EGSC News

East Georgia State College (EGSC) will hold its Spring Commencement Ceremony Friday, May 9, 2025, at 2:00 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 event. The speaker for the ceremony will be Swainsboro Fire Chief Ali Mims, and Mary Grace Winfrey, a Spring graduate, will deliver the Reflection.

Mary Grace Winfrey is the 20-year-old daughter of Craig and Amanda Winfrey of Kite, Georgia. She began dual enrollment at EGSC as a high school freshman with the goal of earning her associate degree alongside her high school diploma. In May 2022, she graduated from EGSC with an associate degree in general studies. Two weeks later, she graduated a year early as the Johnson County High School class of 2022 Salutatorian. She continued her education at EGSC, earning a second associate degree in social sciences in May 2023. She then joined the inaugural cohort of the Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice program, from which she is graduating this May with a concentration in social justice.

Throughout her time at EGSC, Mary Grace has enjoyed being involved on campus. As a Correll Scholar, she participated in the “Bobcat Buddies” program and various volunteer events. She has served as the Student Government Association President, a Student Ambassador, and a student conduct panel member. She worked as a tutor in the Academic Center for Excellence for two years and now works at Powell Home and Hardware in Wrightsville, Georgia.

In August, Mary Grace will be attending Mercer University School of Law as a George W. Woodruff Scholar.

Ali Mims was born in Detroit, Michigan, but moved to Sylvania, Georgia, in 1988. In pursuit of a career, Mims began volunteering with a local fire department in South Georgia in 2001. He then relocated to Augusta, Georgia, where he began his career as a firefighter. Mims was hired full-time with the Augusta Fire Department in 2007. He currently has nearly two decades of fire service experience.

 

Mims is a health and safety program manager and uses this to help agencies become more aware of ways to prevent their employees from getting injured and becoming more fit for duty. He’s a certified CPR instructor for The America Heart Association and an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) with the State of Georgia. He is finishing his master’s degree in homeland security later this year.

 

Mims currently is the fire chief for the city of Swainsboro and has been with the department for eight months. He is an assistant coach for the Savannah Hurricanes, a pro basketball team located in Savannah, Georgia, and has his own mentoring business.

 

East Georgia State College invites the community and family and friends of the graduates to celebrate Friday, May 9. For more information visit www.ega.edu or the college’s social media pages.