Legacy of leadership at Summer Honors

The University of North Georgia (UNG) Summer Honors Program Director Kelly West found herself at the helm of the 2024 event with program veterans Dr. Catrina May and Anna Cronan, '24, in key leadership roles. The trio was together for the first time since 2019, when Cronan was a participant in the program and earned the top award for the program, which is accompanied by a $2,500 scholarship to UNG.

The Summer Honors Program has been around for 40 years, with West teaching for most of the years since she joined UNG faculty in 2003. She held the assistant director role in 2017 and 2018, assuming the role of director the following year. West is also director of Appalachian Studies Center and principal lecturer of biology at UNG.

May, a 2016 graduate of UNG and assistant professor of mathematics, has held three different roles for Summer Honors, including counselor (2014-17), lead counselor (2018 and 2019), and now assistant director.

Cronan joined the leadership team as a counselor this summer after deciding to attend UNG during her senior year of high school, citing Summer Honors as a key factor in that decision. She earned a degree in biology with a minor in chemistry, and because of the connections made during Summer Honors, she was able to begin research experiences early in her career and spend most summers involved in projects funded through scholarships.

"When I was initially a counselor, I was just doing a lot of work with campers to develop them as leaders and to help them identify strengths and weaknesses. I also grew a lot in that role," May said. "I tell people a lot that I am a different person because of Summer Honors."

In addition to leadership, Summer Honors exposes students to the academic and research portions of college.

Growth and leadership skills increase in all roles, May said.

"We continue to see that with our counselors now. We watched them grow the two weeks of camp just as much as the campers do, if not more," May said. “This year it was even a larger change than I had anticipated."

In her new position, May said she's more focused on the counselors in a big way.

"I am still focused on the campers, but I definitely focused a lot on making sure our staff was growing," May said. "I wanted to give our staff space for them to be the ones that were primarily mentoring the campers because they're closer in age to the campers and they built strong bonds."

Cronan fondly remembers her experience as a camper and sees a significant difference in focus as a counselor.

"As a counselor this year, it was a whole lot more responsibility. Our job is to keep campers safe and provide them with an environment that they can grow in. It was a big growth moment,” she said. "I'm not naturally assertive, but Pine Valley is a place where you have to be. Safety has to be a concern, and so I had to learn to be assertive for the sake of everyone." 

The legacy of leadership has been rewarding for May.

"It's really rewarding to have this legacy of leadership. Anna was my camper my first year as lead counselor, I have followed her successes during her college career, and now I had the opportunity work with her during her first summer as a counselor. I just think that it's just so rewarding to see where these campers go afterward," May said. "It’s the same thing with Kelly, who was my assistant director. I learned a lot from her as a leader, and now we're working together as director and assistant director and that's been really rewarding. Just seeing how we get to impact counselors and campers is just a very cool structure of leadership that we have."

"Summer Honors does a good job developing leadership skills. The students who go through it go on to do awesome things. The goal is to develop the top students into more. Seeing where they go is amazing, and it does have ripple effects," Cronan said.

West said she sees that growth based on skill sets that participants and counselors hone during the program. In Summer Honors, we create a safe environment for counselors and campers to be vulnerable so they can stretch into their challenge zones, and that is what creates awareness and trust and the opportunity to find the rough edges. 

"These people are already amazing, and our collective goal as a leadership team is to help them find where they can be even better, and how they can use those transferable skills in their senior years, in higher education, and in the rest of their lives," West said. "When Anna returned to UNG as a freshman, she was more dynamic, confident, and had a broader perspective than when we first met her back in 2019. I enjoyed working with her as a counselor this year to build even more on her experiences in leadership and watch her grow confident in those spaces as well."    

"I think it is interesting because the groups that we put together are not people who would be friends traditionally, and that's the whole point. We group people the way that we do in a lot of ways to develop and refine those skill sets that they need in a group that wouldn't be their best friends," West said. "I think the friends you make from Summer Honors are the ones that you end up hanging out in the day room or doing fun activities that create the framework for lasting relationships with but learning to respect and value each other and communicate and problem-solve in any situation with any group is the real success.” 

Campers who leave the program aren’t the same as the day they check in, and that is the real reason people return. West said she can’t count the number of campers and parents who continue to contact her about how much this program changed their lives, the lives of their families, and their school community dynamics. 

Students appreciate impact

Twenty rising seniors from Georgia high schools came to UNG for two weeks of leadership building and a taste of academics at Summer Honors this year.

"It's been good. It’s been an opportunity to interact with people who are of different viewpoints, and they have different ideas," Ali Svetz, a rising senior at West Hall High School, said.

Bricen Popko, a rising senior from Lumpkin County High School, said he learned much about leadership during the program.

"Leadership is something that doesn't come naturally for everyone, so it becomes difficult to take that position. We do hands-on leadership activities like zip lining, a ropes course or rock climbing at Yonah Mountain. Everyone makes sure the climber is safe," he said.

Popko is hoping the connections he made will help him with plans for his future.

"I'm very interested in health care, and one of the public health professors was able to connect with me and explain his HIV research. I'm very interested in that case study," Popko said. "So being able to relate to someone who has a possible internship or is able to connect with others within their research is an opportunity that could benefit me in the long run. Hopefully, UNG can keep providing me with opportunities to see what I really want to do."

The Dahlonega resident is currently dual enrolled at UNG, taking social science classes, adding that "the professors are wonderful."