PHOTO: Chattahoochee Tech President Dr. Ron Newcomb and 2024 GOAL winner Kristen Lee, courtesy of the Cobb Chamber

In partnership with the Cobb Chamber and SelectCobb, Chattahoochee Technical College announced the finalists and winners of the college’s Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership (GOAL).

Kristen Lee, a student in the Occupational Therapy Assistant program, and political science instructor Natalia Meneses received top honors. 

According to the announcement on the Chattahoochee Tech website:

Competition finalists were honored at an awards ceremony held Friday, Jan. 26, at the North Metro Campus. Kristen Lee, a student in the college’s Occupational Therapy Assistant program, received the college’s 2024 Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership (GOAL) award. 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. The 2024 Chattahoochee Tech GOAL finalists and their programs of studies also included Mckenzie Bartlett, Radiography; Tennille Redmond, Paralegal Studies; and Maria Luiza Rocha, Electrical & Computer Engineering Technology.

The top student finalists for the 2024 GOAL award included Electrical and Computer Engineering student Maria Luiza Rocha, Radiography student McKenzie Bartlett, and Paralegal Studies student Wanda “Tennille” Redmond.

According to a press release from the Cobb Chamber:

The GOAL program began in 1971 to recognize academic success and personal achievement performed by Georgia’s technical students and is a statewide initiative sponsored by the Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education. Four finalists are chosen from each technical college in Georgia, and one is selected as the winner to compete at the state level. The Cobb Chamber has been a proud supporter of GOAL since 1984. Each finalist and winner receive a scholarship.

The four scholarship recipients were chosen after recommendations and interviews.

Kristen Lee will advance to a regional competition in which she will compete against top students from Georgia’s technical colleges.

The state competition winner receives a new car and serves as the state ambassador of technical education.

The event sponsors were Cobb and Douglas Public Health, Cobb EMC, Geo-Hydro Engineers, HR Knowledge Source, Lockheed Martin, North Georgia Staffing, and Wasserman Talent Solutions.

About Chattahoochee Technical College

Chattahoochee Technical College began in 1961 when the Marietta-Cobb Area Vocational Technical School was chartered.  The school was a project of the Georgia Board of Education and the Cobb and Marietta public school systems. The first classes were convened in 1963.

A limited number of classes were held in rooms set aside in a local elementary school until the first permanent campus was established on South Cobb Drive near Lockheed Martin’s facility.

In 1986, with expansion into Paulding County, the name was changed to Chattahoochee Technical Institute.  Recognizing that the curriculum had gone beyond just being a trade school, the name was again changed to Chattahoochee Technical College in 2000. 

For a history of the school that puts the growth of Chattahoochee Tech in the context of other developments in the county, see Thomas Scott’s Cobb County Georgia and the Origins of the Suburban South.

In the following decades, the programs offered by the school and the number of campuses expanded.  There are now nine campuses and approximately 14,000 students.

Chattahoochee Technical College currently includes the following campuses:

• Appalachian Campus
• Aviation Training Academy
• Austell Campus
• Canton Campus
• Marietta Campus
• Mountain View Campus
• North Metro Campus
• Paulding Campus
• Woodstock Campus