While growing up in Tifton, GA, Blake McRae didn’t often give much thought to his future. A typical, average high-school student, he found himself struggling to decipher exactly which direction his life and career were headed. Upon graduating from Tift County High School in 2001, Blake enrolled at the former Moultrie Technical College’s Tifton site and began taking bookkeeping courses under the tutelage of Melody Tawzer.
“Not only did Mrs. Tawzer have a tremendous impact on me academically, but also professionally. Her instruction solidified a direction for my career and really established a clear path for me to follow,” commented McRae.
After obtaining a certification in Quickbooks and another as a Bookkeeping Specialist, McRae enrolled in the Accounting Dual Degree program at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. Upon completion of that program in 2005, he decided to advance his education by enrolling in the Construction Management program at Georgia Southern University, where he would graduate in 2008.
Though his education and burgeoning career had taken him far away from his first college courses in Bookkeeping and Quickbooks, it was ‘real-life’ experiences that drove home and solidified for McRae the value of those initial classes.
“Prior to graduating from Georgia Southern I had the opportunity to participate in several internships that exposed me to various elements of construction projects from field work to overall project management. It was during this time that I truly realized the benefit of the foundational classes I had taken at SRTC. With most young professionals in a similar position, there is a learning curve associated with intricacies of managing a project cradle to grave. Having the knowledge and capacity to be able to walk in and understand financial data as lucidly as a labor analysis really gave me a significant competitive advantage,” stated McRae.
Since graduating in 2008, McRae has served in various project management roles for Hensel Phelps Construction in Orlando, FL, Teramore Development in Thomasville, GA, MB Kahn Construction Company in Columbia, SC, and JCI Contractors in Moultrie. He recently accepted a new position with Brasfield & Gorrie in Albany, GA.
The Accounting Diploma program at SRTC is a sequence of courses that prepares students for a variety of entry-level accounting positions in today’s technology-driven workplaces. Learning opportunities develop academic, technical, and professional knowledge and skills required for job acquisition, retention, and advancement. Students learn to calculate costs, depreciation, and disposal of plant assets. Additionally, students will produce an adjusted and in-balance set of books utilizing computerized accounting software and will process and record payroll transactions utilizing a simulated computerized payroll accounting system.
SRTC offers over 155 degree, diploma, and certificate programs that are designed to get you quickly into your desired career, and 27 general education courses that transfer to the University System of Georgia institutions and 19 private colleges and universities in Georgia. SRTC has instructional sites located in Ashburn, Cairo, Camilla, Moultrie, Thomasville, Tifton, and Sylvester for the convenience of our students. The College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). SACSCOC is the regional body for the accreditation of degree-granting higher education institutions in the Southern states. For the most up-to-date information on registration, class dates, and program offerings, log on to www.southernregional.edu or call (888) 205 – 3449.
Summer Semester 2016 Begins May 17th. Don’t wait, enroll today!