By DALE FULLER

BC Excutive Director of Institutional Advancement

While professors at Bainbridge College have been teaching U.S. and world history for nearly 40 years, a few at the college now feel it is time for the college to focus on its own history.

With the help of three Honors students and the BC History Club, Associate Professor of History Dave Nelson has embarked on a project to document and preserve the college’s history. And as part of that project he and his students are looking for help from the surrounding community for interviews and photographs.

“I hope to build on the work of some of my colleagues, such as Dr. Ray Chambers, Professor Ben White and librarian Martha Mitchell, who have made efforts to record the history of Bainbridge College,” Nelson said. “I am also hoping to provide some of our students with hands-on experience with history. To get their hands dirty in the past, if you will.”

And several of the students are eager to get inside the past.

“History has always been my favorite subject,” said honors student Katina Dunn, of Bainbridge. “To me, it’s preserving memories from our yesterdays to share with our todays.”

Honors student Jonathan North,  from Iron City, Ga., echoed her sentiments.

“Every tree has a root system that keeps it alive,” North said. “Those roots, the people who came before us, paved the way for us today.”

One aspect of the project will be a series of interviews with former students and employees. In particular, students this fall are hoping to interview students from the 1970s and 1980s. To be recorded on audio tape, these interviews will be transcribed and eventually be made available to future researchers and students as part of the college’s archival collection.

On Friday, Oct. 19, from 9 a.m. to noon, Nelson and his students will be holding a BC Photo Day in the BC Library, where they will be accepting photographic donations.

“We hope some members of our community may consider donating their photos of the college and its activities — or at least allow staff to scan their images,” Nelson said.

The focus will be the first two decades of the college’s existence.

For more information, or to set up an interview, contact Nelson at david.nelson@bainbridge.edu, or call the college at (229) 248-2500.