When William Johnson tried to use his American Express to pay for his school bill, he was a little disappointed that Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) was not quite ready to accept his card.

 

But William, a junior from Lilburn, quickly received some assistance from the College’s Vice President of Finance, and within minutes the problem was resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.

 

“It’s refreshing to have an upper administration that really has an open door policy,” William says.

 

He says many of his peers are not aware of the opportunities offered at the Lawrenceville campus, but he thinks anyone that checks the quality of GGC’s faculty and staff will want to be a part of the program.

 

“Some people might be afraid of it being a new school, but anybody can look at the backgrounds of the professors, the president and the vice president and see that these are very accomplished teachers and administrators,” William says.

 

Just as he found GGC’s leadership to be above average, William Johnson is now experiencing upper-level classes with superior instruction as he pursues a business degree focused on marketing.

 

“All the teachers make it a point to teach real-world scenarios. With everything we go over, there is a way to equate it to the real world and recent examples,” he says.

 

In fact, it was comments GGC President Dan Kaufman made about the school’s commitment to remain cutting-edge that attracted William in the first place.

“He talked about how the business world is changing quicker than anybody expected with the use of technology, and GGC was going to use technology to prepare students for that change,” he says. 

 

And William says his teachers are doing their best to train better students by challenging them in the classroom.

 

“They're not going to let you walk in to class without reading the book and give you an ‘A,’” he says.  “They're going to challenge you; they're going to make you question what you're thinking about.  In the end, you're going to learn so much more from them.”