Supervising workers who are many years older than she is felt a little strange at first for Colleen Gootee, 22, who graduated from Georgia Tech with a BS in management in spring 2008.

But she feels that her Georgia Tech education well prepared her for the challenges of Caterpillar Logistics's three-year rotational program in professional development. In her current rotation, she serves as operational supervisor of a 600,000-square-foot international distribution center in Peoria, Illinois, managing more than a dozen people.

"One of the competitive advantages of Georgia Tech College of Management is that it covers the technical side of business, producing very well-rounded graduates," says Gootee.

"Another valuable aspect of my studies was the heavy exposure to global business. I was attracted to Caterpillar because it's such a global company offering a wide range of opportunities."

Right Decision

Gootee, who will settle into a permanent position at Caterpillar once she completes the rotational program, was glad she chose to major in management as soon as she enrolled at Tech. "I knew I wanted to study business, and I loved every minute of it," she says.

During her four years at Tech, Gootee spent a summer at the Georgia Tech Lorraine campus in France as well as a semester studying in Australia and New Zealand.

She also found time to become heavily involved in community service. A native of New Orleans, Gootee led a couple of student relief trips there after Hurricane Katrina hit. Those efforts evolved into her co-founding the student organization Alternative Breaks, which leads a variety of community service trips over spring, fall, and winter holiday breaks.