Bell, a non-traditional student

who received her degree in information technology in July of 2002, graduated

Magna cum Laude with a 3.72 GPA from Clayton State.

"I love my job,"

said Bell. "I am very impressed with Centex. The company really stands

Graduating with honors certainly

didn't hurt Bell's chances of getting a good job, but she credits much

of her success to Clayton State's IT professors and the two internships

she was required to take during her tenure as a student.

"During my first internship,

I was the project manager for the implementation of Clayton State's New

College Web site (the New College is now called the College of Information

and Mathematical Sciences). I worked with a faculty web developer/class

instructor and a classroom of students to insure the completion of the

project." continued Bell. "I accomplished many of these tasks

and webmaster classes. There was very little or no supervision. The way

I chose to manage the project was entirely up to me because I was proving

myself as a project manager."

Bell reported her progress

to Larry Booth, head of the department of Information Technology at Clayton

State, who was impressed with Bell's creation of an internal web site

for him to use to track her progress. In addition, Bell has taught Systems

Analysis classes at the University and is courses.

"During my second internship,

I worked with Professors Joseph Bowler and Jon Preston. We worked more

as a team than boss and employee," said Bell. "All of the professors

and staff in the Information Technology Department at Clayton State are

superior to work with."

At Centex, Bell is the Pathways

Administrator for the South Atlanta division. She has been in Orlando,

learning their program, which she will eventually teach to the sales staff.

"I am working with the program to get it ready for the Sales staff

to use, which involves adding a variety of data to the program,"

Bell said. She will train the staff and continue to support them whenever

they need assistance. In addition, she will be performing analysis of

some of the contracts for Centex.

"Although my position

requires me to use my information technology expertise, I am part of the

Accounting Department," she said. "In my job, I utilize my previous

accounting background, my current information technology skills, and my

previous teaching knowledge that I acquired at Clayton State.

"The people I work with

are great. I do not know all the current plans for the future (of Centex),

but I predict they will be highly successful in this area due to their

superior product."

It's easy to predict that Grace

Bell will be highly successful as well.