Georgia Southern’s SHRM student chapter receives national award

July 11, 2019

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has awarded the Superior Merit Award to the Georgia Southern University SHRM student chapter for providing superior growth and development opportunities to its student chapter members for the academic year 2018-19. 

This is the fourth consecutive year that Georgia Southern’s SHRM student chapter has received this designation, and the award continues the chapter’s more than decade-long history of recognition by the SHRM. 

The SHRM student chapter merit award program, which began in 1972, was created to encourage student chapters to require ongoing excellence in the following areas: student chapter requirements, chapter operations, chapter programming and professional development of members, support of the human resource profession, and SHRM engagement.

During the course of the year, the chapter hosted numerous industry guest speakers on campus while continuing its HR-focused education sessions. The chapter saw high levels of student participation throughout the year.

“This award is special because the national SHRM organization is recognizing our Georgia Southern chapter as one of the best student chapters in the United States,” said David Sikora, Ph.D.,  who co-advises the Georgia Southern SHRM student chapter with John Harris, Ph.D. 

“Dr. Harris and I are proud of the work done by our chapter’s executive board and this national recognition,” he continued. “We’re excited about working with our students to continue the chapter’s tradition of outstanding Georgia Southern results.”

SHRM student chapters have the opportunity to earn an award based on the number of activities they complete during the merit award cycle, the most recent one of which lasted from April 1, 2018, to March 31, 2019.

“SHRM is committed to engaging the future leaders of the HR profession — HR and Business students. As we work to shape better workplaces where employers and employees can thrive together, we are energized by the work our student chapters are doing to encourage students to choose HR as a career path,” said Johnny C. Taylor Jr., president and chief executive officer of SHRM. “Awarding this Superior Merit Award designation is just one small way for SHRM to recognize and celebrate the big steps Georgia Southern’s SHRM student chapter has taken this past academic year.”