President's Blog

As a student, I understood that in order to be successful, I had to predict how I would be evaluated. I found course descriptions to be useful but not an adequate predictor of what would be included in the testing material. I found the syllabus to be a relatively good learning contract but often without the details needed to earn a high grade. I needed to know what was expected of me at the end of the course. Gradually, I learned that a better method of learning the material was by...

According to the Roman General Vegetius, the time to prepare for war is during peace (Si vis pacem, para bellum). Thomas Jefferson is credited with saying, “The eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” In the Hebrew Bible, Joseph recommends to Pharaoh that Egypt store grain during seven years of plenty to prepare for seven years of famine. To quote John Kennedy, “it is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.” The motto of the boy Scouts of...

For the academic year ending September 30, 2019, Albany Technical College is assigned the responsibility of injecting approximately $45 million into the economy of Southwest Georgia.  Most of the additional income provided by Albany Technical College’s graduates will be spent in or near Albany.  The Technical College System of Georgia’s (TCSG) engagement with Complete College Georgia (CCG), the state’s Complete College America (CCA) affiliate, commits the system to producing an...

The education that we provide is relevant.  What we teach fits. The curriculum taught at Albany Technical College addresses the workforce skill sets needed by employers in Southwest Georgia. Periodic research is conducted by the college to determine what skill sets need to be adapted, added, or deleted.  Each program is formally evaluated every three to five years.  Albany Tech’s curriculum has a 70 percent overlap with Georgia’s strategic workforce initiatives. The quality of...

The administration, faculty, Board, and Foundation of Albany Technical College take pride in being known by the company that we keep.  We serve and hopefully maintain positive relationships with employers in Dougherty and six other nearby counties. Our responsibility continues to focus on providing workforce education at the collegiate / postsecondary level.  Under the auspices of the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) and congruent with its workforce development mission, we...

My life’s history and most of my experiences are tied to the south. I was born one year before Brown versus the Board of Education. Yet, I still attended segregated schools from Kindergarten through the eleventh grade. My education after high school was provided by a Historically Black College or University (HBCU), a state university, and flagship university. I was educated in South Carolina and Georgia. I’ve lived all my life in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. I was a...

During the past six months I have purposely doubled the time that I allocate for meetings with area employers. Acquiring in-depth feedback about the current workforce needs around the quality of workforce skills and the work ethics required for entry level workers is proving to be of great benefit considering our dynamic and ever evolving knowledge-based economy. The conversations reinforce and better quantify my assumptions about employment projections for certain artisans and...

In 1961, several Southwest Georgia visionaries decided that the best way to create economic prosperity and attract industry to the region was to create a technically-educated workforce.  Two of those visionaries were George Kirkland and E. B. White.  George Kirkland realized that in order to sell residential and commercial real estate in the area, new industry needed to be enticed to move to Dougherty County.  E. B. White understood that in order for all members of our community to obtain...