If you want to know where anything is on Georgia Perimeter College’s Dunwoody Campus, ask Nicole Noel-Charles. The 2008 GPC graduate took all her social work classes there from 2006-08 and knows the lay of the land (as well as plum study and parking spots).

Ask her about what’s going on at Clarkston, Decatur, Alpharetta and Newton campuses—she’s got that down as well.

Noel-Charles’ love for all things GPC is intense—as a student, she worked in the enrollment and registration offices and in international advising, and in 2008, she represented Dunwoody Campus as Homecoming queen.

Now she is back again, but not for class. This time, she has a bachelor’s degree from Georgia Southern University—and a new job: as a recruiter for Georgia Southern. Her mission: to encourage GPC students to graduate and then transfer to her alma mater university.

It’s a win-win situation for Noel-Charles, who sports both the GPC Jaggy logo and the GSU Eagle in her office.

“I love the students here,” says Noel-Charles, who says she was excited to get the job as coordinator of transfer recruitment for Georgia Southern—and then to be able to return to GPC in her role.

“Georgia Southern recognizes that GPC’s students are very prepared and focused once they’re ready to transfer,” she says. “I advise them that students should have their associate degree before they transfer over—I am an advocate for graduating,” she adds, noting that GPC courses move seamlessly over to the university.

 In 2013, 42 Georgia Perimeter students transferred to Georgia Southern; Noel-Charles hopes to continue to boost those numbers as students consider their four-year options after graduation. 

Noel-Charles understands that students don’t always know quite where they want to go educationally. That was her experience when she emigrated to the United States in 2006 from Trinidad.

“I was 25 and in nursing school in Trinidad, but I was ready for a new transition,” she remembers. She learned about GPC through a cousin living in Atlanta. She enrolled as an international student and immediately started immersing herself in college life. She connected to other international students as well, by working in the international student admissions office.

“Veronique Barnes (International Student Admissions and Advising director) is my mentor—she’s wonderful,” says Noel-Charles.

The feeling is mutual. “One of the things I really liked about Nicole was when she worked with others, she was open to feedback and very respectful in her dealings with other people,” says Barnes. “I felt she would really go far with that kind of disposition. I’ve had the opportunity to work with her since she graduated, and she was instrumental in helping us get GPC students down to Georgia Southern and introduce them to GSU as a transfer option when they graduate.”

“This is a great fit for her and a great connection for us,” Barnes says. “She’s an amazing young lady.”