The Lil Ice Cream Dude, who is one of Athens' youngest entrepreneurs, has recently opened the first location for his ice cream shop in Athens, Georgia.

According to a Facebook post, the soft opening came after six years of operating his business out of his parent’s garage. At just 13 years of age, Beau Shell, the Lil Ice Cream Dude, has accomplished opening up his own brick and mortar ice cream shop.

​At the shop, which is located on 1040 Gaines School Road #218, Shell gave presentations about his business plan as well as samples throughout the day of his soft opening last week, as The Red & Black reported.

Lil Ice Cream Dude also created an ongoing Kickstarter campaign seeking $20,000 according to the website. It was started on Black Friday to raise money for COOL World, Shell's ice cream shop.

"The installation of the floors and ceilings alone will consume most of the $20,000 but there will be enough left over to purchase the basic equipment Beau will need to get up and running," the campaign statement reads.
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"At this level supporters will help to create one of 5 custom ice cream sandwiches to be featured on the "Specials" menu and which will bear their names or the names of any their consenting family members.

These sandwiches will be sold in all Cool World Ice Cream Shops. Backers at this level will also receive five autographed copies of Beau's first children's book, "Coolest Birthday Ever" and one Cool World t-shirt," according to the Kickstarter page.

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Clarke County School District was one of 75 districts to receive The Golden Radish Award for participating in a farm-to-school program.

As reported in The Athens Banner Herald, the 75 districts served over 97 million school meals with local food items during the 2016-17 school year.

For the district, their accolades included hosting the School Lunch Challenge, an event where chefs from popular Athens area restaurants compete in a cooking competition, and an “Aw Shucks Day” at an

Early Learning Center to expose preschoolers to vegetables by allowing them to shuck their own Georgia grown ears of corn.

In other news, West Jackson Elementary School was one of six schools in Georgia to receive a $10,000 grant from Gov. Nathan Deal’s office for its participation in the 2018 Innovation Fund Accelerator.

School principal Dr. Amity Hardegree said this grant will give them the chance to visit other schools with successful science, technology, engineering, arts and math programs.

“This will allow our team to really dig into the data and refine our ideas,” said Hardegree.

The school received funding under Applied Learning with a Focus on STEAM Education. It’s for the AIM program, which stands for Accelerate, Innovate and Motivate students.

“So our fifth grade students have been exploring microgravity. One experiment from Jackson County Schools will actually fly into space. We’ll have an experiment that will be conducted by astronauts. We also have started an aquaponics garden. Students have been researching that,” said Hardegree. “And we’ve been able to partner with the High Museum of Art. So we’ve got some groups that will be going to the High Museum for workshops.”

The grant supports schools in developing innovative education programs and makes West Jackson eligible to win a $45,000 grant to implement a pilot program.

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The Student Government Association and the Student Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) partnered up last Thursday to host the University of Georgia’s first Mental Wellness Summit.

The motivation behind the summit, which was held in Rooker Hall, was to bring UGA student leaders together to brainstorm better ways to address mental wellness and introduce them to the mental health resources already provided on campus.

“The Mental Wellness Summit serves as a platform for everyone wanting to improve mental health,” Maddie Jones, senior public relations major and member of SHAC from Marietta told The Red & Black.
“It’s important that students and the university are taking interest in something so prevalent.”

Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS), the ASPIRE Clinic, the Center for Teaching and Learning, Student Care and Outreach, the University Health Center and The Fontaine Center were among the organizations in attendance, providing students with information about their services.

“One of the biggest things with mental wellness is that students often don’t know when or where to find the resources that can help them,” said Aliya Abdulla, member of SHAC and third-year psychology major from Lilburn.

Aside from their clinics and counseling services, UHC also offers free wellness and prevention programs such as stress and anxiety workshops, yoga for stress relief and WatchDawgs: Bystander Intervention workshops.

SGA and SHAC members also want to raise awareness of the health center’s resources for any student who experiences mental health-related issue.
 
“Many of our students struggle with stress, depression, anxiety and mental wellness issues,” said Cameron Keen, SGA president. “And when one student at UGA is struggling, it impacts our entire community. That’s why it is so important for all of us to partner together in making sure each student is cared for.”

SGA has been working toward making UHC resources more accessible to students by installing new features for the UGA mobile app.

Features will include scheduling a health center appointment as well as 24-hour emergency services for mental wellness and sexual assault. These features are expected to launch within the next two months.
Beyond the summit, UGA student leaders aim to continue to spread awareness about the university’s mental health resources.

“The health center does it best advertising and being present in front of the student body, but our voice doesn’t always get carried along,” Abdulla said. “That’s why it’s very important for student leaders to become ambassadors and a voice for the students that don’t know about these resources.”

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It’s official! On Dec. 2 Georgia will be playing in Atlanta.

As reported in The Red & Black, after the Bulldogs produced a win against South Carolina and with Kentucky’s loss to Ole Miss, Georgia secured the SEC East division title and a chance to play in the SEC championship game.
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This would make it the first time Georgia has played in the conference title game in five years, when the Bulldogs suffered a last-second loss that presumably kept them out of the national championship game.

Although there are three games left to be played between now and Dec. 2, it appears mathematically impossible for another SEC East team to outdo Georgia. Even if the Bulldogs were to lose to Kentucky and Auburn, they would still end up with the best conference record in the SEC East.

Since South Carolina and Kentucky lost their games on Saturday, both have three conference losses, which would still be more than Georgia’s worse case scenario.

Kicker Rodrigo Blankenship expressed how much it meant to be in a position for an SEC East title for the seniors on the team.

"We like to call them ‘oldheads,’" Blankenship told the paper. "They’ve been around the block a few times and so we really look up to them and lean on them for their experience and just their wisdom to just stay focused on the task at hand."

Meanwhile, the SEC West has yet to be determined. Although it was predicted that Alabama, who has won the SEC championship the last three years, and Georgia were to play each other for the conference title, Auburn and LSU could upset Alabama. LSU, which has only one SEC loss, plays Alabama this Saturday, while Auburn, which also has just one SEC loss, plays Alabama in the Iron Bowl on Nov. 25.


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