Top finishers to compete in national championships in St. Louis in June
Several North Georgia Technical College students received high honors at the recent Georgia SkillsUSA Championships in Atlanta. Overall, 31 NGTC students competed at the state level and 17 of them earned awards. There were three first place, 11 second place and three third place finishers.
First place winners included Andrew Franklin of Bethlehem, Ga., in Marine Service Technology; Akayla Campbell of Mineral Bluff, Ga, in Restaurant Services; and Jeremy Gay from Martin, Ga., in Automotive Service Technology.
Second place winners were Seth Pourbaix of Clarkesville, Ga, in Marine Service Technology; James Bingham of Clarkesville, Ga., in Electrical Construction Wiring; Matt Wilbanks of Commerce, Ga., in Robotics and Automation Technology; Damon Rose of McCaysville, Ga., in Robotics and Automation Technology; Joseph Nix of Lavonia, Ga., in Mechatronics; David Bennett of Cornelia, Ga., in Mechatronics; Hope Long of Demorest, Ga., in Crime Scene Investigation Team; Asia Shealer of Martin, Ga., in Crime Scene Investigation Team; Justin Wheeler of Toccoa, Ga., in Crime Scene Investigation Team; Andrea Smith of Columbia, SC, in Digital Cinema Production; and Hanna Franklin of Dahlonega, Ga., in Digital Cinema Production.
Three third place winners were DJ Cotrell of Dahlonega, Ga., in Marine Service Technology; Peter Adams of Buford, Ga., in Photography and Christopher Powell from Clarkesville, Ga., in Culinary Arts.
The three first place winners will travel to St. Louis, MO., for the National SkillsUSA Championships in June along with President Dr. Mark Ivester and several faculty members from North Georgia Technical College.
“SkillsUSA championships are so thrilling to watch when your students have worked so hard to attain this level of accuracy and precision within their discipline,” says Dr. Ivester. “It’s an honor to travel and accompany these top students at SkillsUSA and applaud their efforts throughout the competition. We certainly look forward and hope to bring home more medals from our trip to St. Louis! We congratulate each student who has participated – it’s a wonderful honor.”
Instructors Johnny Broyles, Melissa Henderson, Chris Bladowski, Alex Bladowski, Clayton Smith, Glenn Jordan, Danielle Vaughn, Jim Loring, Chris Haley, Renee Deibert and Steve Hill all accompanied the students to the state championships.
For more information about programs at NGTC, visit northgatech.edu.
