Education

Several years ago when unemployment numbers were rising along with layoffs, plant closings and foreclosures, Dr. F.D. Toth, interim president of what was then Valdosta Technical College, had a journalist in his office and the two were discussing an economic…

The letters MBA in a title or on a resume have long signified prestige and garnered a certain amount of respect, so it’s not surprising that Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees remain in high demand among Georgia professionals. This…

Just beyond the only traffic light in Demorest, a pedestrian bridge crosses above the street, with a sign letting you know you’re at Piedmont College. The college chapel rises to one side, its hilltop setting making it seem even taller…

“What,” says Ivy Prep’s school head Nina Gilbert, “are you doing?” On a tour of her impressive, college-oriented all-girl charter school, Gilbert has escorted a reporter to orderly but engaged classes, where students must raise their hands to acknowledge “100…

From his office at the marine science building on the campus of Savannah State University (SSU), Dr. Matt Gilligan, professor and coordinator of the institution’s marine sciences program, need only gaze through his open door to survey the vast salt…

It was November 1970 and the founders of Atlanta’s Paideia School intended to start classes in 10 months, but they had no students, no money, no campus and a 25-year-old headmaster with no administrative experience. “And I’m not sure that…

Jerry Jennett is a hardnosed Valdosta businessman who keeps one eye on the bottom line and the other on opportunities for growth through expansion and the acquisition of marginally profitable companies that he can buy and improve. As CEO of…

On paper, it made good sense and looked fairly easy. In the fall of 2008, in the face of a collapsing economy, the state’s technical colleges faced dramatically increased enrollment from the newly unemployed seeking retraining – and dramatically lower…

In two decades as a Savannah resident, Linda Bleicken never saw Armstrong Atlantic State University (AASU) in her future. As a professor and provost at the much larger Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, she was happy where she was and…