East Georgia State College will hold its Spring Commencement Friday, May 3 at 2:30 p.m. The ceremony will be held in the gymnasium on the EGSC Swainsboro campus.

Family and friends of the graduates and community members are all invited to attend. The speaker for the ceremony will be East Georgia Professor Johnna Eaton, and Marlie Motes, a spring graduate, will deliver the Reflection.

Motes is the 18-year-old daughter of Travis and Mandy Motes of Portal. She graduated from Portal High in 2023 as valedictorian of her graduating class. A year later, Motes is graduating from East Georgia with a degree in liberal arts. She now hopes to be accepted into the Dental Hygiene Program at Augusta University.

Professor Johnna Eaton is a Swainsboro native and an honor graduate of Swainsboro High School. She attended Georgia Southern University, majoring in Kinesiology, with an emphasis in exercise science. Eaton earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from Georgia Southern making her a "double Eagle."

Eaton currently serves as professor of wellness at East Georgia State. She began her career at the college as an intern while finishing graduate school at Georgia Southern University. She was hired in 2003 as the Physical Education Complex Coordinator and Fitness Director.

In 2007, she began teaching part-time to meet the need of the institution, and within a year, she had converted to full time faculty. Eaton has progressed through the faculty ranks and taught health, aerobics, outdoor recreation, weight training, student success, wellness, first aid, fitness walking, and health promotion within the recreation and kinesiology pathways.

Eaton has served on Faculty Senate and is now a member of the Academic Policy and Curriculum Committee. She has been involved in the college's Student Learning Communities Quality Enhancement Plan and has piloted new Student Learning Community concepts through the evolution of the plan

The job title Eaton said she is most proud of is mom. She and husband Justin Eaton are the parents of three, Khloe, Elin and Ellis. In her time away from work, Eaton said she enjoys DIY projects, yardwork, cooking, and spending time with her family whether that is at the baseball field, by a backyard bonfire, or tailgating at a Georgia Southern football game.