Impact Update Fourth Quarter – 2025

GCCA Pathway Results are Excellent

The Greene College & Career Academy offers 17 different pathways leading to 200 potential career directions students can follow to prepare for post-secondary education, industry certification and the workforce. Each year the State of Georgia conducts an End of Pathway Assessment (EOPA), to measure student mastery across multiple career paths.

The fall results are in and GCCA performance across multiple pathways demonstrate continuous improvement. 80% or more of students in Culinary Arts, Audio Video Technology and Health Science who took the assessment successfully passed. Students in the Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) pathway completed the FEMA exam, indicating readiness for emergency response and public safety roles.

These results highlight the effectiveness of GCCA’s instructional programs, industry-aligned curriculum, and strong partnerships that support student success. We are proud of our students and instructors and look forward to continuing this momentum as we prepare learners for meaningful career and postsecondary opportunities.

Portrait of a Graduate

Dr. Aaryn Schmuhl, Superintendent of the Greene County School System, recently shared an important initiative that will bring the Greene County community together—educators, students, families, and community partners—around a shared vision for our students. It is called Portrait of a Graduate.

It is designed to define the essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions we want every Greene County student to demonstrate by the time they graduate - from their very first days in Pre-K through their final year of high school.

At its core, the Greene County Portrait of a Graduate will help define the kind of people we want our students to become, not just the courses they complete or the tests they take. It will reflect our community’s hopes for students and our collective commitment to preparing all learners for success in school, work, and life.

The school district is currently engaged in a series of listening sessions, surveys, and input meetings with educators, students, families, and community members. The outcome will be a synthesized draft “Portrait of a Graduate” that will serve as a guiding framework for instructional planning, school-level decision making and strengthening community connections and partnerships (such as Thillen Education Foundation and others) that support student growth.

Giving Tuesday Success

Heading into Giving Tuesday our goal was to raise $237,000 to replace the funds awarded to graduates in the class of 2025 participating in our Career Coaching Program.

By end of Giving Tuesday, contributions totaled $304,000! Donations came from 105 new and annual supporters who believe providing underprivileged students with a better education, four years of career coaching and significant financial incentives is the best way to end generational poverty in Greene County, Georgia. Since 100% of donations go directly to supporting students, the financial assistance projection for the Class of 2026 has been raised to $320,000, a 35% increase over 2025!

Now in its 8th year of operation, the Thillen Education Foundation has been driven by 230 amazing volunteer career coaches working with more than 800 students. The program is not only working, it’s accelerating. Thank you for your support!

Students Get Hands-On Experience

One of the unique advantages of Greene College & Career Academy is that students receive hands-on experience in the field they are looking to follow after graduation. Recently agriculture and construction instructor Joseph Nesbit took 15 GCCA students for a community service experience with Habitat for Humanity.

Students spent the day installing tongue and groove subflooring in a Habitat home currently under construction. They also helped wrap the house with Tyvek, a synthetic weather-resistant barrier, used to block water and prevent mold while improving energy efficiency.

Both projects helped Habitat make major steps forward in the home’s construction process. While it provided valuable hands-on experience for the students it also gave the them a sense of satisfaction for helping improve the lives of others in the community. Well done!

Preparing for the Future

More Greene County High School students are learning on the job skills while in school. Last quarter, 62 juniors and seniors were employed with more than 27 partner companies.

Ms. Gillian Gunter, Work Based Learning (WBL) coordinator at the Greene College & Career Academy, set up mock interviews so students can get first-hand job readiness experience. A total of 147 students participated in the mock interviews - up from 81 last year.

There were 25 volunteers including many career coaches serving as potential employers. Students learned valuable lessons such as what questions to expect and with feedback, how to best prepare for when they graduate and enter the workforce.

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