The Society for Human Resource Management has awarded a 2017-2018 Superior Merit Award designation to the Georgia Southern University SHRM student chapter for providing superior growth and development opportunities to its student chapter members.

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.

“As we move together forward, young professionals like these being honored at distinguished student chapters play a vital role in SHRM’s success,” said SHRM President Johnny C. Taylor Jr., SHRM-SCP. “I’m especially honored to thank this year’s award winners because they offer excellent evidence that SHRM’s future is indeed in good hands.”

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 ran from April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018.

During the award cycle, the Georgia Southern student chapter was involved in Human Resource activities that included the local SHRM chapter and mentorships with HR professionals, who attended bi-weekly meetings to discuss employee-management topics, such as résumé building, interview skills and career development, as well as industry trends. College of Business alumni also joined to offer real-world advice on post-college transitions.

The chapter’s increased outreach boosted student participation by more than 20 percent from the previous year.

“Our SHRM student chapter worked hard this year, and it’s great to see those efforts acknowledged with this award from the Society for Human Resource Management,” stated Assistant Professor of Management and SHRM faculty co-advisor David Sikora, Ph.D. “Over the past decade, our chapter has consistently done great work in increasing the awareness of the HR field among our students and in helping students better understand what it takes to build a successful HR career. This Superior Merit award continues the Georgia Southern chapter’s recognition as one of the top student chapters in the United States.”