S T R O N G W O M E N A N D S T R O N G R E S O LV E :
Alvetta Peterman Thomas’ Inspiring Journey College President
BY CYNTHIA ADAMS PHOTOS BY NANCY EVELYN
On March 1,
PRESIDENT ALVETTA P. THOMAS
(EdD, ’04) assumed oversight of
Atlanta Technical College (ATC) in the southwestern corner of Atlanta. One of 33
technical colleges in Georgia, the school wins accolades for its programs and
innovation and has more than 3,200 students. Thomas sees herself in so many of their hopeful and expectant faces.
AT T I M E S , M E M O R I E S WA S H OV E R H E R ,
PARTICULARLY DURING THE JUBILATION AND EUPHORIA OF GRADUATION DAY.
tudents arrive on her campus from many streams of life and she welcomes them with equal measures of hopefulness and bemusement. Like Thomas, some are the children of professionals, stoked with an inner fire to make something of themselves. Others are adults seeking second chances, or a fresh start in one of the 100 programs offered. Nonetheless, these various streams of scholars, dreamers and career hopefuls converge upon the 48-acre ATC campus off Metropolitan Parkway. It is an urban, technical college, unlike the more traditional one where Thomas completed a UGA doctorate four years ago. Thomas hopes she can teach them the hardest won lessons of all, but knows that is not her mandate exclusively. Instead, she talks about keeping covenants with ourselves, completing unfinished business and finding a place in a picture too often excluding bright, sophisticated minorities.
S
Dr. Alvetta P. Thomas became president of Atlanta Technical College in the spring of 2008. Her drive to make and meet lofty goals inspires both staff and students to follow.
By example, Thomas teaches them about the value of second chances— both extending and accepting them.
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Thomas’ story began in Montgomery, Alabama, a place emblematic of social injustice but also of powerful transformation. Characteristically poised and seated in an office suite, flanked by staff members, she sips bottled water and takes a deep breath before beginning the interview. Her reflection swims before her in the polished table top: it reflects a woman of accomplishment who never allowed herself to stop before her dreams were realized. Only now, three degrees, two children and three grandchildren later, can the woman known to her grandchildren as “Doctor Nana” exhale. Thomas’ father was in the Air Force. Her mother taught high school English and history. Early on, expectations were high for Thomas and her elder brother. Their greatgrandmother earned a teaching certificate in 1896. “Imagine,” Thomas says without a hint of her Deep South childhood, “an African American woman, literate and teaching in the late 1800s!” There’s a special reason for Thomas’ modulated voice: In 1970, her family moved to Framingham, England. Thomas was in the 7th grade and entered school in Britain. For a child who had developed an appreciation for history from her mother, it was sheer magic. Graduate School Magazine
WINTER 2009
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