difficulty sleeping)

With rest, the body can go back to normal.

Most Common Injuries

Morogiello said she frequently sees the following:

• Ankle sprains from playing sports.
• Overuse injuries from lifting.
• Knee and shoulder pain from running.

“I just can’t tell you enough how many times people will train through an injury or train through pain and they don’t realize they’re doing it,” said Morogiello. “If something doesn’t feel right, that’s your body’s way of saying ‘stop.’”

She said you don’t have to stop working out, you just have to learn how to adjust and train around an injury, not through one.

The most common risk for an injury is a history of that injury, Morogiello said. The chances of getting the same injury are higher. She said knowing this is helpful for a fitness plan, and to let your trainer know about the injury.

Soreness vs. Pain

Soreness from working out typically lasts 2-3 days, but it can last up to 5, said Morogiello.

“But if it lasts up to 5 that means you’ve done some serious muscle damage so I recommend modifying your training,” said Morogiello.

She said that soreness is transient, so it usually gets better as you move.

“So if you’re really sore, the best thing you can do is just go on a walk and just start moving, which will help with the soreness, said Morogiello.

Injury Red Flags:

• Injury is constant
• It lasts more than the 2-3 days
• If it keeps you up at night that is a red flag because of pain muscles aren’t being used when you’re laying down
• Numbness or soreness
• Major deformity or swelling
• If you heard something snap or pop, and it’s painful or you can’t move it
• Bruising or swelling or something doesn’t feel right (especially if there’s a bulge)

Don’t overwhelm yourself

“I think the biggest thing is just having a coach, or having a personal trainer, or somebody that you can confide in, preferably someone that’s certified like we have here, because if you don’t have someone who’s certified or who knows what to do in the gym, it’s easy to overdo it,” said Morogiello. “If you don’t know any better, you don’t know until it’s too late is usually the issue.”

She suggests doing research yourself or, preferably, having someone who can coach you through it, such as a personal trainer. She said they’re here to answer any questions and students are always welcome to come in and ask.

She said ito remember that “slow progress is progress” and that change and healing take time.

“Maybe one day you just need a rest day and that is part of your healing. It’s not that you’re failing, it’s just part of the journey,” said Morogiello.

Motivation for those just starting to work out

Morogiello said that change takes time, and it also fluctuates – it’s not a linear path.

She said when she was in high school, she was planning on playing basketball and ended up tearing her ACL and MCL.

“It was just one of those things where I didn’t want to give up but sometimes days are just really hard and you’re like … ‘how do I do this?’ And so I found this quote that I really liked and it said, ‘Never let today’s disappointments overshadow tomorrow’s dreams,’ and so that was kinda my mantra for that hard time,” said Morogiello.

She suggests to find someone or something to motivate you, whether it’s a quote, picture or person to look at in the hard times.