Turner Business

Turner College graduate JJ Tillotson (née Bryan ) recently celebrated her one-year anniversary with the Columbus Convention & Trade Center. JJ, who recently earned a BBA from the Turner College, is the Center's Marketing Coordinator. Regular readers of Turner Business will be familiar with JJ, as she served as the Turner College marketing intern during the 2023-24 academic year.  Her role consisted of creating the weekly Turner Tuesday news videos, traveling to high schools to promote the Turner College, designing graphics and flyers for all sorts of events/notices, shooting photos and videos for the CSU website, and running all Turner College social media accounts including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Congratulations to JJ on this recent milestone.

Scheduled for Wednesday, March 25, CSU's annual Legacy Celebration will honor university students, employees, alumni and partners for their advocacy, leadership and accomplishments. Attendees will e njoy dinner with classmates, colleagues and community partners. Tickets are sold individually and in tables of eight. They will also  hear from keynote speaker T. Dallas Smith, an African American real estate pioneer, CEO and entrepreneur. The Legacy Award nominations deadline is Friday, February 20, 2025. Finally, the p riority ticket deadline, with sales continuing until tickets are sold out, is Friday, March 6. 

Now through April 29, 2026, CSU students can qualify for a $2,500 scholarship just for (1) taking their headshot at the CSU Center for Career Coaching and (2) following the scholarship guidelines. As a reminder, the iris Pro Photo Booth is open during business hours in the Center’s second-floor office in the Schuster Student Success Center. Photos are free for students and employees, with receipt coming via e-mail. These are great for updating your online directory profile.

Last month Pinnacle Financial Partners completed its acquisition of Synovus. At almost the same time, Fidelity National Information Services completed its purchase of TSYS. This month new FIS signage is being installed on the various Columbus campuses of the company formerly known as TSYS. Soon, new PFP signage will be replace the Synovus nameplates at the former bank's local branches. Once complete, two iconic Columbus brands will have faded away. Both of these brands have been connected, to one degree or another, the Turner College. TSYS has at least twice given notable sums of money to the Turner College, which now houses the TSYS School of Computer Science and the TSYS Center for Cybersecurity. As for Synovus, even though it never gifted, at least publicly, a large sum to the Turner College, its name adorns the facility that is home to the Turner College on CSU's main campus. With the disappearance of both companies, are the names of the Turner College's computer scienc...

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, the search for qualified cybersecurity professionals is intense. However, Columbus State University’s Cybersecurity Nexus Program is doing more than just filling job openings; it is dramatically changing students' lives and shaping the region’s economic future.  Through a unique blend of rigorous academics, hands-on training and deep industry integration, the program has become a beacon for students ranging from recent high school graduates to single parents seeking a second career—or a second chance.  For many students like Jeff Griffin , the program marks a turning point from “just getting by” to finding a true calling. The 36-year-old single father describes his experience attending classes during the day and bartending at night as “long and arduous,” but ultimately life-changing.  “The program gave me far more than an education—it gave me the life of my dreams,” Griffin said of the confidence it gave him to quit his full-time s...

In July of last year, we reported on the Synovus Center's new high-tech classroom funded by a generous donation from Jackie Hamilton meant to honor her father Bill Hamilton , a retired professor of management and the first MBA Program Director in the Turner College. That post reported that  the Turner College was proudly unveiling a state-of-the-art synchronous classroom on the third floor of the Synovus Center on CSU's main campus. At that time the room was equipped with technology that makes it possible for students joining a class remotely to have as full a learning experience as those who are physically in the room. Large screens were dedicated to each remote student with separate cameras and microphones. In addition, the classroom had several breakout rooms that allow small groups of students (both in person and remote) to hold discussions and work on projects together without the distractions of the noise from other groups. Unfortunately for Turner College students and f...