Y ou won’t find a senior more involved with Georgia College & State University museums than Caroline Cole, a graduating history major and English minor.

Introduced to Matthew Davis, director of historic museums, at the Presidential Scholarship Competition in 2019, she’s worked at the museums since her second day of college.

“I love getting to meet all different kinds of people,” Cole said. “We get people from all over the world and all over the country. So, I just get different types of people as well, people of all types of beliefs and types of cultures—that’s been a really rewarding thing.”

She started at the Sallie Ellis Davis House and worked her way up to being a docent for Georgia’s Old Governor’s Mansion. After working with the best of the best in museums and thousands of guests over her college career, Cole is more than ready to pursue her dream of curating museum exhibits. 

“Museums are a gateway for the public to look into what's going on in historical research,” she said. “And I really like helping adults learn and discover new things—that’s part of why I enjoy doing this job.”

But Cole isn’t just an expert on Georgia College museums. One of the university’s graduating valedictorians, she’s also an active member of the Honors College and studied most of her English minor at the University of Oxford last year. 

As a visiting student at Oxford for a spring semester, or hilary term, she studied the global Middle Ages and Victorian literature. Regent’s Park College, the University of Oxford college that Cole was a part of, invited her back to complete two more terms after her impressive academic prowess.

 

That year she wrote 36 essays for Oxford. 

“It was hard moving to a whole other country with all these new people who I'd never met before,” Cole said. “I’d never done something like that before, but I made the active decision to put myself out there.”

“I made some really good friends, and I had a good time—it was such a good experience,” she said.

Dr. Brian Newsome, dean of the John E. Sallstrom Honors College, and the International Education Center were instrumental in getting Cole to Oxford. She credits them and a laundry list of incredible faculty for her positive experience at Georgia College.

“I’m sure I’m leaving out a bunch of people, because the professors have been my favorite part,” Cole said. “The professors have been so amazing, and that’s part of the reason I came to Georgia College. I wouldn’t have been Dr. Scott Buchanan’s personal research assistant, even though I’m a history major.”

“Those kinds of things are why I just love Georgia College,” she said.

From humble beginnings in Buford, Georgia, to Georgia College, Cole is now on her way back to the United Kingdom. Soon, she’ll start a 12-month Master of Letters program in museum and heritage studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. 

“It’s been really rewarding, and it’s funny, because I have grown a lot academically, but I feel like I’ve grown more socially and as a person more than anything,” Cole said. “In college, you learn so much about yourself and other people.”

Learn more about the Distinguish Pillar in our Imagine 2030 Strategic Plan