During his tenure, he has seen the student body evolve along with the college. He credits the unique liberal arts program with drawing a different kind of student. "We have remarkably bright, hardworking students. That is the most memorable part of working here. I've seen a much more diverse student body; a much more international student body," he said. "Every single language course we offer is full to overflowing. Our undergraduates are very sophisticated and understand the global market that they will be working in."

And the college's growth has caught up with McGuire’s position, it seems. Instead of naming one replacement, IAC is seeking two candidates: an Associate Dean for undergraduate studies and an Assistant Dean for information technologies.

"Dr. McGuire was unusual in that he possessed the skills needed for both the curricular and IT portions of the position," Dean Sue Rosser said. "His many years as a faculty member who had held several administrative positions in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture (LCC), meant that he had institutional knowledge and depth of experience with curricular issues as well as an excellent understanding of it. This combination of experience and skills, coupled with the fact that he is a very approachable, personable individual, means that he will be sorely missed."

"Last summer was the 'summer of the carbon footprint,' so I decided to have the class based on homes and living spaces," Crawford said. In addition to research on homelessness in general, the class has been archiving newspaper articles and photographs, conducting audio and video interviews with Mad Houser clients and with current and former members of the group, as well as participating in building some of the shelters. Students hope their work will provide a central archive for helping people to understand the goals and activities of this charitable group.

To help students understand the job requirements and advantages, Pinar Zaimoglu, a graduate student in the Economics program and current intern with The Coca-Cola Company, spoke of her experiences. She gave students an overall understanding of her training as an intern presenting examples of projects that she had worked on and highlighting the exact ways in which her Georgia Tech education prepared her for her position. As a result of her internship, Zaimoglu, a second year graduate student, has multiple job prospects upon her graduation this semester. Any student interested in more information should contact Kari McCarley.

Gerona received a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship to fund a year of research for "More than Six Flags." NEH also recognized her project as a "We The People Project", which is an initiative to further enhance our understanding of America's past. Her current project, titled, More than Six Flags: An Ethnohistory of an East Texas Place from the Caddo to the Texians, explores hundreds of years of history, just before Texas joined the United States. During this "borderlands" period, France, Spain, Mexico, and the United States (among others) vied for control of the region, though the Caddo, Apache, and other Indians who made their home in Texas vastly outnumbered and often overpowered the new European settlers. Her goal is to explore this early multicultural time and place from all of these distinct ethnic perspectives rather than the more usual national lens that many historians employ. Thus, in a recent paper on dancing, she focused on Spanish, Indian, and American dancing in the Texas borderlands, showing how the interactions between these groups altered each one's traditional dances.

Because her work has a multi-national and transnational dimension, Gerona is contributing to Georgia Tech's goal of teaching "global competence." Her research on the Texas borderlands as an example of an early global community will help students gain knowledge of different communities in the past, and thus develop a deeper understanding of global currents and different cultures today.

"I am very excited about joining a dynamic school in the College with a terrific set of productive world-class scholars. Our school is committed to teaching the history and sociology of science, technology, and medicine on an international scale and in interdisciplinary ways. I am developing new courses on the borderlands and colonial Latin America that have not been taught at Georgia Tech. I also plan to develop upper-level or graduate courses that explore the themes of science, technology, and medicine in the early Atlantic world.

Early America was a very dynamic and dramatic place: as people came into contact with each other they shared (and fought over) knowledge systems and technologies. In addition, a biological revolution severely weakened the indigenous population at the same time that an environmental revolution dramatically changed the American landscape," Gerona said.

Her personal interests and hobbies primarily revolve around family-time with her husband, Robert Desrochers, and her two young boys, Ellison (9) and Alejandro (6). She volunteers for the Fernbank Elementary School Chess Club, and enjoys playing chess. She also loves to play wiffle ball with her family, and watch her kids' baseball games at Medlock Park. In addition, she enjoys hiking, camping, traveling, tennis, and cooking. "Since I am almost always crazy-busy, yoga class helps me maintain some sanity," Gerona said.

The goals include eradicating extreme poverty, improving primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing global partnerships for development. During her work with PEACE, Smith traveled to five high schools in towns across Poland teaching lessons on the United Nations project, but also engaging students in conversations about the United States. As an additional component to her time in Poland, Smith wanted to go further with her work by formally researching and measuring underlying attitudes and perceptions of young Polish citizens.

A survey questionnaire was designed with INTA faculty mentor, Assistant Professor Vicki Birchfield, on "how Polish citizens see themselves with respect to their recent transitions and their place in a larger world, whether it be the EU, the UN, or a larger international society". Such attitudes and belief systems, according to Smith, play a critical role in the direction and shape of the country's future. Due to varying levels of English proficiency, the survey was translated into Polish for implementation.

The project led to a final report, Surveying Polish Attitudes: The Impact of Europeanization and Globalization on National Identity, that describes her reflections on perceptions of Polish students and presents the results from the survey questions answered by 191 students. Smith described her experience as one which provided an opportunity to cap her undergraduate experience with a project that taught her "the importance and value of learning from direct experience and interaction."