South Georgia Technical College Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs Vanessa Wall, who is also the coordinator for the Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership (GOAL) program at South Georgia Technical College, has announced the members of the screening committee that will interview students who are nominated for the college’s annual GOAL title.
The objective of the GOAL program is to recognize and reward excellence among the more than 150,000 students attending the colleges of the Technical College System of Georgia. GOAL was the first statewide program in the nation to honor outstanding students in technical education.
Slated to serve on the five-member SGTC internal screening committee are: Jennifer Robinson, special populations coordinator; Sammy Stone, director of campus safety; Dianne Trueblood, information system director; Dr. David Finley, academic dean; and Julie Partain, dean of enrollment management.
“To be considered for the GOAL title, a student must be nominated by his or her instructor,” explained Vanessa Wall. “The purpose of the screening committee is to interview and evaluate the nominated students to determine who qualifies to move to the next level of the competition.”
In making their choices, the screening committee members consider each student’s grades, attendance and class performance along with their character, leadership potential, personal goals and enthusiasm for technical education.
The four students who make it through the screening committee will then be interviewed and evaluated by another GOAL committee – the selection committee – which is comprised of leaders from local business and industry. The selection committee chooses one winner from SGTC to compete at the regional level with students from other colleges within the Southern region.
“All of these students are exceptional individuals or they would not have been nominated,” said Wall. “The GOAL program is an excellent means of recognizing the outstanding students enrolled in the state’s technical colleges, and I appreciate the opportunity to be involved.”
The four finalists will be announced in March and then the student who is selected from that group to serve as the South Georgia Technical College 2021 GOAL student will take part in the regional competition and in the technical college system’s annual statewide GOAL conference. Nine finalists from the regional competitions (three students from each of the three regions) will be announced and go on to compete for the state title. Then one student will be named as the state’s GOAL winner and earn the recognition as the system’s 2019 student of the year.
The state winner will also take home the grand prize of a new automobile from KIA Motors, the statewide corporate sponsor for the GOAL program.