Tiffany Buker not only earned her bachelor’s degree, but was named GSW’s top business student. (Photo by Stephen Snyder, Georgia Southwestern)

by Rebecca Rakoczy

Tiffany Buker knew she wanted to go back to college, but traveling to a campus was not an option. Recently married and living in Roswell, she also was juggling the demands of three young stepchildren. But a flyer about Georgia Perimeter College’s three-year Fastrac Bachelor of Business Administration program with Georgia Southwestern State University caught her eye.

“I thought, hey, I went to GPC and graduated with an associate degree in business administration; I could do this,” she recalls. 

She could—and she did. Buker graduated in May and received the top business student award at Georgia Southwestern to boot.

Buker says the online nature of the program helped make her decision to get her BBA easy.

“I knew my (GPC) credits were going to transfer; the only reason I went back to school was that I would be able to do everything online; if I had to travel to campus, I probably wouldn’t have gotten as far along as I did.”

Introduced in 2011, GPC’s Fastrac BBA program with Georgia Southwestern has quickly gained popularity. First administered at GPC by Online Business Chair Dr. James Kahiga, the collaborative program—now overseen by GPC business professor Lee McKinley—has grown from one student during its inaugural year to more than 120 students in 2013.

The program allows students who receive their associate degree in business from GPC to complete their bachelor’s degree online through an intensive, year-long program offered through GSW. Students may take longer to complete the program.

Students may receive their BBA degrees in management, accounting, human resources or marketing.

“We have been so impressed with the preparation of the GPC students who have come to us. They are already ‘online savvy’ and are most willing to participate in discussions, cases and projects with other students,” said Dr. Liz Wilson, dean of the business school at GSW. “Since many of them are already in the workforce, they also bring experiences they can share to enrich our courses.

“We have found that the typical GPC student is diligent, focused and very ready to take on upper-division coursework,” Wilson said. “We have already had three honors graduates that came to us from GPC. This has been a wonderful experience for Georgia Southwestern and provides such a great synergy between our two institutions.”

McKinley, who works from the GPC Newton Campus, is available in person and online for students, shepherding them through GPC’s and GSW’s programs and keeping them on track for graduation.

The success of the three-year business program is leading to a new accelerated program in the  Department of Computer Science this academic year. GSW and GPC are launching a similar, three-year bachelor degree in information technology, says Dr. Ingrid Thompson-Sellers, Georgia Perimeter’s dean of business, physical education, sign language interpreting and academic services at GPC Online.

WebBSIT (Web Bachelor of Science in Information Technology), the information technology program, is accepting applicants this fall and will begin in spring 2014.

For information about the business degree, contact McKinley at 770-278-1357. For information about the information technology bachelor’s program, contact Priscilla Dodds at 678-891-7551.