Monthly Column August 2019

Join Us as We Celebrate the Re-Opening of Gignilliat Memorial Hall

Without the foundational education Lamar Wright received at what was then Dalton Junior College, he says he would not have achieved the same level of success. I hope our current students will look back on their time here at Dalton State College and boldly make the same statement.

Lamar appreciates the start Dalton Junior College gave him and believes Dalton State is still in the business of changing lives. And we are still changing lives, thanks to Lamar and his wife Ann, as well as all the others who make gifts to the college.

On Thursday, Sept. 5 at 4 p.m. we will celebrate the Wrights and their great impact on the campus as we host a grand re-opening celebration and ribbon cutting for Gignilliat Memorial Hall, the home of the Wright School of Business. Your presence at this event is important to us, and we hope you will make plans to join us.

Over the last several years, we have been shifting our focus here at Dalton State to be a first-choice destination college. This means we are becoming a college students choose first, not as a backup plan. It also means our students graduate from Dalton State and become productive members of our community. Our college was founded because the leaders of this community understood the importance of having an educated population and workforce. I believe Northwest Georgia needs and deserves a college of our caliber.

There are too many to name here who have contributed significantly to the development and growth of Dalton State. The Wrights have made the largest gift from a private donor in the history of the college to build a school of business that provides an education comparable to the best business schools.

Lamar and Ann are planting seeds to grow trees that will shade future generations. The Wrights and other leaders in this community understand we must invest in the education of our youth in order to ensure a thriving economy for our community and region for today and the foreseeable future. Because Dalton State is part of the University System of Georgia, we receive state funding to operate.  The funding is sufficient to function but not enough to achieve the excellence needed and expected of a college in this community.

With the support of our entire community, Dalton State has shifted from an outstanding community college to a competitive four-year institution. We are becoming a first-choice college for employers, too, where our students are quickly hired locally in a variety of fields because of the reputation we are establishing for producing graduates that are ready to work. Our graduates are sought after by accounting firms, manufacturing companies, local elementary, middle and high schools, hospitals, doctor’s offices and others. We have not achieved this success without the backing of this community.

Thanks to the Wright family and others, Dalton State is able to offer our students the equipment and facilities needed to ensure our students receive the very best education possible.  Our students are using modern day tools and learning information and skills that prepare them to become productive employees. Students are working collaboratively to solve real-world problems instead of reading and hearing about the equipment and software and methods used in the “real world.”

One of Lamar Wright’s favorite quotations comes from innovator and entrepreneur Steve Jobs: “Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” How very true this is in the case of Dalton State. Not all gifts are as large as that of the Wright family, but all gifts make a difference in the lives of our students and the success of this college. Even a few dollars could be enough to help a student remain enrolled another semester and ultimately become a graduate.

We hope to see you at our grand reopening. We want to show you what Dalton State is doing for this community and what this community has done for Dalton State. We also invite you to consider a gift. Visit giving.daltonstate.edu or contact our Dalton State Foundation at 706-272-4473 or foundation@daltonstate.edu.