Thank you for joining me on this journey. Over the next two months I hope to provide you with insights to help you make an informed decision about my experience, dedication, and ideas I have about our schools, our students, and our community.
First, let’s talk about my teaching experience. Aside from a couple of classes in graduate school, my teaching career began in August 1990 at Gainesville College (GC). My first assignments were to teach beginning, intermediate, and college algebra. Within a few years, trigonometry, statistics, and calculus were added to my schedules. I taught on the quarter system from 1990 – 1997, then on the semester system from 1998 – 2003. I am still pleasantly surprised when I run into my former students in our community.
Shortly after the college switched to the semester system, I began working part-time doing Institutional Research for GC. My job was to design surveys and collect information from our students to assist with various reporting requirements from state and federal entities. This lead to a project in which I designed the first co-curricular transcript for GC. This special transcript gave each student a history of his or her participation in clubs, organizations, and intramural sports. It was a unique way for students to have an official record of non-academic pursuits. I used Microsoft Access to set up the original database. After a successful year, the IT Department migrated those records to GC’s student information system. Even after the consolidation to the University of North Georgia (UNG) in 2013, this co-curricular transcript continues to be available in 2026 through the UNG Center for Student Engagement & Leadership.
