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SPECIAL EDITION FALL 2012
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perience with his passion for the sport of jet skiing to
create his own publication, Pro Rider Watercraft maga-
zine. As part of that endeavor, Ratti is currently living in
Dubai and training a team of United Arab Emirates
skiers in the sport of free-style standup jet skiing. He
has been, “living the dream of a lifetime.”
Another dreamer is Shane Bell. A Clayton State
graduate with a B.A. in History, and a Master of Arts in
Liberal Studies (MALS), he’s also archivist for National
Archives at Atlanta.
While attending Georgia
Perimeter College, Bell became in-
terested in history and transferred
to Clayton State to earn his B.A. in
history, taking advantage of both
the University’s outstanding History
Department and its partnership
with the National Archives and the
Georgia Archives. In fact, during
his final semester as an undergrad-
uate, Bell started working as an in-
tern at the National Archives, an
opportunity he credits to Dr. Ange-
lyn Hayes, then-Clayton State di-
rector of Career Services.
“I was offered a student position during the intern-
ship and began work there full-time after graduation,”
he says. “It’s rare for a history major to actually get a job
`doing’ history, so I feel very lucky.”
Of course, he wouldn’t have gotten the job without
his training an historian, something he gives credit to
history professors Dr. Adam Tate, Dr. Marko Maunula,
Dr. Christopher Ward and retired professors Dr. Eugene
Hatfield and Dr. Robert Welborn.
While initially “doing” history with the National
Archives, Bell also continued doing history in the MALS
program.
“The breadth of the MALS program appealed to me
from the start,” he says. “I liked the idea of a broad
grounding in the liberal arts, especially in this era of al-
most extreme academic specialization. The kind of
scope offered by the program will give me room to ex-
plore and find the right topic for my master’s thesis.
Shane Bell