Everest College Dedicates New Greenbriar Mall Campus

Southwest Atlanta residents who once shopped for weekly stables at Cub Foods at Greenbriar Mall will be hard pressed to find any semblance of the old supermarket at the new Everest College Atlanta West campus.

 “If you didn't know this was once Cub Foods, you wouldn't have any idea that this was once a supermarket,” said former Fulton County Commissioner Gordon Joyner who shopped at the store. "It looks like it was built from the ground up.”

Joyner was among an impressed group of invitees attending the official dedication ceremony that included former Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond; state Rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam, (D-Riverdale);Bishop Barbara King, pastor of Hillside Chapel & Truth Center; Cheryl Strickland, Managing Director of Tax Allocation Districts for the Atlanta Development Authority; and Atlanta City Councilman Lamar Willis.

The 45,000-foot structure, at 2841 Greenbriar Pkwy, went through $5.5 million in renovations in 2010. It is one of the showcase campuses for the for-profit career school which has four other campuses in metro Atlanta.

The project was funded through the Campbellton Road Tax Allocation District program administered by the Atlanta Development Authority.

At its capacity, the campus will serve 1,300 students and employ 100 faculty and staff members. Currently, there are approximately 300 students on campus receiving job training in dental assisting; medical insurance billing and coding; medical assisting; medical administrative assisting; and pharmacy technician. There are plans to expand the curriculum in the future.

“A four year time frame seems like an eternity to some people,” said Sedrick Strickland, president of the Everest West campus who used to live in the area.

Strickland said the programs Everest will be offering run from seven to 10 months and will offer hands-on training.

“Seven to 10 months is not a lot of time, but when you talk about four years, that stops a lot of people from going to college,” he added. “It may not stop them from going, but it stops them from completing college.”

Convenience also is one of the reasons that Everest decided to locate its first campus in southwest Atlanta in the old Cub Foods supermarket building at Greenbriar Mall.  It is also the first school of its type to locate in that area. The building was renovated in four months and is one of their state-of-the arts schools, Strickland said.

Research showed that a large number of students attended one of their campuses in Marietta and Jonesboro in Clayton County.

After Clayton County ended its public transportation system, students had a tough time getting to the campus just south of Atlanta, Strickland said. Access to public transportation is important to its student population, he said.

The campus at Greenbriar is serviced by three MARTA bus routes. It will service students from within a 20-mile radius, he said.

Based in California, the educational behemoth operates more than 100 campuses in the U.S. and Canada. Courses vary from campus to campus.