Alma Young from Tifton has been selected as the 2020 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award recipient by the ABAC Alumni Association at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.  This award is normally presented at the Alumni Awards Luncheon at Homecoming each April but was postponed due to the pandemic. The event will be rescheduled, possibly during the fall term. 

The Outstanding Young Alumnus Award recognizes young alumni, 40 and younger, who have distinguished themselves through professional achievement, community service and service to the College.  The Outstanding Young Alumnus Award was initiated in 1981 by a group of former publications editors and staffers in honor of Director of Student Publications Helen Strickland.       

A 2005 ABAC graduate, Young received her associate degree in Fashion Merchandising. She then earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration from Georgia Southern University.

Young currently serves as the Director of the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) at Valdosta State University.  In this position, she manages a two million-dollar grant budget to help students from migrant and seasonal farm-working backgrounds reach and succeed in college.

Earlier in her career, Young served as the CAMP Associate Director at ABAC as well as the Goizueta Scholarship Coordinator and as an academic advisor. Under her leadership, the ABAC CAMP program was quite successful in the annual National Cesar Chavez Blood Drive Challenges.

Young invests in her community by serving as a volunteer at the Casa Colibri hospitality home, as a board member for Mission 3E, and as a member of the South Georgia Immigration Support Network. She served for three years as a member of the University System of Georgia Regents Advisory Committee for Hispanic/Latino College Completion.

A dedicated ABAC alumnus, Young has given of her time as an invited speaker for campus events and as an “unofficial” recruiter for students.