Local Lanier Tech Student Selected as Semi-finalist for Award

A student at Winder campus is one of the college’s semi-finalists for the Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership.

Jennifer Whaley, who is in the medical assisting program at the Winder Campus, is one of four Lanier Tech students to be selected.

Other semifinalists are Tammy Baker, who is studying cosmetology at the Oakwood Campus, Leisa Stevens, who is studying business administrative technology at the Oakwood campus, and Sue Ferguson, who is studying business administration at the Dawson campus.

GOAL, a statewide program of the Technical College System of Georgia, honors excellence in academics and leadership among the state’s technical college students. GOAL winners are selected at each of the state’s 25 technical colleges.

All the college GOAL winners will compete in regional judging, which will include students from the other 26 colleges of the Technical College System of Georgia as well as the two Board of Regents colleges with technical education divisions. 

GOAL winners from each college will compete in regional judging in February. In April, all college winners will come to Atlanta, where the nine semi-finalists — three finalists from each of the three regions — will be announced and compete at the state-level in April. One student will be named the statewide GOAL winner.

"The purpose of the GOAL program is to spotlight the outstanding achievement by students in Georgia's technical colleges and to emphasize the importance of technical education in today’s global workforce," Jennifer Pulliam, coordinator for Lanier Tech’s GOAL program, said in a news release.

Pulliam said a screening committee of administrators at Lanier Tech selected the four semi-finalists from a list of students nominated by their instructors. 

"The next step is for a panel of business, civic and industry leaders from the community to interview and evaluate these four students and select one to be the college’s 2012 GOAL winner," Pulliam said in the release.  “The one judged most outstanding will compete in the Northeast Regional Judging. Three finalists from this region will compete in the state GOAL competition in Atlanta and vie to be named as the 2012 statewide GOAL winner.”

The state GOAL winner becomes the student ambassador for the Technical College System of Georgia and receives a grand prize of a new car provided by Chevrolet, the statewide corporate sponsor of Georgia’s GOAL program.