Moultrie Technical College’s Adult Education program celebrated its graduating classes for the spring semester of 2014 at a semi-annual commencement ceremony held Tuesday at Withers Auditorium in Moultrie. The college recognized more than 60 Adult Education and GED diploma graduates from its four-county service area of Colquitt, Tift, Turner and Worth. Many of those graduates were from the college’s Industrial Drive Campus program in Moultrie or reside in Colquitt County. Pictured, from left, are Angela Hunt, Martha Duran, Alyssa Jo Morey, Pamela Lane, Amy Truelove, and MTC Adult Education instructor Doug Hall. For more details on free GED test preparation classes in Colquitt County and for testing information, call 217-4181. Information is also available by logging on to www.moultrietech.edu and clicking on the Adult Ed/GED tab.

Moultrie Technical College’s (MTC) 2014 Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership, or GOAL, Student of the Year winner Julie McDonald isn’t ready to walk across the stage with diploma in hand just yet. She is, however, always set to motivate others through her own experiences of perseverance through adversity.

McDonald did just that at the Spring 2014 commencement exercises Tuesday for MTC’s new graduates, their friends and family members, and the faculty, staff and administration. With two separate ceremonies at 6 and 7:30 p.m. at Withers Auditorium in Moultrie, the first event honored Health Sciences and Technical and Industrial program graduates as well as GED diploma graduates. The second highlighted graduates of the college’s Business and Computer and Personal and Public Service programs.

McDonald, a Neuromuscular Massage Therapist (NMT) program student, spoke at both ceremonies and was among hundreds of her fellow MTC students Tuesday night as the college recognized 220 graduates from its four-county service area of Colquitt, Tift, Turner and Worth. More than 60 Adult Education program graduates were awarded their GED credentials at the ceremony as well.

MTC’s Acting President Jim Glass congratulated the Spring 2014 graduates while mathematics instructor and 2014 Rick Perkins Instructor of the Year award winner Tamara Gray led the graduate processional as the event’s marshal.

Prior to Glass’s declaration of graduates, McDonald shared a motivational message about the positive ways one can make it through the sometimes difficult journey of life. McDonald herself has overcome many obstacles on the way to living out her passion for helping others through her future career in neuromuscular massage therapy. It began with the birth of her youngest child, Callie Lowery, 10 years ago. Callie needed physical and occupational therapy to help relieve the symptoms of arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that affects the joints and muscles.

McDonald says she saw how much therapy helped her daughter and then enjoyed learning for herself how to perform the hands-on work for Callie. She explains that, one day following a long day of doctors’ appointments in Jacksonville, she was offered a 20-minute massage at no charge at the Ronald McDonald House where she and Callie were staying. McDonald says that, as an exhausted parent and caregiver, those few minutes changed her life. She made a commitment then to give back.

In 2010 McDonald, who is originally from Knoxville, Tenn., but has lived in South Georgia for 17 years, earned a diploma in Early Childhood Care and Education from then East Central Technical College. She went on to employment as a pre-K teacher’s assistant at a local childcare center until she was laid off from that position in the spring of 2013.

When she learned of the pending closure of the center, she completed the additional core course work she would need for the competitive admissions process into Moultrie Tech’s Neuromuscular Massage Therapist program. The program is one of only two at technical colleges in the state of Georgia — the other being in Rome. For McDonald, things were beginning to come full circle.

In her commencement address, she encouraged the graduates by saying, “Find what it is that you were put on this earth to do. What is it that fuels your fire? That is what you were meant to do!”

The transition to Moultrie Tech and into the program has not been without its trials. McDonald lives in Moultrie during the week so she can concentrate full-time on her studies in the rigorous, one-year NMT program. She is able to spend weekends with husband Andy and her three children, Ean, 16, Drew, 12, and Callie, 10, in Fitzgerald.

Even with the daily hoops she must jump through on her way to a new career, McDonald told the graduates, “I challenge each of you to face your fears and rise!”

McDonald expects to finish her course work at Moultrie Tech in August and to cross the commencement ceremony stage herself in MTC’s November ceremony. Her career aspirations include working in a rehabilitation facility with patients who suffer from chronic injuries or chronic pain, in addition to offering relaxation and deep tissue massage therapy for other clients as part-time employment and on a volunteer basis in hospice care.

“Tonight’s graduation is just a part of your journey. Graduation is a concept that continues every day of your life,” added McDonald in her speech. “So, while you’re here, make the days of your journey count!”