President Emeritus Sparky and Allene Reeves honor South Georgia Tech’s 2017 Outstanding Instructor of Year

South Georgia Technical College President Emeritus Sparky Reeves and his wife, Allene, recognized South Georgia Tech’s 2017 Rick Perkins Instructor of the Year winner, Charles Christmas, with a stipend from the South Georgia Technical College Foundation’s Sparky and Allen Reeves endowed fund at the college’s 2017 Rick Perkins Instructor of the Year breakfast recently. Charles Christmas, an aviation maintenance instructor at South Georgia Technical College, is the second recipient of the Sparky and Allene Reeves Instructor of the Year award. Andrea Ingram, a Computer Information Systems Instructor, was the first recipient of the award in 2016. President Emeritus Reeves and Allene endowed this special fund with the South Georgia Technical College Foundation in 2010 and have been growing the fund for the past seven years in order to be able to recognize the outstanding instructor and top student at South Georgia Technical College each year. Christmas received a $500 stipend as the college’s top instructor for 2017. “It is always good to be here and see the success that South Georgia Technical College is enjoying,” said South Georgia Technical College President Emeritus Sparky Reeves when he was presenting the donation to the Instructor of the Year. “This college’s success will always be in direct proportion to the quality of the instruction that is delivered in the classrooms. I know from experience that we have an outstanding group of instructors that are knowledgeable about their subject matter and that care about our students and their success. When our instructors do all the right things, everything else will take care of itself – student success, enrollment, graduation, retention, and job placement. That is one of the reasons that Allene and I wanted to recognize the top instructor each year with a token of our appreciation for what you mean to South Georgia Technical College, your peers, the students, and the community. “South Georgia Tech has been an important part of our lives for the past 43 years and we thank you for allowing us to come back and make this presentation each year,” added Reeves. Reeves joined the South Georgia Technical College faculty in 1973 as an Accounting, Math, and Business Psychology Instructor. During his years as an instructor, he worked with the GOAL program and had several students win the GOAL nomination for the college. First as an instructor and then during his tenure as a Supervisor, Evening Coordinator, Vice President of Economic Development and President, he continued to see how important outstanding instructors and students were to the overall success of the college and the communities in its service area. “If the instructors are the heartbeat of the college, then the students are the lifeblood,” said Reeves, who added that it is important to have both operating efficiently to have a healthy body or college. Charles Christmas will represent South Georgia Technical College at regional and state competition in an effort to be selected as the top instructor within the Technical College System of Georgia. President Emeritus Reeves and Allene plan to recognize the outstanding instructor and student from South Georgia Technical College annually from the earnings and interest produced from the Sparky and Allene Reeves endowment fund with the South Georgia Technical College Foundation. “On behalf of South Georgia Technical College I would like to thank President Emeritus Sparky and Allene Reeves for their continued support of South Georgia Technical College, its instructors and its students,” said SGTC President Dr. John Watford. “President Reeves and Allene have been special to South Georgia Tech for many years and today they demonstrated again why they mean so much to the college, its faculty, staff, and students,” added Watford. South Georgia Technical College Executive Director of the SGTC Foundation Su Ann Bird, who also serves as the Vice President of Institutional Advancement, also thanked President Emeritus Reeves and Allene for their support of the South Georgia Tech Foundation. “It is an honor to work with individuals who support the faculty, staff, and students of South Georgia Tech,” said Bird. “I would like to thank President Reeves and Allene for their commitment to the college, the foundation, employees and students. They set an excellent model for all of us to follow. They have both seen how important the foundation and its supporters are to the success of the college and they are continuing to give so that others can explore educational opportunities at South Georgia Technical College.” For more information about making a donation or establishing an endowed scholarship at South Georgia Technical College, contact Su Ann Bird, SGTC Foundation Executive Director at 229-931-2011 or sbird@southgatech.edu. Tax deductible donations may also be mailed to the SGTC Foundation, P.O. Box 6102, Americus GA 31709.