Robert W. Woodruff Foundation has given a $15 million grant to Georgia State University to renew the historic Southern Bell Telephone Company buildings at 25-27 Auburn Ave. to build an innovative Student Success Center.
Georgia State University sees the Student Success Center building project as a way to provide student services and give students more chances to earn achievements by accommodating academic, financial, and career preparation services in one building.
The university will utilize the center as a one-stop hub for the university’s student success services and the headquarters for the National Institute of Student Success (NISS). It is scheduled to open in fall 2023.
Another principal and loyal supporter of the student success programs and services, Truist, has also given grant funds to the Bell buildings renovation project via SunTrust Trusteed Foundations-Thomas G Woolford Charitable Trust.
The building will include the Truist Student Financial Management Center Admissions, Student Financial Aid, Tutoring Services, International Student Services, and Scholarship Resources with a $2 million gifted in 2016. The university expects more than 70,000 students will visit the building in its first opening year.
”In recent years, teams from more than 500 colleges and universities from across the nation and the globe have visited Georgia State to learn about our innovative approaches to supporting students from all backgrounds,” said Tim Renick, founding executive director of the National Institute for Student Success.
“With the generous support of the Woodruff Foundation and Truist Foundation, the Student Success Center not only will help thousands of Georgia State students succeed, it will also enable visitors to learn about our programs first-hand in a state-of-the-art facility.”