GNTC sees 10% increase in enrollment

Georgia Northwestern Technical College (GNTC) saw a 10% increase in enrollment according to the 2024 Academic Year report issued by the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG).

GNTC officials attribute the growth in enrollment to increased numbers in Dual Enrollment programs, more effective class scheduling, targeted advertising campaigns and Student Success efforts.

Enrollment was 8,836 students for Academic Year 2024, up from 8,031 students in the previous academic year, according to the report. The Academic Year 2024 ran from the fall 2023 semester through the spring and summer 2024 semesters.

“Driven by a strong focus on student success and our mission of workforce development, GNTC experienced significant growth over the past academic year. This growth is a direct result of the dedication of our staff and faculty, who work tirelessly to ensure each student reaches their full potential by providing quality student support services and technical education programs,” said Dr. Heidi Popham, president of GNTC. “The efforts of our student success team and faculty ensure students are equipped with the relevant knowledge and skills necessary to thrive in successful careers.”

Dual Enrollment

Georgia’s Dual Enrollment program allows qualified high school students in GNTC’s nine-county service area to maximize their education and career training by taking college-level courses that earn college and high school credit at the same time. Identified degree-level core classes will transfer to any institution in the University System of Georgia (USG) or the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG). College credits also count toward high school rigor and HOPE Scholarship rigor requirements.

Increased participation in GNTC’s Dual Enrollment program made a significant impact in the college’s overall growth. Students enrolled in Dual Enrollment grew approximately 20%, up from 2,596 in Academic Year 2023 to 3,115 in Academic Year 2024.

Kristi Hart, director of High School Initiatives at GNTC, attributes the growth to several factors, including the support that the Dual Enrollment program and its students receive throughout GNTC, from administrators, faculty and staff.

“Our local area high schools have been quick to capitalize on the State of Georgia’s Dual Enrollment program free 30 semester credit hours,” Hart said. “I have also heard consistently that GNTC is easy to work with and we have great partnerships with our participating high schools.”

The majority of GNTC’s Dual Enrollment students take General Education subjects, with English Composition and Rhetoric being the most common, Hart said. Excluding General Education, the programs with highest Dual Enrollment participation are Welding, Cosmetology and Criminal Justice, respectively.

Many Dual Enrollment students are also interested in Mechatronics and Industrial Systems, she said.

“We have consistently had a higher participation rate in these programs among female students,” Hart said.

GNTC partners with eight College and Career academies: Calhoun College and Career Academy, Catoosa County From HERE to CAREER! College and Career Academy, Floyd County Schools College and Career Academy, Gordon County College and Career Academy, Northwest Georgia College and Career Academy, Rome City Schools College and Career Academy, Polk County College and Career Academy and Walker LAUNCH.

The majority of Dual Enrollment students attend classes at their high school, rather than at a GNTC campus; however, the majority who attend a GNTC campus do so at the Floyd County Campus or Walker County Campus, where the Walker LAUNCH career academy is located, Hart said.

“Walker County Schools recently received more than $3 million from the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) for the Walker LAUNCH career academy,” Hart said. “LAUNCH has participated in Dual Enrollment since 2018.”

Building 500 on GNTC’s Walker County Campus (WCC) in Rock Spring is being renovated to house the new, state-of-the-art college and career academy, which will serve Walker and Dade County students. The funds will allow Walker LAUNCH to open a teacher preparation pathway, as well as labs for Mechatronics, Culinary and Healthcare.

Smart scheduling

GNTC partnered with Ad Astra, a software platform that helps higher education institutions with academic scheduling, to revamp manual scheduling processes across its six campuses. Over the last year, GNTC worked closely with Ad Astra to lay the groundwork necessary to build a strong scheduling foundation, including conducting an inventory of available seating and rooms and identifying scheduling bottlenecks, according to Jennifer Loudermilk, associate vice president of Academic Affairs at GNTC.

These efforts also included solidifying program pathways, or eMaps, and tapping into telepresence technology that allows GNTC to offer live classes simultaneously so that students can attend classes in a face-to-face setting, stay closer to their home campus and complete core classes in a timely manner, Loudermilk explained.

“We want to help students stay at their home campus as much as possible,” Loudermilk said. “We also did a lot of outreach to students, including implementing a new orientation and advisement process, which allowed students to register earlier in the semester.”

Ad Astra’s analysis showed where GNTC had too many sections with too few students, as well as additional classes students could take during the same day. Based on the findings, GNTC added some Friday classes and some evening options for core courses to its traditional schedule of Monday through Thursday classes.

“Roll-forward scheduling wasn’t efficient for our faculty or our students,” Loudermilk said. “Ad Astra helped us improve efficiency and increase the enrollment ratio for each class section.”

Advertising campaigns

“GNTC has always put a strong emphasis on marketing the college, not only in our nine-county service area, but also in counties in our neighboring states,” said Amber Jordan, director of Marketing and Public Relations at GNTC. “Advertising campaigns are a large part of our marketing plan. We rely heavily on campaigns to increase enrollment in our academic programs and also promote general awareness about GNTC and everything we offer.”

Current advertising campaigns emphasize GNTC’s convenience and affordability, she said. GNTC has six campuses in northwest Georgia and offers day, evening and online classes. GNTC is also affordable with many financial aid options including HOPE Grant and Scholarship, Pell Grant, HOPE Career Grant, Foundation scholarships and student loans. There are many resources at GNTC to help students afford a college education.

“Our current campaign, ‘High Demand Careers Begin Here,’ promotes our high demand career program areas,” Jordan said. “These are career fields identified by the State of Georgia as having more open positions in the workforce than there are skilled workers to fill them.”

Over the past few years, GNTC’s advertising strategy has transitioned to mostly digital platforms, including social media, video streaming, websites, search engine optimization, lead generation and content marketing, Jordan explained. Utilizing the many digital marketing options available, GNTC expands it reach significantly, plans a cost-effective campaign and targets specific audiences.

One of the biggest benefits of digital advertising is real-time reporting, Jordan said, adding that GNTC is able to evaluate what is successful and what needs to be modified for better results.

“We have so many great programs of study, and we want to showcase our outstanding students and faculty through our advertising campaigns,” Jordan said. “We put a lot of focus on our graduate and student success stories; these stories allow our students to talk about their experiences at GNTC and explain in their own words how attending GNTC changed their lives for the better.”

TargetX

TargetX, a new customer relationship management (CRM) system that enhances student engagement, enables GNTC to provide better assistance to students through the admissions process, communicates with them in a variety of ways and improves advising efforts to increase student success across GNTC’s six campuses.

“TargetX is a one-stop shop for staff to provide better customer service and support to our students,” Legare Price, dean of Student Success at GNTC, said.

TargetX’s updated application and enrollment portal provides students with a mobile-friendly way to enroll, Price said. Improved communication tools allow GNTC to inform students better and keep them up to date on their progress. TargetX also provides key data that allows GNTC to make informed decisions that best help students and improve the college’s effectiveness.

“TargetX allows us to track student progress from the time a student first inquires about GNTC until the student graduates,” Price said. “Through campaign tracking, we can better communicate to students who request information via email and text. Our CRM will track the progress of applicants, communicate with them automatically (via email and text) regarding next steps or missing documentation, and allow our staff to reach out to assist students who may need more help.”

TargetX has helped to automate several processes that were previously done manually, Price explained. For example, GNTC staff previously sent thousands of emails to update students on their admission status, as well as acceptance letters. Most of this process has now been automated through TargetX, freeing up staff to communicate one-on-one with students and assist them with more urgent problems.

“We are now able to text message students updates and requests, which has been far more useful to students who are on the go and may not view their email often,” Price said. “We can now allow students to access more information on their progress than ever before using the Enrollment Portal, which has live information about their status and next steps.”

The program has also supported GNTC’s recruitment efforts by freeing up Jason Gamel, director of Recruitment, to focus more on his engagement with the schools within GNTC’s service area, provide information and support to future students there, and build relationships along the way, Price said.

Student Success

“GNTC’s Academic Advising department has worked diligently with Academic Affairs and faculty to improve first-semester advising by utilizing our new eMap academic pathways to assist students to complete their academic programs, which has already shown great improvement in students reaching graduation,” Price said.

GNTC’s program pathways can be used as advising guides or maps to help determine which courses students need to take and when to take them. By following the course of study outlined in a specific degree, diploma or certificate pathway, GNTC students will know the prerequisite courses they need to continue in the chosen program of study.

“GNTC provides each individual student seeking advisement and coaching help with a program pathway specifically designed to help guide them through their program of choice,” said Ivey Stang, GNTC’s Student Success coordinator.

“The program pathway is tailored to suggest unique class pairings for the students as they work through their goals to graduation,” Stang said.

Student Success Coaches provide academic preparation services, answers to general inquiries, developmental advising resources and time management services; they coach first generation students and make learning support and tutoring referrals.

The coaches can provide early intervention services for students facing challenges to their academic success. The coaches can partner to provide internal and external resources for student support.

“Student Success coaches help guide the student throughout their time at GNTC starting at class registration,” Stang said.

A Student Success coach is located at the Floyd County Campus in Rome, Gordon County Campus in Calhoun, Walker County Campus in Rock Spring and Whitfield Murray Campus in Dalton. Student Success coaches are available to meet with students at other campuses upon request.

Other initiatives

GNTC constantly looks for new ways to support students.

“We now have a fully on-demand New Student Orientation platform that enables students to be more prepared for their first day of college,” Price said. “We have partnered with YouScience to provide career guidance to students looking to determine the next steps for their future, as well as Handshake, which connects graduating students with employers in our area to fulfill our community workforce needs.”

GNTC’s Veterans Affairs office works to meet the needs of students who are service members. GNTC recently earned the 2024-25 Military Friendly® School Gold designation; the gold designation means GNTC is rated within 10% of the 10th-ranked organization for the category of small community college.

Institutions earning the Military Friendly® School designation were evaluated using both public data sources and responses from a proprietary survey, with more than 1,800 schools participating in the 2024-25 survey, according to www.militaryfriendly.com. Final ratings were determined by combining the institution’s survey scores with the assessment of the institution’s ability to meet thresholds for graduation, job placement, loan default, loan repayment, persistence (degree advancement or transfer) and student retention rates for all students and, specifically, for student veterans.