The Georgia Military College Prep girls track & field team successfully defended its state title.

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Georgia Military Prep School officials are looking forward to another year of “elevating the character” of its students in the 2016-17 school term.

GMC Prep boasts a 100 percent graduation rate for the seventh consecutive year, as all 67 students in the Class of 2016 received diplomas in May. Almost all of those students will enroll in a post-secondary institution this fall, and two made the decision to enlist in the United States Navy.

Georgia’s Move On When Ready (MOWR) dual enrollment program was expanded last summer to provide freshmen and sophomores with the ability to start earning college credit. GMC Prep’s sophomores joined juniors and seniors in the program last year and will continue that trend heading into this year. Students completed 396 college courses combined last year and earned almost 2,000 college quarter credit hours.

“This year probably almost half of our high school will be involved in MOWR by the time the numbers are said and done,” said GMC Prep Principal Col. Pam Grant.

She added that GMC is currently on track to have 150 students in the MOWR program this school year, which would be the largest participation rate in the program’s history.

All of GMC Prep’s high school students are cadets in the JROTC program, which received special accreditation last year.

“This past year our JROTC program, which every student in grades nine through 12 has to be a member of JROTC, went through an accreditation process and passed with a 97.3 out of 100 percent,” said Grant. “The cadets will retain the gold star that they wear on their uniforms. We will also retain our honor unit with distinction for another five or six years depending on when the Army decides to come back and do it again.”

Grant said the prep school is welcoming 13 new faculty members, which she said is more than normal due to a few faculty relocations. Two of the new teachers are new positions, including Musical Theatre Director Jenny Morris, who was brought in to help expand the school’s fine arts program to include a middle school musical in February.

“We’re excited about the new energy and new talents that they’re bringing,” Grant said of the school’s new faculty.

GMC Prep also enjoyed a great deal of success out of the classroom last school year. The Bulldogs boast a total of five state or national titles earned last year. Students successfully defended their team literary GHSA Class A Public state championship. The Lady Bulldogs softball team also won its second consecutive title and will go for the third with a new head coach this season. The girls’ track team retained its crown and the fine arts program’s one act play also got in on the action by winning its second state title in the past three years. GMC Prep’s mixed Raider was also crowned as national champions in 2015.

“We’re coming off of a fabulous year that we hope to repeat and even exceed [this year],” said the headmaster.