Education & Learning

Growing with Nature

Children’s gardens are not just for letting kids dig in the dirt. In Georgia, various children’s gardens invite kids to learn to grow vegetables that feed food-insecure families, to use their imagination through garden whimsey, or to just spend some time outdoors. Keep reading by clicking here.

Making Education Significant

The system of 22 technical colleges in Georgia has long been recognized as a ready path to a career for students and essential for creating the kind of workforce that employers require. Currently, colleges are working closely with school systems and particularity college and career academies to give students a leg-up on not simply training but finding the right career for each individual as well. To continue reading click here.

Visual Creativity

Ever sing a song to memorize the multiplication tables? Or help a child learn the alphabet by humming a tune to reciting the letters? 

That's using the arts to succeed in school and life.

Georgia teachers are helping students harness their imaginations and develop critical thinking skills by using the arts as educational tools and by teaching art itself. To keep reading, click here.  

The Career Pipeline

As the Georgia economy heats up, businessess and industried of all kinds continuously seek trained workers to fill vacant jobs.  Workforce development has become a rallying cry for the state's education system from technical colleges to elementary schools. 

"We're trying to help of districts understand the connection between education and economic development," says Barbara Wall, director of Career, Technical and Agricultural Education for the Georgia Department of Education. Click here to keep reading. 

Is That All There Is?

In 1969, Peggy Lee asked, “Is that all there is?” Forty-five years later, people still propose that question and actively seek its answer. There’s the stereotypical mid-life crisis that involves Corvettes and hair plugs, but little is said about the years that follow unless it involves savings or healthcare. Yes, bountiful savings and adequate healthcare are major discussions, but as retirement approaches, many seek a renewed sense of purpose. Personal development doesn’t have to end with middle age or retirement. To read more, click here.

Interacting in a Digital World

Classroom teachers and education support professionals across Georgia understand that preparing students to be successful in the 21st Century will require familiarity and comfort with advanced technology. Many exciting new programs underway in our region are aimed at fully engaging students in the learning process and developing the skills necessary for interacting collaboratively in a digital world. To learn more about the digital world we live in, click here.

Athens Technical College is a Win-Win

Athens Tech Builds Careers and Boosts Economy.

For more than 50 years Athens Technical College (ATC) has given students the opportunity to turn their hopes into solid careers and has changed with the times to grow as a dynamic component of Northeast Georgia’s economy. It’s a win-win situation.

“Technical education has always been extremely relevant to the economic vitality of Georgia, and more and more people are beginning to understand its relevancy because of the current economic situation,” says Dr. Flora Tydings, who became ATC’s third president in 2003. “Our mission has always focused on workforce development; we put people to work and we help people to retain their jobs.”

From its 1958 founding as Athens Area Vocational School in a former army barracks to today’s Athens Technical College with a 60-acre campus in Clarke County and satellites in Elbert, Greene and Walton counties, ATC has realized its vision of offering “transformational experiences that enable students to advance educationally and to remain competitive in an ever-changing world.”

“There used to be the attitude that if you can’t go to college, you go to Athens Tech,” says Dr. Dan Smith, vice president for institutional effectiveness since 1987. “Th is is no longer the case. ATC has really evolved into a true community college, attracting students who begin here and then transfer to four-year colleges, as well students who graduate and go into the workforce.”  To read further how Athens Tech is building careers and boosting the economy, click here.

A Balancing Act

BEING IN SCHOOL IS TOUGH. Whether it’s balancing extracurricular activities with academics, or making it to an 8 a.m. class after working all night, it seems that students, no matter what age, have an unbelievable amount of daily pressures. What’s even more unbelievable is how good they are at handling everything that is thrown their way. They are multi-taskers, time managers, passionate workers, and they get smarter every day. We interviewed five students, at different times in their educational career, to see what inspires today’s student and what makes them so inspiring to us.  To find out more about these eclectic students, click here.

The Human Connection

It all comes down to the connection – to people, to places, to life – and how the contact sows the seeds for a better life… To read more about the The University of Georgia Osher Lifelong Learning Institute or OLLI, click here.