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Perimeter College
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COVINGTON, Ga. — Dr. Sarah Harrell’s English classes at Perimeter College promote critical thinking – AND they are fun.
“She has a gift for engaging students and prompting enjoyment in the learning process,” Dr. Deborah Manson, a fellow English professor at Perimeter, said about Harrell.
Dr. Valerie Mathews, a professor and colleague in the English Department agrees, “she brings a sense of joy and creativity to each session … Her courses are designed with intentionality to support student engagement both in and outside the classroom with content that is rich, interactive, and often tied to the fun and engaging themes she crafts.”
Harrell, recipient of the 2025 Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, has taught at Perimeter College since 2019 and works at the Newton Campus.
How does she engage her students? She has asked them to analyze short horror films on Halloween and encouraged them to create career “vision boards” with magazines, scissors and glue. When she submitted an article to the Mississippi Quarterly journal, she used the experience to teach her students practical career skills. She designed lessons sharing the progression of submitting for publication.
Harrell has been the Georgia representative for the Two-Year College English Association-Southeast since 2023. She co-chaired the Daffodil Festival and Symposium at Newton Campus for several years and contributed to the planning committee for International Education Week.
Originally from Montgomery, Alabama, she attended Maryville College (Maryville, Tenn.) for her undergraduate studies, University of Alabama at Birmingham for her Master of Arts degree, and the University of Georgia for her doctorate.
“I love teaching because it’s fun and creative—every day is different!” she said. “A lesson plan is like a blank canvas. You have specific learning objectives, but the needs of each class are different. I enjoy the challenge of figuring out what makes each student ‘tick’ in terms of getting them interested in and confident about the course content. It’s exciting to watch students grow and develop as they discover their special skills and talents.”
Harrell said that, as a college student, she majored in English because she was fascinated by the power of language and stories.After college she was an editor, music journalist, reading/GED instructor, administrative assistant, archival assistant, a professional window dresser and more. Eventually, she landed on historic preservation, which required a graduate degree, so she re-enrolled in school and ended up taking a literature class.
“The professor I took that class with,” she said, “is the reason I decided to become an English professor. I had never met a professor who was so genuinely invested in mentoring students; he saw potential in me and encouraged me to pursue graduate school and academia as a profession. “I love English,” she continued, “because—and I guess this goes back to my interest in a lot of different academic areas—you can synthesize so many different subjects within that discipline.”
Story by Christy Petterson
Photo by Bill Roa