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Kenya King
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Perimeter College
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COVINGTON, Ga. — Isabel Mejia is taking a moment to breathe and savor pivotal moments in her life.
The Perimeter College student just finished volunteering for a Georgia State’s Robinson College Women in Lodging hospitality program on neurodiversity. Earlier in the week she participated in a special "thank you" video with Perimeter College’s new dean. In a few days, she’ll be overseeing a home sale closing—her own—as a licensed real estate agent.
And she’s gearing up for a full-time summer internship with a private equity firm in New York City in late May.
All this — and graduation. Mejia joined the more than 600 Perimeter College students crossing the Georgia State Convocation Center stage May 2 to receive their associate degree diplomas.
At 20, Mejia took advantage of everything Georgia State has to offer — and more. In 2023, she was named president of the Newton Campus’s inaugural Rotaract Club. She recently finished a year-long stint as a Perimeter Ambassador. In March, she received a Student Academic Recognition (STAR) award for excellence in Business Economics.
Recently, she received news that she has been awarded an all-expenses-paid summer internship in New York City with the seventh largest private equity firm in the world, BentallGreen Oak.
The internship seems like a dream, and something she could not have imagined just two years ago, she said. When she entered college in the fall 2022, she was searching for some career direction.
“There is no way I thought I would be in the position I am today," she said. "My mentality was so different before I had that first macroeconomics class. I was not open to success in this way. My goal was to work in the food industry and be a bartender.”
During spring semester 2023, she took her first macroeconomics class with business economics professor Dr. Richard Kirk, and from then she was hooked. “I fell in love with economics. It’s so dynamic," she said. "This is my passion.”
A native of Covington, coming to Perimeter College’s Newton Campus was always at the back of her mind, she said. “My mom bought me an umbrella from the bookstore, and I still have it,” she said. "I remember thinking, 'I can’t believe I’m at a college.' That the campus was so close to my home was always at the back of my mind."
When it came time to enroll in college a decade later, her life was much different. Accepted at the University of Georgia, she chose instead to stay close to home.
“I got married at a young age and that college lifestyle didn’t fit the married lifestyle,” she said. “I knew the location of Perimeter’s Newton Campus was almost at my back door and I also liked the idea of the Atlanta Campus being at the center of everything downtown.”
She is thankful she chose to come to Perimeter, she said. She was accepted to the campus TRIO program and started to get involved in student life. As president of the campus Rotaract Club, she realized how much she had to give to the community, she said.
“Before, I had no idea how much impact the community brings to you after you give back to the community. Service is one of my top values today," she said.
“One of the biggest takeaways I’ve received while a student here are all the connections I made with Newton faculty and staff like no other. They’ve been incredibly supportive and helped me be successful in my journey.”
After graduation, she will be traveling to Las Vegas to the International Council of Shopping Centers meeting as a Georgia State student representative. That’s the week before she goes to New York to start her internship.
Her education will be supported as well. She recently received a $10,000 Bellwether Enterprise Foundation scholarship to continue her studies in commercial real estate.
This fall, Mejia will be a junior at Georgia State’s Robinson College of Business, majoring in economics and commercial real estate.
“I’m so excited,” she said.
— Story by Rebecca Rakoczy
— Photo by Bill Roa