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representation from each major area of GMC. Their job:
sift through the feedback, identify themes, and turn suggestions into concrete priorities and action steps.
“They’re developing very specific focus areas and
action items for the near term, midterm and long term,”
he said. “What we’ll do over the next year, over the next
two to three years, and four to five years out.” All of this
is happening as GMC works through its 10-year accreditation review with the Southern Association of Colleges
and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).
“This is the perfect time for me to come in,” McKenrick said. “I’m spending a significant amount of time
each week in meetings and reviewing reports that are
part of that process. It’s enabling me to study all the
systems and processes we have in place and get a detailed understanding of higher education and how we
do it here at Georgia Military College.”
Expanding Online
Two major initiatives are already emerging from
that strategic work: the expansion of GMC Online and
the creation of a Leadership Institute.
GMC Online currently offers 44 associate degree
programs and seven Bachelor of Applied Science
degrees. The goal, McKenrick said, is to “double and triple” the size of that part of the institution over the next
several years.
“Students across the nation want to do more online,”
he said. “That started before COVID but was accelerated by it. Online programs allow them flexibility to work
around part-time or full-time jobs. We’re trying to adapt
to that and really expand our online offerings.”
The second initiative may be the purest expression
of GMC’s mission: a Leadership Institute that will deliver
leadership training to organizations across Georgia and
beyond. “We’re standing up a leadership institute that
will run leadership training and education for external
organizations—companies, businesses, corporations,”
McKenrick said. “We’ll invite them to bring some of their
staff here, or we’ll take the program to them and conduct
modules— maybe a few days at a time— that will help
them improve their individual capability as leaders.”
GMC has just selected the leaders who will build
the program and expects to have it fully developed and
operating within approximately 18 months.
“It’s certainly part of our ethos as Georgia Military
College,” he added. “We integrate leadership training
into everything we do. We see this as something we
can export— being able to help other organizations develop their leadership capabilities.”
MAJOR GEN. McKENRICK TAKES AN ART LESSON FROM ONE OF GMC’S
YOUNGER STUDENTS.
are striking. For 16 consecutive years, the school has
graduated 100 percent of its senior class.
“If you send your son or daughter to Georgia Military College Prep School, they’re going to graduate,”
McKenrick said. “Compare that to a national graduation
average of 87 percent.”
Of the seniors who graduated last May, 94 percent are in college this fall, with 80 percent in Georgia
schools. Seventy-eight percent of those students earned
From K–12 to Service Academies
For all the talk of strategy and structure, GMC’s
impact is perhaps most clearly visible in the outcomes
of its students. At the preparatory school, the numbers
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