By Ian Wesselhoff 

O n Jan. 30, representatives from 60 school districts across the country came to Georgia College & State University’s campus for its annual Teacher Recruitment Fair, all hoping to connect with the next generation of educators prepared by the John H. Lounsbury College of Education. 

Just days later, on Feb. 4, high school students around the state who are interested in becoming teachers will visit campus for Future Georgia Educators Day, providing a chance to explore the College of Education and learn what it can offer them in their career path. 

Both events share a common thread: they highlight the impact GCSU has on the teacher pipeline in Georgia and around the country. 

School districts from every corner of the state attended the Wellness and Recreation Center for the teacher recruitment fair, but Georgia was not the only state represented. Recruiters came from districts in Houston, Texas; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Columbia, South Carolina and more. 

Even the Los Angeles Unified School District in California, the second largest school district in the country with over 500,000 students, sent recruiters on the 2,000-mile journey to Milledgeville.  

“We’re competing with all the different school districts around in the Houston area, and so we needed to do something different,” said Katie Kavanagh, director of talent and support services at Spring Branch Independent School District in Houston, Texas. “I did some research on the best college of education programs with quality candidates coming out, and Georgia College & State University was one of the top ones that came up, so we’re like, ‘Let’s just try it. Let’s see.’ Another lady and I came last year, and we talked to about 10 candidates, and we were just very impressed by them.” 

Georgia is in the midst of a teacher shortage, with an April 2025 state report finding that approximately 6,000 teaching positions were either vacant or filled by teachers without full certification. 

At a time of high demand for qualified educators, Georgia College has prepared 1,043 new teachers – specialized across elementary, middle, special and secondary education – in the past five years, including 228 new teachers in 2025. 

“I believe in the education program at Georgia College,” said Dr. Daymond Ray Jr., principal at Hancock County High School in Sparta and recruiter at the fair. “I came through it myself with my advanced degrees, I’ve had experience recruiting and hiring teachers, and Georgia College is going to produce some of the best teachers that we can put up against any other college of education in the state. And it’s right here.” 

Students of all majors were encouraged to attend the Teacher Recruitment Fair and explore avenues into a career in education. Employers were hiring for both teaching and non-teaching roles, like counselors, speech-language pathologists and nurses, and students who did not major in education can still become teacher-certified through options like the Master of Arts in Teaching or the TAPP program. 

In the afternoon, there were also mock interview sessions held for the education students set to graduate in May. 

Paying it forward 

The run of College of Education events does not stop there, as Future Georgia Educators Day kicks off the morning of Feb. 4 with a keynote address from 2026 Georgia Teacher of the Year Rachel Kinsaul. Then, the high school students spend the day in groups rotating between various interactive sessions. 

Several of these sessions will be led by GCSU junior teacher candidates, with student volunteers signed up from the Department of Teacher Education’s middle grades and special education undergraduate cohorts. The high school students get a chance to interact with faculty, staff and students, asking questions and learning about the programs that the college has to offer. 

“They just get that hands-on experience,” said Keisha Foston, director of partnerships and field placements at the College of Education. “They see themselves on campus, they interact with the students, they explore pathways into the teaching profession and they leave here knowing that teaching is a purpose-driven profession." 

Future Georgia Educators Day is often a time when former Lounsbury College of Education students who graduated and became educators get to bring their students to the place they learned their trade, Foston said. 

“We do get a lot of alumni who help us encourage students to come to Georgia College because their experiences have been so great,” Foston said. “They love our programs. They come back for multiple degrees.” 

For those teachers who have students that want to follow in their footsteps, Foston says their willingness to suggest Georgia College is a meaningful sign of a successful program. 

“People are vying for our students because of the reputation of our programs, and just to have them continue to promote us in that fashion, it just says a lot about what we’re doing here,” Foston said. “I think it’s really cool and neat to just see how that cycle continues to roll.”

Header Images: The annual Teacher Recruitment Fair attracted 60 different school districts hoping to hire GCSU grads. (Photos: Anna Gay Leavitt)