MOULTRIE — The second time was a charm for Moultrie Technical College (MTC) Computer Networking Specialist program student LaToya Posey.

As a returning student, having graduated from MTC’s Radiologic Technology program in 2005, Posey came back in 2010 to increase her skills and has come away this go-round as MTC’s 2013 Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership (GOAL) winner. The announcement was made Tuesday at the annual GOAL luncheon on the Moultrie Veterans Parkway Campus.

Annual GOAL winners represent MTC as the Student of the Year. 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. Posey, 30, will represent the College in its service area of Colquitt, Tift, Turner and Worth counties.

The four-county ambassadorship will reflect no drastic detour in Posey’s daily travel plans. She attends classes at both the MTC Moultrie and Tifton campuses, lives in Adel, works full-time as a radiologic technologist at Lewis Smith Memorial Hospital in Lakeland, and finds a computer wherever she can to do work for her online class.

This balancing act includes being a single mother to 11-year-old son Da’mon and living each day with the crippling disease of lupus, a diagnosis she received in 2008. Posey says she learned her work ethic through her parents who were in the military. Her mother, who passed away in 2005 – just six months following her own graduation from Moultrie Tech – was the strongest influence on Posey’s diligence.

“I watched my mom raise four children, and after my father was killed when I was four years old, she persevered,” said Posey. “Now, I do everything at 100 percent.”

Posey, who was nominated for the award by her instructor Pierre Rogers, expects to graduate from MTC’s Computer Networking Specialist associate degree program in May. Her goal is to stay in the healthcare industry and to mesh her radiologic technology skills with her new computer skills.

“Everything in the medical field is on computers now. Learning how to transfer film to computer is what brought me back to Moultrie Tech,” she added.

Posey plans to work as a picture archiving and communications system, or PACS, administrator in the field of radiology, which is now completely based in digital, computer-generated images.

“The hands-on experience at Moultrie Tech has been great. I can take a computer apart and put it back together,” said Posey. “I never thought that was something I would do.”

Of winning MTC’s GOAL Student of the Year title, she said, “I’m still shaking.”

Also honored at Tuesday’s luncheon were Posey’s fellow GOAL finalists - Medical Assisting student John Bruns, Radiologic Technology student Cindy Coney, and Cosmetology student Anna Odom – as well as 17 additional nominees.

The Moultrie-Colquitt County Chamber of Commerce workforce development committee, represented by Chamber Vice President of Marketing Terry Shuler, presented Posey with a cash award of $200 and each runner-up with a $100 prize. Posey also received a scholarship from the Moultrie Tech Foundation to assist with expenses for the regional and state competitions.



For the second year Moultrie Technical College’s Tifton Campus will host the regional GOAL competition on February 28 in which winners representing nine technical colleges will compete for three available state finalist positions from within the region. Posey will be one of the competitors and will vie for a regional finalist slot.



She says her message during the regional and state competitions will be “to tell those who have struggles to never give up.”



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. Moultrie Tech administrators say they are optimistic about Posey’s chances at the state level.