Instructors at Wiregrass Georgia Technical College have nominated 23 of their students for the Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership competition, according to Lydia Hubert, coordinator for the college’s GOAL program.  These nominations come from the college’s four campuses; Ben Hill-Irwin, Coffee, Cook, and Valdosta, and this year the nominees include two sets of siblings.
 
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 Regents college with a technical education division.
 
The Wiregrass 2018 GOAL Nominees are listed with their program areas by campus:
 
Ben Hill- Irwin Campus – Trevecca Gates (Criminal Justice), Michael Horn (Computer Support), and Sierra Smith (BHI)
 
Coffee Campus – Greyson Davis (Welding), Sierra Ely (EMS), Marlania Sermons (Business Management) and Lilan Ramriez (Business Administrative Technology)
 
Cook Campus – Amber Brown (Cosmetology)
 
Valdosta Campus – Monique Carter (Associate of Science in Nursing), Amanda McCarty (EMS), Jason Cathall (Accounting), Nicholas Cathall (Cybersecurity), Emily Davis (Digital Media Technology), Morgan Davis (Welding), Travis Flowers (Radiologic Technology), Olivia Gilliland (Auto Collision Repair), Ryan Mathis (Business Management), Lenora Makorow (Culinary Arts), Rollie McCall (Health Information Technology), Sara Pleasants (Associates of Science in Nursing), Chase Rentz (Computer Programming), Blake Royals (Radiologic Technology), and Shentina Strange (Automotive Technology)
 
To make the competition even more interesting this year we have two sets of siblings competing against each other. Brothers Jason Cathall and Nicholas Cathall along with twins Emily Davis and Morgan Davis were all nominated separately by their instructors for this award.   “This is the first time this has happened since I’ve been coordinating the competition,” shared Hubert.  “To put things in better perspective Wiregrass has just under 4,000 students enrolled this Fall Semester so these 23 students are considered outstanding students in their program areas and to have two sets of siblings in that group is pretty rare.”
 
"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 Hubert.
 
A screening committee of staff at Wiregrass will review each of the instructors’ nominations then conduct personal interviews with the students this week.  After the nominees have been ranked, four finalists will then be chosen to compete to be the Wiregrass GOAL winner for 2018.
 
The four finalists will then take part in another round of interviews and evaluations by a selection committee of representatives from local business and industry later next month. That panel will consider the students’ qualities like academic achievement, personal character, leadership abilities and enthusiasm for technical education.
 
The student judged most outstanding will be designated as the college’s GOAL winner and move on to the regional competition in February at Southern Regional Technical College, Tifton Campus.  Then, three from each of the three regions will make up the nine regional finalists, who will be named in April at the state GOAL conference in Atlanta.  The nine regional finalists will then move to the state level and compete for the title of state GOAL winner. Last year Wiregrass’ 2017 GOAL Winner, Eli Metts was one of the state’s finalist for GOAL.  Metts graduated with an Associates in Science in Nursing and now is an RN for South Georgia Medical Center.