few years ago, Shawnta Shook never thought she would own a successful photography studio in Hiawassee at age 20. But that’s what can happen when someone follows her interests, instincts and her parents’ wise advice.

“During my senior year of high school, I was going crazy not knowing what to do,” says Shook. So her parents advised her to make a career out of a hobby. Always the one to document her family’s activities, the amateur shutterbug went to North Georgia Technical College to learn how to become a pro, receiving an associate’s degree in photography in fall 2000.
 

In 2002, Shook decided to open her own photography business, so she returned to North Georgia Tech to earn a certificate of entrepreneurship. The coursework helped her plan and launch her business, Precious Memories Photography, which specializes in portrait and wedding photography.

“In Hiawassee, there are no other photographers in town, so people are finding me,” Shook says. “Business is great!”

Shook is just one of the increasing number of people who are seizing the opportunities offered by Georgia’s Technical College System to become successful small-business owners. A recent study by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government that surveyed technical college graduates who had been out of school for 10 years found that 23 percent had started their own businesses and, at the time of the survey, 78 percent of those businesses had survived. The study’s authors made a conservative estimate that recent technical college graduates had started 10,000 new businesses and created 42,000 new jobs over a 10-year period.

Starting one’s own business has always been one major motivation for people seeking to acquire technical skills, but in the past few years Georgia’s technical colleges have been incorporating entrepreneurship into the course offerings available. This steady, grassroots entrepreneurship movement is fueling community economies statewide.

“We’ve seen an increase in entrepreneurship during the recent economic downturn,” says Dr. Ruth Nichols, president of North Georgia Technical College in Clarkesville. “If our students are considering entrepreneurship as an option, we help them evaluate their skills, update them as necessary and make a living at them.

“It’s the answer to the nation’s challenges right now,” Dr. Nichols says. “Putting people to work — that’s what we’re about.”