Carson Bonner, Campus Carrier deputy news editor
a supportive environment for students of color. Her efforts have been recognized by the Rome Chamber of Commerce. Alora Landing | Campus Carrier
The Exceptional Seven Young Professionals Award, an award that recognizes individuals under 35 for their achievement and excellence within their field, was recently granted to Haley Smith, director of diversity and inclusion at Berry College. This award was given to Smith by the Rome Floyd Chamber of Commerce in recognition of her efforts to create a culture of belonging and inclusion on Berry’s campus.
For the last three years, the Chamber of Commerce has granted seven Rome professionals from any field with an award honoring their efforts to succeed in their field and better the community.
“A few years back, we knew that we needed to recognize the young professionals in Rome,” Amber West, Rome Chamber of Commerce director of communications said. “So we got together and decided to create the exceptional seven that exemplify everything within their career, their community, their outreach and we kind of just went from there.”
For the professionals who receive this award, the process up to the point of receiving the award is an extensive one. They are nominated by three individuals in the community and they fill out an application.
“The nominations are done by those who see the efforts that those candidates are making,” Chamber of Commerce President Pam Powers-Smith said. “We really do want young professionals to move and stay here, and this award is really a big part of that. It can show people that there are these awesome young professionals who are a part of the Rome community.”
Smith joined Berry two years ago as the director of the Gate of Opportunity scholarship program, but has since taken on her current role. In her time working in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, she has partnered with the Office of the President in building a strategy to promote a community in which tolerance and love are the norm. She also partners with student affairs to work to create an environment that is supportive for marginalized students.
“When it comes to the institutional side, you’re looking at the full community: students, staff and faculty,” Smith said. “We have students and faculty from marginalized communities, so how do we support them? We have people from non-marginalized communities, so how do we equip them to have critical conversations that can build support for more diversity and community?”
Part of Smith’s collaboration with the president’s office has been the Good Neighbor Challenge, as well as planning for ways to respond to national issues and tension surrounding diversity and inclusion issues nationwide.
“She’s really been working on ways to respond to those issues in a manner that’s applicable to Berry,” President Steve Briggs said. “She’s taking that idea of belonging, and developing programs and partnerships here that would really help us build bridges into the future as we overcome political unrest in the next couple years. And [she’s asking questions like] in the midst of political marketing, which works to make you afraid of people on the other side, how do we work to build bridges when there are so many who are working to tear those bridges down?”
Smith’s work has been lauded in the Rome community as a great effort in creating an environment that exemplifies what it means to be inclusive. According to Powers-Smith, Smith’s love for Rome from growing up in the area, as well as her fresh perspective on her job with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, made her an exemplary candidate for the award.
“She’s really just the perfect mix of the old and the new,” Powers-Smith said. “Knowing the area and people here, but also reaching out to new students and trying to marry those two, to me is really awesome. The work she does is incredible and her passion for making Berry an inclusive place is amazing.”
Even as she works on the Good Neighbor Challenge, Smith is setting even more goals to continue the narrative she is trying to set within Berry’s campus.
“The biggest overarching goal is for everyone – students, staff and faculty – to feel like Berry is home to them,” Smith said. “I think on an applicable level, I would like to partner with every division at Berry to set individual goals and to see how those subgoals can help us meet those larger institutional goals.”
According to Smith, working on the heart of Berry is necessary to set students up for reaching the community and sharing the narrative of diversity and inclusion.
“I think we’re really getting there,” Smith said. “I think it all really starts at home, but also I think if we say we care about a culture of belonging, we’re also saying we care about the surrounding community. ”