Georgia Northwestern Claims Gold Medals At Georgia's SkillsUSA; Three To Compete At Nationals In June

Photo: "A trio of Georgia Northwestern SkillsUSA members finished first in the state of Georgia in the statewide SkillsUSA competition held in Atlanta, Georgia this weekend. From left are state gold medalists Nathan Kiser, Automotive Service Technology; Jubal Freeman, CNC Turning; and Ross Anderson, Welding. The National SkillsUSA Tournament takes place in June in Kansas City, Missouri."

Media release: Georgia Northwestern Technical College will be sending three students to compete on the national level of SkillsUSA in Kansas City, Missouri this June after claiming gold medals in their respective categories on the state level in Atlanta, Georgia this weekend.

 

Ross Anderson, Jubal Freeman, and Nathan Kiser took top honors in the Welding, CNC Turning (Machine Tool), and Automotive Service Technology categories, respectively.

 

"I was going up against some students who were much farther along than me at their college," said Kiser. "However, I really did well against the field and got to show off what I've learned." Kiser is a student of Troy Peco, GNTC Automotive Technology Director. Peco is a finalist this year for the state's Rick Perkins Award which is given to Georgia's top technical college instructor.

 

Freeman and Anderson, and their instructors Bart Jenkins and Joe Burrage, made the trips to Atlanta, as well this weekend. "I heard the one judge in Jubal's (Freeman) category tell him after competing that when he's ready to look for a job in his field to give him a call," said Thomas Williams, one of the Georgia Northwestern SkillsUSA advisors. "Our gold medalists really stood out down here and performed incredibly well."

 

SkillsUSA is a nationwide vocational expertise competition that colleges and high schools throughout the United States compete in each year in technical, skilled, and service occupation categories. More than 300,000 have taken part in SkillsUSA competitions in the United States this year.

 

Georgia Northwestern Technical College is a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia. GNTC directly serves nine counties across Northwest Georgia with online and on-campus educational offerings. GNTC has campuses in Floyd, Gordon, Polk, Walker, and Whitfield Counties in Georgia.