Four Augusta Technical College students have been selected as the college’s semi-finalists for the Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership, according to Amy Laughter, coordinator for the Augusta Technical College GOAL program.

Chosen as semi-finalists are:

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 22 technical colleges as well as one Board of Regents college with a technical education division.

GOAL winners from each college will compete in regional judging in March. In April, all college winners will go to Atlanta where the nine regional finalists, three finalists from each of the three regions, will be announced and compete at the state-level. One student will be named as 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," said Laughter.

According to Laughter, a screening committee of administrators at Augusta Technical College selected the three 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 2017 GOAL winner," explained Laughter.. “The one judged most outstanding will compete in the Central regional judging. Three finalists from the Central region will be named and will compete in the state GOAL competition in Atlanta on April 12, 2017, and vie to be named as the 2017 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.