by Julie Lineback
On September 18, several business and community leaders converged on the University of West Georgia campus to officially kick off President Kyle Marrero’s inauguration festivities by participating in a speaker series. Each focused on a specific core value of UWG - achievement, caring, collaboration, inclusiveness, innovation, integrity, sustainability and wisdom - in retrospect to their own careers, accomplishments and personal beliefs.
“I wanted to use this event to provide a catalyst for communicating our new vision, mission, strategic plan and core values,” said Dr. Marrero in his opening remarks. “The desired outcome of the evening is that their words provide a community perspective—their perspective—on the meaning of our core values.”
Stu Thorn: President/CEO, Southwire Company, LLC
Value: Achievement
Quote: “We live in this wonderful society where you’re allowed to reinvent yourself; you can step outside of yourself periodically in life and become something new and something better.”
Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald: Commissioner, Georgia Department of Health
Value: Caring
Quote: “We have all these folks who come to the university to gain knowledge and this place is saying, ‘We value caring.’ Knowledge doesn’t care but wisdom does. That’s why it struck me that you chose caring as your core value.”
Daniel Jackson, President/CEO, Carroll Tomorrow and Carroll Chamber of Commerce
Value: Collaboration
Quote: “What does collaboration look like between the University of West Georgia and our community? It looks like articulation agreements between UWG and West Georgia Technical College. It looks like partnerships and programs, it looks like community leaders supporting the university, and it looks like students working in the community in paid and unpaid internships. It looks like we have a university and community that understand and value the benefits of collaboration. That makes me proud to be a part of this community.”
Bentina Terry: Vice President, Gulf Power
Value: Inclusiveness
Quote: “I know that Dr. Kyle Marrero cares about the inclusiveness of every single person on this campus. He cares that everybody feels like they’re a part of the beauty that UWG has and it is that, that we all have to celebrate.”
Tommy Green: Founder of Greenway Medical Technologies and Co-Founder of GreenCourt Legal Technologies
Value: Innovation
Quote: “It is our goal, if you’re a clerk of a superior court and someone comes up to you and says, ‘I understand that you are with GreenCourt,’ if the first thing the clerk does is smile, we’re going to have a lot of innovative employees in the community.”
Randy Nix: State Representative, Georgia General Assembly, District 69
Value: Integrity
Quote: “Dr. Kyle Marrero and UWG want to create that shining star whose light others may follow for years to come. To have pure integrity, what you believe needs to line up with what you say you believe and what you do needs to line up with what you should do - it has to be a straight line.”
Laura Richards: Founder, Friends of Carrollton Greenbelt
Value: Sustainability
Quote: “Our greenbelt is a concrete connection of campus and community that UWG and campuses across the USA try to achieve. The UWG greenbelt links students and faculty to classes and activities, thereby relieving pressure on the bus system and parking lots. It creates a people first template for campus.”
Hank Huckaby: Chancellor, University System of Georgia
Value: Wisdom
Quote: “Wisdom is not a course in the catalog at the University of West Georgia, it is the personal life long quest, never the less West Georgia offers resources to guide us on that journey. There’s wisdom to be found and to be gained here. It is walking around this campus on two legs. Seeking out others who are wiser than we are is always to our benefit in our quest of wisdom.”
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