MOULTRIE — Moultrie Technical College (MTC) announced its 20 student nominees and four finalists for the 2012 Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership (GOAL) on Jan. 19, according to Lisa Newton, MTC’s GOAL coordinator. Annual GOAL winners represent MTC as the Student of the Year.

Moultrie Tech’s finalists are surgical technology student Paul Arvizu, radiologic technology students Yolanda Gray and Amanda Price, and business administrative technology student Tiffanie Root. Arvizu and Root attend the MTC Tifton Campus while Gray and Price are students on the Moultrie campuses.             

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 Tuesday.

"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. 31 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.

Additional nominees from Moultrie Tech’s campus locations in Moultrie and Tifton are accounting student Elizabeth Felts; automotive  collision repair students Cory Pryor and Bunky Tyson; automotive fundamentals student Jason Wade; business administrative technology student Paula Register; computer information systems student Rocky Lopez; cosmetology students Alana Eudy and Lora Sixkiller; early childhood care and education student Debra Jones; electronics technology student William Goff; industrial systems technology student Jason Tyree; marketing management student Trudy Lambert; medical assisting student Leanne Griffin; neuromuscular therapist student Sharon Rentz; practical nursing student Rita Pafford; and surgical technology student Keith Land.

Moultrie Technical College’s Tifton Campus will host the regional GOAL competition on Feb. 23 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 2012 vehicle to the state’s winner.

Moultrie Tech’s 2011 GOAL Student of the Year, Medical Assisting student Lydia Mann of Tifton, was awarded status as a Top 9 state finalist last year.