A Year in Retrospect: Looking back at Tracy Brundage’s first year at ABAC

Published 4:17 pm Friday, May 12, 2023

TIFTON — On August 8, Tracy Brundage became the 11th president of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. Now, almost a year later, she’s more than managed to settle into the role.

She had no shortage of experience to help her get the ball rolling, boasting over 25 years of work in higher education leadership prior to her getting on board with ABAC.

And while she admits the past year has certainly been busy, she’s been as hard at work as the day she started through each and every day, determined to improve ABAC and leave her mark on the college.

“I feel as though I’ve been able to hit the ground running,” Brundage said. “I feel good about what we’ve been able to accomplish to this point.”

Having relocated to Tifton from hundreds of miles away, much of the president’s starting challenges were getting used to her new environment, both in terms of location and the new faculty and facilities she found herself surrounded by. However, she took to it like a fish to water, devoting herself to meeting with her new peers and community members and forming a connection with them and between them.

From there, she focused on preserving the institution’s values and educational structure, supporting her staff and faculty, and fostering an open network between ABAC and their community and peers.

Brundage was determined to ensure her students were given a proper college experience, not just from an academic perspective but including all of the social and community engagement that came with college life, especially with her tenure so closely following the tail end of the COVID-19 quarantine.

To this end, she’s worked hard to provide them with a full academic experience, including extracurricular activities, service and leadership opportunities, and has tried to develop both connections within the college and with the Tifton community.

The ABAC president has made an appearance at many an event over the past few years, from galas and festivals to groundbreakings and graduations, hoping to elucidate her interest in truly becoming a part of her newfound community.

However, the events she enjoys the most are the times she gets to engage with ABAC’s students, including those outside its current student body.

Brundage reported that she had come to treasure the opportunities to honor and connect with her current class, meeting alumni and hearing their experiences at the school, and of course, seeing her students off into the next chapter of their lives.

“The very best day is graduation, because that’s really the culmination of everything that you’re doing when they walk across that stage,” Brundage said. “They’re ready to begin the next chapter and move into the future, and the work that’s been done here by everybody collectively at ABAC has helped shape that experience for those students and prepared them to move forward.”

Looking back on her first year with the college, Brundage has come to compare her time at ABAC to many of her previously held positions, but notes that the presidency has its own unique challenges as well.

This reflection has also reminded her that compared to all she hopes to do at the college only so much can be done in just a year. Nevertheless, she feels the experience has helped her grow both personally and professionally, and is determined to keep giving her all to ABAC and push the school to never before seen heights.

In the years to come, Brundage hopes to expand the school’s opportunities and options, opening ABAC’s doors to more students at various entry and exit points, increase dual enrollment opportunities for high schoolers, and form connections with local companies and organizations to develop new academic programs for experiential learning and service learning, internships, and entrepreneurship initiatives.

Currently, she’s put her nose to the grindstone developing a new strategic plan that will help unite the college’s schools and departments in pushing towards a new future while still preserving the values and culture ABAC is built upon.

Indeed, as she continues her tenure as ABAC’s newest president, she hopes she will be able to carry on the legacy of the presidents that came before her.

“I look at my role, really, as a steward–taking the baton from past leadership and leading us forward, and I’m really excited about what’s ahead,” Brundage said. “We’re going to have challenges and roadblocks, based on what’s happening in the higher-ed environment, but I think it’s how we choose to respond to those challenges, because within those challenges, there lies also opportunity, and I think that will help determine our future.”