Married couple among 4 Columbus Tech students selected to compete for state award

Columbus Technical College has announced four students, including a married couple, selected to compete for the right to represent the institution as its best this year and vie for the 2018 Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership, known as GOAL.

Three of the four students -- Diequindre Boggs, Jessica Brown and Trey Brown -- reside in Muscogee County and partcipate in the Respiratory Care Technology program. Jessica and Trey are married. The fourth student, Misty Faircloth, is from Lee County and is studying Diagnostic Medical Sonography.

Columbus Tech’s winner is scheduled to be announced Nov. 30.

GOAL, a statewide program of the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), honors excellence in academics and leadership among the state’s technical college students. GOAL winners are selected at each of the state’s 22 technical colleges as well as one Board of Regent college with technical education division. Then they compete in regional judging in February, followed in April by the announcement of the nine regional finalists, three from each of the three regions. The state winner is announced later in the spring.

"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," Melissa Summers, coordinator for the Columbus Technical College GOAL program, said in a news release.

Columbus Tech’s screening committee of administrators selected the four students among those nominated by 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 2018 GOAL winner," Summers said.

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

This story was originally published November 15, 2017 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Married couple among 4 Columbus Tech students selected to compete for state award."