GAINESVILLE STATE COLLEGE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: SLOAN JONES, 678-717-3836
Gainesville, GA., October 12, 2012 – Gainesville State College student group project goes public in a good way!
What started as a class project for five Gainesville State College (GSC) students during their summer semester Management 4215 class became a real working tool for a local church’s Vacation Bible School (VBS).
Registration of nearly 150 students in the First Baptist Church of Oakwood Vacation Bible School had up until this point been done by hand and involved a lot of paperwork and filing that could be difficult to manage.
The assignment that Dr. Michael Wayne, GSC Instructor of Business Administration, gave to his students was that it had to be relevant and improve a process. GSC students Yvette Allison of Dawsonville, Angie Wood of Hall County, Beverly Ford of Duluth, Tina Garner of Sugar Hill, and Kimberly Allen of Blairsville came up with the idea to develop online VBS registration for the First Baptist Church of Oakwood.
“Being a small church with a part time secretarial staff, sometimes families can’t call and register children for activities during office hours,” said Steve Fenlon, Pastor. “Our website was not designed to allow online registration. The project that Angie Wood and her associates created will greatly help us involve families in church events.”
Not only did the creation of the VBS website allow for online registration, it enabled the volunteer staff to work in a secure data base to create class rolls, make name tags and communicate with the students and their parents on an on-going basis. It also allowed for quick access to emergency contact information as well as special medical needs for the students.
This online registration was a hit with the users based on its ease of use and the fact that is more efficient and environmentally responsible.
When Allison, Ford, Wood, Garner and Allen made their end-of-class presentation, Wayne commended the group and said they had “exceeded his expectations.”
These over-achievers are all adult learners at GSC and work in positions ranging from project manager to pricing analyst and pre-school teacher.
This is just one example of the many class projects with a service learning component that benefits individuals and groups in the College’s service area.
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CAPTION: Tina Garner, Beverly Ford and Angie Wood (left to right) go over their project web page with Dr. Michael Wayne.