Page 47 - DeKalb County NCG 2019

S P O N S O R E D C O N T E N T S P O N S O R E D C O N T E N T

EDUCATION & New president sees a bright future Goodwill of North Georgia EDUCATION &
WORKFORCE WORKFORCE
DEVELOPMENT for Kennesaw State DEVELOPMENT
By Scott Wiltsee oodwill of North Georgia is rooted in the local
community. Its mission is to put people to
ince joining Kennesaw State as G work. Made possible largely by revenue from its
president in July 2018, Pamela Whitten donated goods retail business, the organization provides
S has been on a nonstop tour of the job training and placement services to people looking to
University, listening to faculty, staff, and better their lives by earning a paycheck of their own. Goodwill’s career services are
students and formulating plans for leading available through 13 local career centers, which are free and open to anyone looking
KSU into a new phase of its development. for a first job or a new job, and also online: www.careerconnector.org. Three of
County through Georgia Piedmont and other publications for having the those centers are in DeKalb County. Through its career services, Goodwill connected
Technical College, Quick Start has most comprehensive and advanced With more than 35,000 students, Kennesaw almost 5,000 DeKalb County job seekers with employment in 2018. Support from 700+
provided customized training for more training program in the nation. The State is Georgia’s third-largest university and employer partners helped make this a reality. Together, the organizations are working
than 325,000 employees for 3,100 program is cited as a major reason among the top 50 public institutions in the to create a positive economic impact for county residents and businesses. To learn
businesses and industries in the state. Georgia is consistently ranked the nation. Students at KSU represent 121 of more about Goodwill of North Georgia, visit goodwillng.org.
The Quick Start program has received number one state for business in Georgia’s 159 counties. DeKalb is among the
praise from Fortune magazine, Training the U.S. top five counties represented at KSU.

“The role of a successful president is to set and implement an exciting vision with faculty,
staff, and students,” Whitten said. Part of that vision includes developing efforts to
ensure a laser focus on student success: improving graduation rates, raising funding for
scholarships and financial aid, and shaping Kennesaw State’s identity as a university.

Whitten’s goals for
Kennesaw State include “We have highly qualified students who
raising its profile of being are academically ready and have the
the best doctoral research drive to succeed. Our job is to surround
institution (R3 level) in the
country, a designation the them with highly talented faculty and
University earned in 2016 by staff who can guide the students in the
the Carnegie Classifications realization of their goals.”
of Institutions of Higher
Learning. Whitten also is committed to KSU maintaining a position as an economic
partner and engine for the region and the state.

45 DeKalb Chamber of Commerce 80TH SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY EDITION 404.378.8000 | WWW.DEKALBCHAMBER.ORG DeKalb Chamber of Commerce 46