Four Wiregrass Georgia Technical College students have been selected as the college’s semi-finalists for the Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership, according to Lydia Hubert, coordinator for the Wiregrass  GOAL program.
 
Chosen as semifinalists are:  Eli Metts (Associate of Science in Nursing) Lowndes County, Jamie Mize (Health Information Technology) Lowndes County, Jana Wojcik (Associate of Science in Nursing) Hamilton County, FL; and Candace Zakar (Health Information Technology) Lowndes County.
 
GOAL, a statewide program of the Technical College System of Georgia, honors excellence in academics and leadership among the state’s technical college students.  GOAL winners are selected at each of the state’s 22 technical colleges as well as one Board of Regent college with technical education division.
 
GOAL winners from each college will compete in regional judging in February.  In April, all college winners will come to Atlanta where the nine regional finalists, three finalists from each of the three regions, will be announced and compete at the state-level. One student will be named as the statewide GOAL winner.
 
"The purpose of the GOAL program is to spotlight the outstanding achievement by students in Georgia's technical colleges and to emphasize the importance of technical education in today’s global workforce," said Lydia Hubert.
 
According to Hubert, a screening committee of administrators at Wiregrass selected the four semi-finalists from a list of 18 students nominated by their instructors.
 
"The next step is for a panel of business, civic, and industry leaders from the community to interview and evaluate these four students and select one to be the college’s 2017 GOAL winner," explained Hubert.  “The one judged most outstanding will compete in the South regional judging.  Three finalists from the South region will be named and will compete in the state GOAL competition in Atlanta on April 11, 2017 and vie to be named as the 2017 statewide GOAL winner.”
 
The state GOAL winner becomes the student ambassador for the Technical College System of Georgia and receives the grand prize of a new car.