Shantia Thomas Earns College of Nursing and Health Sciences Excellence Award at VSU

Shantia Thomas

VALDOSTA — Shantia “Tia” Keondra Thomas of Macon, Georgia, is the recipient of the Spring 2024 President’s Award for Academic Excellence for the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Valdosta State University.

The President’s Award for Academic Excellence is presented to a high-performing graduating student in each of VSU’s six colleges — Harley Langdale Jr. College of Business Administration, College of the Arts, James L. and Dorothy H. Dewar College of Education and Human Services, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Science and Mathematics, and College of Nursing and Health Sciences.

Thomas will be recognized during VSU’s 237^th Commencement at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 4, on the Main Campus Front Lawn. She will graduate summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

“I feel accomplished and proud of myself,” she shared. “Receiving this honor is rewarding for the time and dedication that I put into my studies.”

As a student at VSU, Thomas served the university community as a tutor for nursing majors and as a member of Minorities in Nursing.

She spent countless hours learning and perfecting her skills in VSU’s on-campus STEP (Simulated Training Encounters with Patients) Center and gained valuable real-world experience as a nursing student volunteer serving the needs of underserved populations in the region.

Thomas’s commitment to academic and service excellence resulted in her earning repeated Dean’s List honors, the Dorothy Cobb Levy Nursing Excellence Scholarship and the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation Scholarship. She was a HOPE Scholar.

After graduation Thomas plans to pass the NCLEX, the national examination for the licensing of nurses, and pursue a career as a registered nurse in Emergency Care Center at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, a Level I trauma center and one of the most active emergency departments in the world.

Her supportive family includes parents Mekita and Robert Thomas.