During a noontime ceremony Wednesday, Savannah Technical College recognized Ashley Smith, a dental hygiene student, as the recipient of the college’s 2013 Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership.
Susan Pinkston, Savannah Tech’s department head for business management, was the winner of the college’s 2013 Rick Perkins Award for Excellence in Technical Education.
GOAL, a statewide program of the Technical College System of Georgia, honors excellence in academics and leadership statewide among the state’s technical college students.
Smith was one of four finalists among 44 students nominated for the award. The other finalists were Dustin Bolgrihn, welding; Natalia Martinez-Rivera, criminal justice; and Jonathan Gerbsch, fire science.
“Technical college education allows students to have hands-on training, which in turn, helps students to confirm their career choice,” Smith said. “Not only does the technical college provide superior education, it does so at an affordable cost.”
The Perkins Award, an ongoing statewide program since 1991, honors technical education’s most outstanding instructors.
Pinkston, who worked in human resources before she began teaching, has been the department head for business management at Savannah Tech since 2006, when she created and implemented the business management program.
She has increased student enrollment from 12 in 2006 to more than 200. She also established the college’s human resources management technical certificate of credit.
“I chose to teach in a technical college in order to pay it forward,” Pinkston said. “As a non-traditional college student, I faced many of the same obstacles as my students. However, I always kept my eye on the prize and persevered.
“Along my academic journey, there were others who encouraged and believed in me. I now pay it forward by listening, by being firm but fair and by encouraging students to never give up.”
All 26 local college winners for GOAL and Perkins awards will gather in April in Atlanta for the selection of the 2013 state honorees to represent the technical college system as student and instructor ambassadors.
