The "Other" Georgia: Overseas Program Relies on Georgia State Savvy
While it's true that most of Georgia State's students hail from in state, there's a small contingent of Georgians on the other side of the world rooting for the Panthers.
Once part of the Soviet Union, the tiny nation of Georgia lies east of the Black Sea, between Russia and Turkey. At about 27,000 square miles, it's roughly the size of South Carolina. Georgia's Caucasus School of Business, established in 1998 via a partnership between Georgia State University, Tbilisi State University and the Georgian Technical University, sits in the capital city of Tbilisi — just a 40-mile drive from the birthplace of Joseph Stalin.
With funding from the state department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, Georgia State's J. Mack Robinson College of Business developed the school's curriculum, trained its faculty and built modern facilities. Over the past five years, enrollment has surged from 11 students to more than 700, and the Caucasus School is now considered to be the best business school in the country.
Students don't earn Georgia State degrees, but they do develop a sense of connection to their "sister" university.
"We have three students now attending Georgia State as undergraduates who came from the Caucasus program," says Bijan Fazlollahi, project director and professor of international business, who helped establish the school. "Their educational experience created a great enthusiasm for our university."
President Carl Patton, who first visited the school to inaugurate it in 1998, returned to Georgia in October to deliver the fifth commencement speech. During one stop on the trip, he was named an honorary citizen of Tbilisi for his contributions to higher education in Georgia.