On January 26th, Ogeechee Technical College, and two of its organizations, the OTC Foundation and the OTC Student Leadership Council, held the school’s annual reception for the Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership, known as GOAL, which honors the finalists and their nominating professors and announces the college’s 2023 GOAL winner.
The Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership program was formed in 1972 with aspirations of promoting the importance of technical colleges and their vital impact on the Georgia workforce, strengthening the relationship between technical colleges and their communities by streamlining student talent directly into local businesses, and celebrating students that display both exceptional leadership and academic achievement. Students are nominated by instructors to represent their college; then they go through a rigorous selection process with multiple rounds of interviews and speeches, eventually going on to compete against other finalists at a statewide level in Atlanta.
The OTC GOAL reception highlighted their finalists and allowed each of the four attending students an opportunity to speak on their experience at OTC and what their nominations meant to them.
While GOAL participant Gil Sheppard was unable to attend the reception, the student was still honored and mentioned at the start of the ceremony. Sheppard is a Business Management student nominated by instructor Alex Harris.
Annabelle Sydnor, a Fish and Wildlife Management program student, was nominated by instructor Casey Corbett.
Sydnor smiled, “There’s no such thing as perfection, but OTC is close.”
Another finalist, Dalton Flanders, is a Cybersecurity student nominated by Terry Hand. The cybersecurity student emphasized that the level of excitement and passion displayed by his teachers, such as instructor Hand, inspire and push him to strive for excellence.
Kristin Goddard, nominated by Yvonne Jenkins, is a Dental Assisting program student. Pushing through her initial nerves, Kristin expressed how OTC and its professors instilled within her the importance of teamwork, and how having a community to rely on creates a strong foundation for success.
The fifth finalist, Justin Clenny, was the second Cybersecurity student nominated by instructor Terry Hand. Clenny shared with the attendees his interesting journey with OTC, which began in 2017. Initially, Clenny dreamed of working in the medical field and received a Nurse Aide Fundamentals certificate while dual enrolling at the tech college during high school. After graduating in 2020 with honors, Justin made plans of returning to OTC for its Licensed Practical Nurse program.
“But COVID really changed everything for me, and after graduating high school, I decided that I really enjoyed working with computers and I decided I wanted to get a degree in I.T. I loved it so much, I wanted to return, and the new cybersecurity program at OTC seemed really interesting.”
As Clenny continued, he exuded passion and emotion while describing his first experience with his instructor Terry Hand, “From the very first day, I was hooked.”
Clenny reiterated that Hand’s passion, drive, and love for teaching his students about cybersecurity, along with incredible hands-on opportunities for skill development, were the influencing factors that motivated him to achieve his goals.
After the finalists completed their speeches, President Lori Durden made her way toward the podium and announced Kristin Goddard as runner-up and Justin Clenny as OTC’s GOAL winner and student representative. Durden followed the award presentation with comments about how the success of OTC students represents the vision of the college and its desire to support communities right here in Georgia. She continued by expressing her pride in OTC’s students, faculty, and staff, and their impact on Statesboro.
The credit for the success of these finalists was echoed throughout the entire reception: the passion and dedication of OTC instructors.
And a great example of this is seen in Terry Hand, who received the nominating instructor’s award, and was praised by both his nominees throughout the reception.
When asked about the success of his students and the cybersecurity program, which only began 3 years ago, Hand exclaimed, “It’s not me! It’s the students. Just look at them – their excitement and energy carry through to their studies.”
Hand expressed he feels honored to be a part of their academic and professional journeys and appreciates watching his students develop and grow in their passions.
“This was the first time in 20 years, I’ve never cried before…he (Clenny) got up there and threw out a speech like that, and it got me emotional.”
Clenny will go on to represent OTC in the GOAL regionals competition located in Tifton on February 21st. From there, nine semi-finalists will be selected to compete at the statewide competition toward the end of April. In addition to being an OTC student, Clenny has been working full-time doing cybersecurity over the last 6 months for The Sack Company, a local Statesboro construction business. Clenny is on track to graduate later this year.
When asked about his future goals and what it meant to win this award, Clenny said, “This is everything. This is a fantastic institution. I fell in love with it, and this journey with OTC helped me to discover my true passion.”