Name: Education, Experience, Exposure: The Georgia State Promise with Richard James
Uploaded: 2026-01-17T17:47:20.000Z
Duration: 24 min
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Welcome back to another episode of Breaking Boundaries, the world's premier podcast for international students, or at least in the top 25.

I'm honored today to be joined by distinguished guest Richard James, the director of graduate recruiting at Georgia State University's J.

Richard, thanks so much for joining us today.

I really appreciate the invitation and looking forward to a great conversation today.

Now, before we get to Georgia State, Atlanta is, I think, one of the most fascinating cities in the Northern hemisphere.

And I want you to share a little bit about some of the, some of the values of Atlanta for folks overseas who may never have researched the city before.

You know, being a native of Atlanta, you know, I have a very close affinity to the city.

I mean, I've lived in almost every part of Atlanta from the suburbs to the city.

I think it's one of the truly untapped markets.

I mean, you know, when you think about the US Especially for an international student, you always kind of gravitate to the New York's, the LA's, the Miami and things.

But I feel like we have a really good thing going here in Atlanta.

I mean, you know, Atlanta is home to like many Fortune 500 companies.

A lot of companies are establishing their headquarters here, you know, and

I think when you think about the city itself is really a melting pot, Right.

And you can really go to different parts of the city and get a completely different cultural vibe.

And I think for, for us, you know, Georgia State kind of being right there in the middle, we're able to kind of take advantage of this huge untapped business hub.

You know, I think right now they call us the Hollywood of the south because a lot of people are starting to see all the movies.

And if you're a Tyler Perry fan, he's here.

And so you have a lot of the, and it actually happens at Georgia State quite a bit.

I get an email at least once or twice every other week about a movie that's being filmed like in front of our school.

And a lot of our students get to be extras in them.

so if you have an interest in the film industry, I think it's a great hub for that.

But if you're really looking at business, I mean, we're also kind of emerging.

We have these new industries in fintech and health informatics and supply and logistics, if you're, if you're into those kind of things.

You know, Atlanta is really starting to thrive in that area and really be kind of become this tech hub in the southeast region.

I looked at the data for the last four years.

The number of international students in Georgia is up 16%.

Infinite opportunities, relatively cheap housing compared to the coast as well.

And Richard, you mentioned the diversity of vibes, and you mentioned Tyler Perry.

There were two formative bands for me as a middle schooler who both come from the Atlanta metropolitan area.

And their sounds are as different as you can imagine.

One was REM Guys with guitars, nasally whiny voices, alt rock.

And the second was outkast, maybe the most important band of my youth.

Revolutionary hip hop, slash funk, slash techno for students thinking about Atlanta.

If you YouTube, both of these bands, wildly different, but both came from the Atlanta area.

Yeah, I think that's the perfect antidote to try to, like, sum it together.

The way you talk about, like, you know, we're in the south, so we have that.

We have some pretty good food too, right?

I'm not going to, you know, exaggerate and say we have the best cuisine, but we do.

That's always really good, where you can get some good barbecue, you can get some good soul food, but

There's some good Thai food that's around here.

I mean, you have a lot of options to choose from.

And so I like to think that Atlanta really has something for everybody, whether it's your.

And even the parks and outdoor life, a lot of people don't really associate.

And it's not far from campus, so the city is kind of undergoing this.

This initiative to try to really make the city more walkable.

There's some good restaurants, some good bars, and

so you're able to walk along the belt line and really take a tour of the city.

And so if you're not used to that kind of thing.

You know, there's a lot of trees and, and

I think that's something really unique about being in a city.

You know, you don't typically see all of the, the, the, the, the green, the nature and all of those things.

And then you touched on something earlier about just the cost of living.

I think that's the, a huge factor, you know, when you're kind of looking at the economics of things.

If you're new to the US and you're, you're, you know, you want to take advantage of a thriving business hub, but

also, you know, being able to have an affordable cost of living situation.

Atlanta is always ranked near the best cities as far as just, you know, what you're getting and what you're able to afford and rent and food, transportation, that kind of thing.

Yeah, Atlanta is kind of in that sweet spot where you don't have to break the bank to find a decent place to live during school, but

in the summer and after school, the available work opportunities are vast.

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Education, Experience, Exposure: The Georgia State Promise with Richard James

absolutely

vast

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initiative