Georgia Southern University is home to one of the first collegiate addiction recovery programs and is continuing to help students fight addiction and graduate.

The Center for Addiction Recovery opened in 2008 and is located in Veazy Hall. The purpose of the program is to help students maintain recovery throughout college.

“The main reason it was started was to help students in recovery maintain their recovery through college. As you know trying to remain abstinent from alcohol and drugs is difficult in college so we try to facilitate an environment here at the center and a fellowship of like-minded people,” Rob Bohler, graduate assistant of the program, said.

To enter the program, students must be six months sober, complete the application and provide letters of recommendation. Once in the program, students will take a mandatory average of 12 credit hours and will work 18 hours for an on- or off-campus job.

The program also provides scholarships, social support, weekly relapse prevention seminars and other tools to assist the students involved. True Blue AA meetings are held in the library on Fridays.

The Center for Addiction Recovery also focuses on research and currently have two projects going on.

One is on connecting with alumni. The purpose is for career networking, mentoring, and measure the quality of recovery. The other is looking at other Collegiate Recovery Programs in the US and how they function.

“Since I’ve started coming to CAR, when I first came here in 2016, I really enjoyed the community. It’s a smaller tight-knit community within a large university where I can come and ask for help,” Alex Cameron, junior finance major, said.

There are currently 40 students involved in the program, and there is a possibility of the program being continued at Armstrong following the merger. The Center for Addiction Recovery staff hopes to help students, spread awareness about addiction and help the Statesboro community in recovery.

“We are continually growing and evolving at the Center for Addiction Recovery to meet the needs of the increasing numbers of students who are living in long term recovery. Our students are our first priority, and we hope to expand our services to help educate a wider variety of students at GSU about addiction and the process of recovery,“ Emily Eisenhart, director of the program, said in an email.