SGTC Names Semi-Finalists for GOAL Program

December 20, 2018
Portraits of four individuals. Three females and one male.
South Georgia Technical College president John Watford announced the four semi-finalists for the college’s GOAL competition. Finalists include (Top left to right) Kelsi Cannon, Prince Burns, (bottom left to right) Aisha Douglas and Christine Anderson.

Four South Georgia Technical College (SGTC) students have been selected as the college’s semi-finalists for the Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership (GOAL), according to Cynthia Carter, coordinator for the college’s GOAL program.

Chosen as semi-finalists are: Kelsi Cannon of Ellaville, practical nursing; Prince T. Burns of Americus, air conditioning technology; Christine M. Anderson of Vienna, culinary arts; and Aisha J. Douglas of Buena Vista, early childhood care and education.

GOAL, a statewide program of the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), 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.

All the college GOAL winners will compete in regional judging, which will include students from the other 21 TCSG’s colleges.

GOAL winners from each college will compete in regional judging in February. In April, all college winners will go 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 Carter.

According to Carter, a screening committee of administrators at SGTC selected the four semi-finalists from a list of six students who were 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 2019 GOAL winner,” explained Carter. “The one judged most outstanding will compete in regional judging. Three finalists from the region will be named and will compete in the state GOAL competition in Atlanta on April 15, 2019 and vie to be named as the 2019 statewide GOAL winner.”

The State GOAL Winner, TCSG’s Student of the Year, becomes the student ambassador for Georgia’s entire technical college system and receives a grand prize of a brand new car provided by Kia, the statewide corporate sponsor of Georgia’s GOAL program.