#thestateway

[aishaadkins]

I did it. After a long, arduous, emotional journey, I graduated with my Master’s of Public Administration. I’ll provide some backstory and more detail in my blog later this week, but I wanted to briefly thank every friend, family member, professor, mentor, classmate, colleague, and encouraging stranger who played even the smallest role in my success. Your emotional, intellectual, and financial support during this process has truly changed my life, and for that, I thank God and am eternally grateful. I especially want to thank Dr. Fayron Epps (@faye_hollywood) and the entire ALTER @faithvillages research team for their tremendous academic and personal leadership and sponsorship. I learned invaluable lessons and gained lifelong relationships through you. Thank you for taking a chance on a student with a lot on her plate! #Graduate #YoungBlackEducated #MPA #Master #MastersDegree #GSU #TheStateWay #AndrewYoungSchool #AYSPS (at Andrew Young School of Policy Studies) https://www.instagram.com/p/CI_i1xgp_eB/?igshid=1auxchgnqh4ib

[davidforatlanta]

To be featured tag @StayATL, @EdgewoodAvenue or @DavidOrlandBrown in your post, follow #StayATL & #EdgewoodAvenue topics & mention us in your upcoming photo captions! 5,000+ strong of locally grown work 👏🏽📸💎 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ From his camera to our hearts 🤩🖤💯 phenomenal shots via @frommyeyestoyoursoul on Rainy Days In The “A” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #frommyeyestoyoursoul #georgia #atlanta #downtownatlanta #rain #rainydayintheA #curbmarketatl #exploregeorgia #discoveratlanta #crewthickatl #davidorlandbrown #canonphotography #atlphotographer #streetphotographer #lifestylephotographer #ilovemycity #vcso #TheStateWay #GSU #GSUPanthers #BeDowntown #weloveatl #georgiastate #bleedblue #truetoatlanta #downtownatlanta #local #lifestyle (at Edgewood Avenue Atlanta) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-AhyuHJSwq/?igshid=k45w9cblsib0

[thegirlwiththetray]

Let's go Panthers! #thestateway (at Georgia State University Stadium) https://www.instagram.com/p/BoUcZdSlONB/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1rrb1o8gay9c3

[alexferror]

This is the design I created for the 2018 @gsustudyabroad 🛫 🌎T-Shirt. 👕 Thanks to @gsustudyabroad and @gsuinternational !!! 💙 #TheStateWay . . . . . #thestateway #gsu #georgiastateuniversity #gsustudyabroad #ferror #ferrorart #rabiscoantistress #sketchantistress #illustration_best #childrenillustration #atlantaartist #brazilianartist #illustrator (at Georgia State University)

[libra-scorpio-opinionista]

20 more days... #georgiastatefootball #gsu #gsualumni #gopanthers #ATL #Atlanta #FILA #southernscorpio @Regrann from @georgiastateuniversity - Look at how AMAZING our new Petit Field is coming along at Georgia State Stadium! Happy #flydayfriday! #thestateway #georgiastate #GSUmmer

[badvirgogal]

I remember when I received my first rejection letter from Georgia State University. I was upset for a minute but I got over it. 5 years later I received my Associate of Arts in Journalism and Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the institution. I’m lucky to have went to such a high-ranking school. I made a lot of mistakes along the way but I’m extremely grateful because of them. Thanks to my friends, family, and social media family who supported me from the beginning. I’m humbled 💕#TheStateWay

[simmone1021]

I got a late start, but this was always the goal. #GoPanthers #Panthers #GSU #TheStateWay #GeorgiaStateUniversity #AYSPP #PublicPolicy #MakeAChangeFromTheInside #DrCookDownloading #FutureDr #FutureDrMrs #TeamBlueAndWhite #PantherForLife https://www.instagram.com/p/CAiTag5BMeGhugsSaxGcWYVjkOaFecLxIQSeQI0/?igshid=126dxj5k67dho

[davidforatlanta]

Featuring the likes of my absolutely amazing Alma Mater @georgiastateuniversity 🥰🎓🙏🏽 I am so blessed for the opportunity to attend Americas most diverse and well-connected University. This became my backyard in 2007 🤩💯💙 Have you checked out the new Olympic Rings in Centennial Olympic Park? It’s great to #BeDowntown! #TheStateWay #weloveatl #gsu #georgiastate #georgiastateuniversity #gsupanthers #panthers #bleedblue #truetoatlanta #downtownatlanta #local #college #university #school #city #olympics #olympic #olympicrings #CentennialOlympicPark #park #parks #green #trees #peachtrees #peachstate #love #pride #atl (at Centennial Olympic Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/BseQYB7F53a/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1gx1ikqav2gzw

[afroinsider]

Lady Who Str*pped Dance To Train Herself Through College, Finally Graduates

Lady Who Str*pped Dance To Train Herself Through College, Finally Graduates

The end, they say, justifies the means. Right? A lady who stripped, danced at strip clubs so she can raise money to pay her school fees just finally Graduated and posted the below photos;

She caption;

Them long nights of hustling paid off! Now GSU run me my diploma #GSU18#TheSTATEWAY

see some reactions:

adufe16: Sure this girl will have the best Man. If it’s Nigeria now,they would have cursed.…

[cmfnews]

RT @GeorgiaStateU: .@GSU_Perimeter film student and @campusmoviefest winner Joshua Cleveland is headed to @Tribeca with his documentary on #krumping! https://t.co/SAkczwXWsX #TheStateWay #CMFatPC #Tribeca2018 https://t.co/0Kt6FkggRq

.@GSU_Perimeter film student and @campusmoviefest winner Joshua Cleveland is headed to @Tribeca with his documentary on #krumping! https://t.co/SAkczwXWsX #TheStateWay #CMFatPC #Tribeca2018 pic.twitter.com/0Kt6FkggRq

— Georgia State U. (@GeorgiaStateU) April 24, 2018

[hootsuitelife]

We're one month out from the Georgia Higher Education Digital Summit and we're sold out! Higher Ed friends, if you didn't reserve a spot and still want to attend, let me know and I'll add you to the waitlist. https://t.co/1kPj6DiSWf #hesm #TheStateWay #HootsuiteLife

— Terry Coniglio (@TMConiglio) April 3, 2018

[junker-town]

How the Braves’ Turner Field transformed into Georgia State’s new football stadium

The Panthers’ new downtown stadium isn’t actually new, but it’s still a great fit.

Remember Turner Field, where the Atlanta Braves played for a whopping 19 years in downtown Atlanta? In 2017, the team moved northwest to SunTrust Park.

So, what did the city do with the old baseball field? It now belongs to college football. In January, Turner Field was sold to Georgia State University, along with a private development team. The first game at the stadium is Thursday night against Tennessee State.

Wait, how did they convert a baseball stadium into a football one?

The optics of Turner Field were turned a bit. Where home plate used to be is now the corner of one of the end zones. What was right field ...

Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

... now features a grandstand.

View from what used to be behind home plate at Turner Field http://pic.twitter.com/npwZKvaccJ

— Jay Busbee (@jaybusbee) July 31, 2017

Here’s how it looks with the field all painted:

Hello Turner Field...wait #GaState http://pic.twitter.com/0LnxRTkuTy

— Stew (@icecoldstew) August 31, 2017

One of the benefits Georgia State had was using the same architecture firm, Heery, that’d changed the Olympic stadium into the Braves’ home field in 1997.

“We really had two objectives for people,” GSU athletics director Charlie Cobb told SB Nation in a phone interview. “One was the fact that they want to walk in and it’s a football stadium, it’s not a baseball stadium turned into a football stadium. It serves as a football stadium. And the second thing, frankly from a vantage standpoint, is we wanted it to say ‘Georgia State,’ and certainly celebrate the history of the Olympics, celebrate the history of the Braves, but we wanted the stadium to say Georgia State.”

New permanent grandstands cover what used to be right field. http://pic.twitter.com/DVZmcfCFIj

— Jay Busbee (@jaybusbee) July 31, 2017

While the stadium now is dedicated to football, parts of Turner Field remain.

Vestiges of The Ted couldn’t be missed — the original Hank Aaron statue still in its familiar location; the massive video board still in the same place as before, now the eighth largest video board in college football; the familiar blue seats still in use; baseball decor still on some walls.

But there have been major changes, too. The Chop House restaurant/bar and the 755 Club have been renamed the State House Grill and the University Club, respectively. What used to be home plate is now an end-zone corner. The first seven rows of seats have been removed in places to facilitate football sight lines. Four new light towers have been installed behind the new grandstand along the east sideline.

“From a physical construction standpoint, we took out both dugouts,” Cobb said. “We took out 700 seats behind the third base dugout, strictly for sight lines, because it’s a flatter slope in the 100 level here. Baseball has a flatter-slope sight line was than football does. Down the first base line, we took out the first five rows for that same reason. We also took out five sections in the lower level, and that allowed us to put this connection of stands that we connect the stadium from north to south, and really give us the east sideline.”

There were some seats removed from the lower left field to make the football field fit, too. Underground, they built new locker rooms for GSU and the visitors.

“Below ground, we have a second phase to this whole project, which is the underneath space, which is what we call the football suite to build our coaches’ offices,” Cobb said. “To build our team meeting rooms and auditorium, a strength and conditioning center, a training room, and really all kind of connect that to where the Braves locker room is.”

The Braves’ locker room will be converted to Georgia State baseball’s locker room, and a new Panthers baseball stadium will be built where the current Turner Field parking lot is. That area used to be Fulton County Stadium, the Braves’ stadium before Turner.

The best #FlyDayFriday yet! Thanks @georgiastateuniversity for the image!

A post shared by Georgia State Athletics (@gsupanthers) on Aug 4, 2017 at 9:33am PDT

Why didn’t GSU just move to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which replaced the Georgia Dome?

Georgia State’s football team played in the Dome since the Panthers’ inaugural season in 2010.

“It was before my time, but I know the plan was originally to play in Mercedes-Benz,” Cobb said. “And then all of the sudden, this property and this project came about, and gave us the opportunity to have our own stadium, and so it’s one of those no-brainer situations, if you will, if you can figure out how to use it and make it work. And again, it gets into the whole development piece that’s down here; our campus is seven-tenths of a mile from the stadium, so it’s really more of an extension of the campus.”

All wrapped up and ready to go for @GeorgiaStateFB ! @FieldTurf http://pic.twitter.com/0pOEZt6PeS

— Precision Turf, LLC (@precision_turf) August 11, 2017

Plans are also in place to add more to Georgia State’s campus, which is spread throughout downtown Atlanta:

Housing for students and non-students, restaurants, retail, offices and a parking garage, all threaded with green space. The overriding idea is to get rid of the asphalt wasteland that isolated Turner Field from the rest of the city and to replace it with a dense urban village anchored by education and athletics.

However it materializes, it’s clear Turner Field will be transformational for Georgia State. The 67-acre site is almost as large as the entire downtown campus, which amounts to about 71 acres. The development promises to be the culmination of three decades of expansion that have seen the university bust out of the small footprint that once confined it to five blocks along Decatur Street.

Cobb adds that the school having its own stadium will be a valuable recruiting tool when it comes to appealing to local talent. One of the athletic directors for one of metro Atlanta’s counties pointed this out to Cobb while the stadium hosted high school football games over the weekend.

“He said, ‘for the first time, these kids can walk around and play football, but they know that Georgia State has their own stadium.’ And you think about it, the residual of that is the kids three, four, five years from now our coaches are going to be recruiting, and they’re going to grow up with this idea of Georgia State having their own stadium.”

“Look at this place. It’s amazing,” new GSU head coach Shawn Elliott said in an interview in late July. “You use the word ‘excitement,’ it is, but it’s so much more than that. It’s the culmination of so many individuals hard work and effort they put forth. what a great facility, I mean this thing is unbelievable. Our players, from our student athletes, to just the students in general, to our administration, to anyone in the city of Atlanta. What an amazing time it is. To be here and open this place up on Aug. 31st it’s going to be very special.”

How much did this cost?

GSU, along with a private joint venture, bought the stadium for $30 million, so no money came directly from taxpayers. Most of the money went towards transitioning the stadium.

Most of the money — $26 million — would go toward stadium renovations to remake Turner Field into a 22,000-seat stadium. That work, which would take place in two phases, would include a new field, covering upper deck seating, reorienting lower bowl seating and upgrading locker rooms and other areas. Georgia State would also use $5 million in student tuition money to relocate its hospitality school into newly renovated space at the stadium.

.@GeorgiaStateFB did an amazing job with Turner. Thank God they didn't knock this place down before I got to sit behind home plate. http://pic.twitter.com/PfvbneV4rQ

— Geoffe Martin (@wawhosed) August 17, 2017

It's awesome to watch the transformation of @GSUStadium. http://pic.twitter.com/UTKOXamaND

— GSU Panthers (@GSUPanthers) August 26, 2017

“With the history that’s here, you realize that it’s kind of the signature or that gateway monument, if you will, coming into the south side of the city into downtown,” Cobb said, “The outdoor billboard companies tell us 490,000 people go north on the interstate outside the stadium every day; 480,000 come south, so you have nearly a million people a day that drive by this stadium that says Georgia State Stadium.”

2 days away from Game Day! We can't wait! #thestateway #georgiastatestadium #GSUfootball

A post shared by Georgia State University (@georgiastateuniversity) on Aug 29, 2017 at 8:26am PDT

[simmone1021]

So proud of my team!!! #GoPanthers #Panthers #GSU #TheStateWay #TeamBlueAndWhite 💙💙💙 With tonight’s win, the Panthers are officially BOWL ELIGIBLE! #LightItBlue #OurCity #StateVsTroy https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Gv6QQBEipDhAXnYevXCtHzvMf7qvcvXUU0Nc0/?igshid=1b97w5kx792l1

[aishaadkins]

As a survivor of childhood/adolescent peer abuse, I’ve always had a weird relationship with Valentine’s Day. I loved the idea of celebrating love all day long, but my reality didn’t reflect my fantasy.⠀ ⠀ My Valentine’s Day’s included people who “forgot” to include me when they made out the bulk cartoon-driven cards, prank calls from nonexistent secret admirers, and flowers sent to me from me.⠀ ⠀ Yeah. It was a pretty dismal, often traumatic experience. As a result, I usually dread the @hallmark holiday or harbor no feelings whatsoever.⠀ ⠀ I felt a lot of sadness this week, not even tied to the 14th. Just dealing with a lot of heaviness and uncertainty. I needed community. I needed people to show up. To see me.⠀ ⠀ All week long, God blessed me to be the recipient of “random” acts of kindness. The gentleman who paid for my bus fare. My people at @ebrikcoffeeroom who hooked me up with tea and a snack. My classmates for understanding and not taking my lack of social interaction personally. My parents for letting me snuggle with them. My @ourturn2care board for riding this long journey with me. The comms team at @caringacrossgen for helping me fine-tune a piece of my story. My #CareChat people for missing me on the weekly conversation. My amazing therapist for getting me. My friends who sent me encouraging texts and gave me hugs and offered to take me to the @theatlantaopera.⠀ ⠀ You are all awesome.⠀ ⠀ Lastly, I’d like to thank the gang at @lovenotlostorg for this thoughtful and adorable Valentine I received in the mail today!⠀ ⠀ Thank you to everyone who saw me and was kind. I don’t always covet your attention, but this week you sure did prop me up. ⠀ ⠀ #ValentinesDay #BeMine #FindYourPeople #Community #Family #Friends #LoveIsLoveIsLove #LoveNotLost #EbrikCoffeeRoom #Atlanta #Humans #Atlanta #ChooseATL #GSU #GeorgiaState #TheStateWay #GradLife #Support (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8kXm6kJI5Y/?igshid=piwghhanvrqv

[davidforatlanta]

Featuring these GSU GRADS! 🤩🎓💙 @ayy.udi.udi.udi // Hey y’all this girl GRADUATED. She’s been through a hell of a journey but still finished a semester EARLY and killed her time in school. She volunteered abroad, learned a new form of dance and danced on a competitive team, held officer positions, SWITCHED HER CAREER PATH, worked part time, found time to be everyone’s favorite party animal, and has inspired so many of us around her in just these three and a half years. Go ‘head, check her out bc if she ain’t the package idk who is. #TheStateWay #ClassOf2018 #BleedBlue (at Edgewood Avenue Atlanta) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrYRrt3Azx0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1cdn2qgv843e1

[thegirlwiththetray]

Yup...he got me back here. 🙄 #thestateway #gopanthers (at Georgia State University) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnH62EqlJYE/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1da71qcgjkh8r