Members of Moultrie Technical College’s 2008 GOAL selection team pictured, left to right, are current chairman of the Chamber Frank Cox of Ameris Bank; Amanda Statom, vice-president of marketing for the Moultrie-Colquitt County Chamber of Commerce; Leonard McCoy, Colquitt County school superintendent; Sandra Rogers, director of the Colquitt County Department of Family and Children’s Services; and Carolyn Mulkey of Southwest Georgia Bank.

MOULTRIE , GA. Members of the Moultrie-Colquitt County Chamber of Commerce Workforce Development committee served as the selection team for Moultrie Technical College’s 2008 Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership [GOAL] winner through a series of interviews and speeches given by four student finalists on March 6.

The finalists interviewed were Radiologic Technology student Cindy Clark, Electrical Construction and Maintenance student Simmie Hall, and Practical Nursing student Barbara Hayes of the college’s Moultrie campus and Industrial Systems Technology student Jamie Dillard of the Tifton campus.

The objective of the GOAL program is to recognize and reward excellence among the almost 160,000 students attending the colleges of the Technical College System of Georgia. GOAL was the first statewide program in the nation to honor outstanding students in technical education.

Serving on the selection committee were Carolyn Mulkey of Southwest Georgia Bank; Leonard McCoy, Colquitt County school superintendent; Amanda Statom, vice-president of marketing for the Moultrie-Colquitt County Chamber of Commerce; Sandra Rogers, director of the Colquitt County Department of Family and Children’s Services; Lisa Newton, MTC's GOAL coordinator; and the current chairman of the Chamber Frank Cox of Ameris Bank.

The selection committee chose one winner, to be announced at the GOAL luncheon on March 17 at the MTC Veterans Parkway campus conference center, to compete at the statewide level with students from the 32 other state technical colleges and four Board of Regents colleges with technical education divisions.

"All of the students we interviewed were exceptional individuals or they would not have been nominated,” said Statom. “The GOAL program is an excellent means of recognizing the outstanding students enrolled in the state 's technical colleges, and I appreciate the opportunity to be involved in the selection process."

In May, Moultrie Tech’s GOAL winner will take part in the technical college system’s annual statewide GOAL competition in Atlanta. At that time, one student will be named as the state’s GOAL winner and earn the recognition as the system’s 2008 student of the year.

The state winner will travel the state on behalf of Georgia’s Technical College System for a full year and will also take home the grand prize of a new automobile from Chevrolet, the statewide corporate sponsor for the GOAL program.