South Georgia Tech shares CAT EPG information with Oklahoma State

May 9, 2018
South Georgia Technical College President Dr. John Watford is shown above with Sam Minnema, SGTC Electric Power Generation instructor Keith McCorkle, Sander Torgeson, Mace Gjerman, Russ Dunnington, Galen Smith, SGTC Heavy Equipment Dealer’s Service Technology Instructor, CAT’s Kelly Maxwell and Bobby Kellum, SGTC Vice President of Academic Affairs David Kuipers, Kenneth Trantham and Wes Adams.
South Georgia Technical College President Dr. John Watford is shown above with Sam Minnema, SGTC Electric Power Generation instructor Keith McCorkle, Sander Torgeson, Mace Gjerman, Russ Dunnington, Galen Smith, SGTC Heavy Equipment Dealer’s Service Technology Instructor, CAT’s Kelly Maxwell and Bobby Kellum, SGTC Vice President of Academic Affairs David Kuipers, Kenneth Trantham and Wes Adams.

South Georgia Technical College President Dr. John Watford was serving as the Dean of Instruction for South Georgia Tech twenty-one years ago. Jon Johnson was President at that time and asked John Watford and two Diesel instructors to fly out to Oklahoma to learn more about a new Caterpillar ThinkBIG training program housed at the Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology. He did and within two years that program was up and running in Americus.
Twenty-one years later officials from the Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and Portland Community College from Portland, Oregon flew in to South Georgia Technical College to learn more about the new Caterpillar Electric Power Generation (EPG) Program that was piloted at South Georgia Tech and is the first college training program of this sort in the world for Caterpillar.
“I can still remember being asked to fly out to Oklahoma State and being invited to tour their Caterpillar program,” said Dr. Watford. “Oklahoma State had one of the better programs at that time and Caterpillar wanted us to model their program at South Georgia Tech. We did and now Caterpillar is asking them to come look at us to learn more about the EPG program that we have started with Caterpillar. That is exciting.”
While he was there, Oklahoma State presented Dr. Watford and the two instructors with 50th anniversary hats from their college. When the individuals came to Americus, Dr. Watford was able to show them the hat that he had received 21-years earlier and he also took the opportunity to present each of them with a South Georgia Tech 70th anniversary t-shirt.
SGTC President Dr. Watford and Vice President of Academic Affairs David Kuipers and CAT officials Kelley Maxwell, Technical Training Supervisor for Caterpillar, Inc., and Bobby Kellum, Operations and Training Analyst at Caterpillar, Inc.; met with Kenneth Trantham and Terry Lindsey from Oklahoma State and Sam Minnema, Russ Dunningtom and Sander Torgeson from Portland Community College and Galen Smith and Mace Gjerman from CAT Peterson Machinery that partners with Portland, had the opportunity to meet and tour the SGTC Caterpillar Heavy Equipment and Electric Power Generator facilities.
South Georgia Technical College has become one of the top ThinkBIG Caterpillar training colleges in the world and currently has more dealer partnerships than any other ThinkBIG college in the world with six. Those dealers include: Yancey Brothers, Puckett, Ring Power, Stowers Machinery Corporation, Thompson Machinery, and Thompson Tractor. Oklahoma is the next largest with five CAT dealer partnerships.
Over the course of two years, students in the ThinkBIG program attend college classes, work hands-on with CAT machines and engines in the SGTC labs, and work on-side each semester with CAT professional technicians. Graduates are rewarded with great salary and benefit packages as well as unrivaled opportunities for professional growth.
For more information about the CAT ThinkBIG program or CAT EPG program at South Georgia Technical College in Americus, contact SGTC Dean of Academic Affairs Raymond Holt at 229-931-2809 or rholt@southgatech.edu.