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In 2006, Gina Smith was trying to inspire one of her children to attend DeKalb Technical College. Before the family knew what had happened, Ms. Smith and four of her five children were all enrolled at DeKalb Technical College. Gina Smith, an Administrative Office Technology Degree student, who is also a Pastor, community volunteer, and grandmother and aspires to be an appellate court judge dealing with family law, this week was chosen as the College’s winner of the Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership (GOAL).
Smith’s nominating instructor is Mr. Francis Nyandeh of the General Studies Department.
Ms. Smith was chosen by a panel of local leaders over five other nominees for the award. Other nominees for 2009 were Khary Davis, accounting major, Army veteran, and Constituent Representative to Hank Johnson; Shannon Moon, paralegal major who plans to be an attorney and is married to a firefighter; Police Captain Lisa Gassner, criminal justice major who was the first female SWAT member; Caris Ruiz, a clinical laboratory technician major with a four-year degree in microbiology degree; Gina Smith, mother of five, pastor, in paralegal studies who aspires to be an appellate judge; and, Andrew Wilson, an air conditioning technology major who left the corporate world to train in a field that was much less susceptible to downsizing or outsourcing.
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 technical college’s and will compete in consortia preliminary judging on April 2, 2009. If chosen as one of the 12 finalists, two from each consortium, then Smith will receive an all-expense paid trip to Atlanta in May where, for two days, she will compete with GOAL finalists from the other state technical colleges. A panel of leaders from the business, industry and government sectors will interview them and choose one to be the state’s 2009 GOAL winner and recipient of the GOAL medallion.
“I try to inspire others by my character and good example,” says Smith whose major influence is her pastor who has served as a mentor, advocate for education, and walks in humility.
