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Georgia Perimeter College

Georgia Perimeter College (GPC) was founded by the citizens of DeKalb County and the DeKalb County Board of Education under the Junior College Act of 1958 and opened as DeKalb College in 1964. DeKalb College was the only public junior college in Georgia supported and controlled by a local board of education. It was established so that any resident of the DeKalb County School District who held a high school diploma or its equivalent and who desired to seek two years of postsecondary education might have the opportunity to do so. In Georgia, DeKalb College pioneered open-door admissions (no longer the case), personalized approaches to instruction, and community-related curricula and activities. In 1986, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia accepted the college as its 34th member institution.

In November 1997, the Board of Regents approved changing the name of the college from DeKalb College to Georgia Perimeter College to reflect the college’s mission and service throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area. Currently, GPC consists of five campuses and one center, making it the largest two-year college in Georgia and the third largest institution in the University System of Georgia. Campuses are located in Clarkston, Decatur, Dunwoody, Lawrenceville, and Conyers. (In 2005, ground was broken at a site in Newton County, where the Rockdale Campus in Conyers will be relocated.)

Georgia Perimeter College is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and serves more than 21,000 students. The average age of GPC students is 25.1 years. International students come from 147 countries and represent 17 percent of the student body. Minority students make up 56 percent of the student body.

The mission of the college is to provide access to high-quality, affordable education. Associate of Arts degrees are offered in 19 subject areas and Associate of Science degrees are offered in 14 subject areas. In addition, GPC offers four career and technical programs, as well as nine Associate of Applied Science dual programs offered in conjunction with DeKalb Technical College. According to U.S. Department of Education data, GPC ranked as the nation’s 18^th-highest degree producer in awarding associate degrees in liberal arts and sciences, general studies, and humanities in 2004; it also ranked among the top 100 in awarding associate degrees to both minority and non-minority students. No two-year college in Georgia transfers more students to four-year institutions than GPC.

Overview of Internationalization Efforts

Georgia Perimeter College opened its Global Center in 1995. This center was the forerunner of the current International Center, which was founded in 1999.

I. Vision and Goals for Internationalization

Georgia Perimeter College’s vision for internationalization is to have students, faculty, and staff work, live, and play productively in an increasingly diverse society and interdependent world. In order to achieve this vision, the college must be committed to an ongoing and recursive international educational and experiential process.

Goals for internationalization include the following:

1. Ensure the development of a college mission statement that includes a focus on internationalization.
2. Assess the college community’s strengths and weaknesses in internationalization.
3. Identify and evaluate benchmarks for an internationalized institution.
4. Develop a strategic plan for internationalizing the college:

• Facilitate faculty development in internationalization.
• Expand the study abroad opportunities and international exchanges for faculty, staff, and students to include a diversity of countries and destinations.
• Develop measures to sustain increased enrollment of international students and further integrate them into the GPC community.
• Increase the awareness of students, faculty, and staff to global issues.
• Promote an environment that fosters the physical feel of a global community.
• Effectively communicate activities and programs related to internationalization.           

II. Progress

1.   The college will be revising its mission statement during the coming academic year. The following revision has been recommended:

A community committed to learning and to becoming a preeminent associate degree-granting institution, the faculty, staff, administrators, and students of Georgia Perimeter College share the following aspirations:

2.   The Internationalization Committee has developed a survey and collected data to assess institutional strengths and weaknesses. The analysis of this data will help us determine GPC’s relationship to benchmarks for internationalization.

3.   The Director of the Center for International Language and Culture consulted various ACE Internationalization Collaborative partners as models for internationalization, making site visits to several colleges recommended by the ACE Collaborative.

4.   As part of a strategic plan, a number of new perspectives are being added to the curriculum and to faculty, staff, and student experiences. To more fully coordinate and develop international opportunities and to encourage and facilitate internationalization of the college, several internationalization efforts are being coordinated as part of a larger reorganization. The Internationalization of the College Committee, a collection of faculty and staff who are highly motivated and already working on internationalization individually, will be chaired by the Director of the International Center.

5.   Faculty are developing new courses, such as Middle East History and Asian-American Literature.

6.   A proposal for an International Certificate was written and has been submitted to the Faculty Senate for approval.

7.   International service-learning projects are ongoing with the immigrant communities in the Atlanta area, most notably the national Project SHINE.

8.   The International Center created the first online Medical Spanish course for health care professionals in the South Eastern United States.

9.   GPC continues to develop extracurricular programming to facilitate the internationalization of faculty, students, and staff. Japan Fest is an ongoing festival, as are multi-campus international student festivals and foreign language clubs. In 2005, the college celebrated its 40^th anniversary with a weeklong series of international events, including artistic celebrations, panel discussions, and festivals. In addition, ENLACES pairs faculty and staff who want to learn basic Spanish conversation with native speakers of Spanish.

III. Successful Strategies

• In planning the annual Faculty Development Day for fall 2005, the Center for Teaching and Learning used internationalization as its theme. The invited speaker and faculty presentations focused on internationalizing the curriculum and the college.
• The International Center continues to facilitate study abroad and faculty development abroad options as an important part of internationalization at GPC. Faculty have participated in summer programs at the EAST/WEST Center in Hawaii as well as faculty development seminars abroad (in 2005, they traveled to India and Mexico). Students can participate in a variety of study abroad programs, including both University System programs and “home grown” ones such as PURA VIDA, a program to Costa Rica. The Center also has won grants to support internationalizing the curriculum and to develop an online directory of international expertise at the college (www.gpc.edu/~gpcglobe/TAD/expertise/).
• The Humanities, Social Sciences, and Business Department received a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad grant to support travel to Ghana in 2003. Through the CILC, the college is hosting its first international visiting teacher this year from China and is collaborating with another college for a Fulbright Scholar in Residence for 2006–07.
• The International Student Admissions and Advising Office and the ESL programs bring international students both from abroad and from the surrounding immigrant community to the college and support them through documentation, language learning, academic skill development, and cultural adaptation. International students make up nearly 22 percent of total enrollment. They come from more than 140 countries, with the largest groups coming from Vietnam, Nigeria, Korea, India, Ethiopia, and Jamaica. Enrollments continue to increase and these students are well-represented in student government and as recipients of scholarships. ISAA also provides regular workshops on visas, taxes, and cultural and other topics .

IV. Future Plans

Georgia Perimeter College, under the leadership of its International Center, will continue to work toward achieving the goals stated above. For the immediate future, these efforts will be a continuation of what has already been accomplished.

• Continue to increase faculty involvement in international education. Because faculty members are a direct link to students, the college will increase efforts to engage a broader range of faculty in internationalizing students’ experience. With an international certificate in place, faculty incentives will be created to encourage further infusion of the curriculum, first in those courses that are currently listed in the certificate, and then to develop new courses with a global perspective. These incentives may include re-assigned time, stipends, or opportunities for travel.
• Strengthen and increase participation in study abroad programs. We will continue the successful programs in which GPC students already enroll and pursue possible exchanges in currently unexplored areas, specifically Africa and Asia. The study abroad function of the International Center will increase its expertise in study abroad financial assistance and recruiting currently under-represented populations.
• Increase collaboration with external partners, namely other colleges and international businesses in the metro-Atlanta area. By collaborating with other area colleges, we can conserve resources and share expertise. By collaborating with businesses and organizations in the Atlanta area, we can increase the profile of GPC as an advocate of international education and cooperation and increase employment entrée for our graduating students.

Please direct your questions about this page to:
beth_burris@ace.nche.edu
This page last updated on 6/28/06