Mass communication major Katie Barth wants a career in philanthropic service

Katie Barth got her first look at Brenau University’s campus before she even started school.

“I’d been coming to ballets at Brenau’s Pearce Auditorium since I could walk,” said Barth, who is from Duluth, Ga. “My grandparents liked taking me to ‘The Nutcracker.’”

But it was on a real visit to the Gainesville campus during high school that Barth realized Brenau had everything she could wish for in a college.

“Everyone around me was really confident,” said Barth, who just completed her sophomore year. “They carried themselves really well and they were really inspiring people to be around. They were so focused for being so young.

“It was just a different atmosphere than other colleges I visited, and that’s what sold me.”

Now her father jokes that Barth is “Brenau-obsessed.”

Barth, the daughter of Richard and Marcia Barth, was yearbook and newspaper editor at Duluth High School, which piqued her interest in majoring in mass communications.  A Dean’s List student, she is attending Brenau on a Faculty Excellence Scholarship, which she said covers about a third of her tuition.

“Brenau offers a lot of scholarship opportunities, and that’s something that makes a huge difference,” said Barth.  “So many students wouldn’t be able to be at Brenau and get the amazing experience we get without them. “They want you to come as badly as you want to be here.”

Barth said she hopes to stay in Gainesville, with her ideal job working in marketing for a philanthropic organization. Last summer she intern at the executive office of her sorority, Alpha Delta Pi, in Atlanta.  The summer before, Barth  worked with Main Street Gainesville and in the communications and tourism office, helping with the First Friday events and concert series.

She also volunteers regularly to work with the Brenau Barbecue Championship, the annual Memorial Day weekend that attracts thousands of visitors to the campus and helps raise money for scholarships for local students like her.

“It is a way of giving back,” she said. “At community events like the barbecue championship, so many people from the community come to the campus, and this is a chance for us – for me, especially – to thank them for coming and showing their support for Brenau. It’s also a chance for students who work in the events to tell people how much Brenau means to us. For so many students to come on the weekend – not all of us live nearby – it shows how passionate we are about Brenau.”