MOULTRIE — Moultrie Technical College (MTC) announced its 21 student nominees and four finalists for the 2013 Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership (GOAL) on Jan. 9, according to Lisa Newton, MTC’s GOAL coordinator. Annual GOAL winners represent MTC as the Student of the Year.

Moultrie Tech’s finalists are medical assisting student John Bruns, radiologic technology student Cindy Coney, cosmetology student Anna Odom, and computer information systems technology student LaToya Posey.

All 25 of Georgia’s technical colleges statewide, as well as one Board of Regents school with a technical division, present these awards. Local winners serve as ambassadors to their communities on behalf of their colleges. Moultrie Tech’s winner will represent the college in its four-county service area of Colquitt, Tift, Turner and Worth.

The objective of the GOAL program, says Newton, is to recognize and reward excellence among more than 190,000 students studying at Georgia’s technical colleges.  GOAL was the first statewide program in the nation to honor outstanding technical education students.    

A committee of five community leaders met to select Moultrie Tech’s winner through a series of interviews and speeches given by the four finalists on Jan. 23.

“The screening and selection process is fairly involved and time consuming,” added Newton.  “But our job is to find the very best candidate to represent Moultrie Tech.  When the evaluations are complete, we hope to have found the College’s most outstanding student.”

The announcement will be made at a luncheon scheduled for Jan. 29 in the MTC Conference Center on the Moultrie Veterans Parkway campus. The Moultrie-Colquitt County Chamber of Commerce workforce development committee will present the winner with a cash award of $200 and each runner-up with a $100 prize. The winner will also receive a scholarship from the Moultrie Tech Foundation to assist with expenses for the regional and state competitions.

Additional nominees from Moultrie Tech’s campus locations in Moultrie and Tifton are accounting students Elizabeth Felts and Alanna Tillery; automotive technology student Nathan Wilburn; business administrative technology students Nicolle Morris and Veronica Watts; early childhood care and education student Lillie Hill; electronics technology student Samuel Soosani; industrial systems technology student Joshua Whittington; marketing student Lindsey Lumpkin; medical assisting students Brooks Baker, Gayle Campero, Heather Gray, Sherri Holcombe, Ashley Martinez and Ellen McCorvey; practical nursing student Michele Bell; and surgical technology student Oscar Arvizu.

For the second year Moultrie Technical College’s Tifton Campus will host the regional GOAL competition on Feb. 28 in which winners representing Albany Tech, Altamaha Tech, Bainbridge College’s technical division, Moultrie Tech, Okefenokee Tech, Savannah Tech, South Georgia Tech, Southwest Georgia Tech, and Wiregrass Georgia Tech will compete for three available state finalist positions from within the region.

A statewide winner will be selected at the state GOAL competition in Atlanta in April and will travel the state for a full year on behalf of Georgia’s Technical College System. Carmaker Chevrolet will donate a 2013 vehicle to the state’s winner.