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Staff Reports

Katrice Martin, Institutional Effectiveness Director and Grants Coordinator at South Georgia Technical College, served as the featured speaker at the recent Black History Month program on SGTC’s Cordele campus. Approximately fifty SGTC students, faculty, and staff attended the event.

Martin titled her presentation “Black Girl Magic: African American Women in History and the Influence on My Life.”  She elaborated on the significance that African American beauty and hair care entrepreneurs like Annie Malone and Madam C. J. Walker had on her growing up in Dooly County.  During her college years, Martin said she was influenced by the writings of such authors and poets as Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Zora Neal Hurston, and Nikki Giovanni.

In her speech, Martin also highlighted African Americans whose names most people don’t know, but who made significant contributions to the world such as Dr. Eliza Grier, who was born a slave, but became the first African American to practice medicine in Georgia; Alicia Parker, the woman behind central heating; Major Marcelite Jordan Harris, the United State Air Force’s first Black female Major General; and Katherine Johnson, the NASA “human computer” who calculated trajectories for the Apollo space mission by hand.

Martin also shared that she had a great influence in her own home growing up: her mother served as a counselor for Dooly County schools for many years. Martin talked about her mother’s accomplishments and said her mother shaped who she is today.

South Georgia Technical College is proud to celebrate Black History Month. The college will welcome Americus native and United Airlines pilot Troy D. Jones as the guest speaker for the Black History Month program on the Americus campus Wednesday, February 28 at 11:00 a.m.  The public is invited to attend.