Meet Rebekah Foster
Student Spotlight
Meet Rebekah Foster; a 20-year-old honors student from Jonesboro, Georgia, and marketing intern at Gordon State College.
Although, as a child, she dreamed of being a veterinarian, Foster is now pursuing a career in nonprofit marketing, where she hopes to incorporate her lifelong interest in art into her work (since she dislikes the sight of blood and needles, she says that this change in plans is for the best). To achieve her new goal, she is working towards her B.S. in Management and Administration and her A.A. in Visual Arts. She plans to graduate with both degrees in the spring of 2022. In addition, she intends to supplement her art classes with certifications in graphic design and digital photography.
Foster transferred to Gordon from Young Harris College in fall of 2018 as a dual-enrollment student. Although she originally planned to transfer again after graduating from high school, she continued at Gordon because she enjoyed the benefits of her small class sizes. Foster also likes the lack of surrounding road traffic compared to the college in Metro Atlanta that she toured, where, she jokes, she felt like she was going to have a heart attack before she even arrived. Her favorite class that she has taken at Gordon is Dr. Stanley’s microbiology class, which she took as an elective. In it, she enjoyed hearing about the amazing uses of microorganisms and the fascinating phenomena that they cause, but she adds that Dr. Stanley’s exceptional teaching and entertaining stories are what made the class truly memorable.
One of the highlights of Foster’s academic journey here at Gordon was learning for herself that anyone can learn to draw or paint well if they put enough effort into it – even if that means spending thirty hours a week just on drawings. Before her art classes at Gordon, she fell into the false belief that she could not excel at art because she did not think she had enough talent. Thus, Foster challenges prospective students, like her, to change the way that they think about subjects in which they struggle. Her advice is to “stop believing that you are destined to fail in certain subjects because you think that you lack talent in that area. Instead put in the time and effort, and you will see yourself succeed in areas in which you previously struggled.” Her other piece of advice is to “take a chance” and take the earliest classes that you can so that you can claim the best parking spots.