Shown in front row, from left, from Georgia Northwestern Technical College at the Phi Beta Lambda State Conference in Atlanta, are Marcos Diaz, Geovani Ramirez, Dione Waddington (advisor), Mara Bucio Almaras, Heather Shirley, Rhys Turner, and Patty Hart (advisor). Shown in second row, from left, are Jessica Griffith, Gerardo Ramirez, Irvin Santos, Janeema Ware, Ervina Sudler, Tanya Pearson, and Janice Fowler. Shown in third row, from left, are Oliva Benable, Manueli D. Montelongo, and Mark Upton (advisor). Shown in back row, from left, are Jeremiah Thomas, Daniel Heiman, and Joshua Godwin.
Out of the more than 11,000 college students in the nation with a chance to qualify in professional skill categories, 12 Georgia Northwestern Technical College (GNTC) students are headed to Chicago, Illinois to compete at the Phi Beta Lambda (PBL) National Leadership Conference June 24-27.
PBL is the collegiate portion of the Future Business Leaders of America. Combined, they work with approximately a quarter of a million students each year by helping them develop theirs skill to compete in more than 55 business and business-related competitive events on the national stage each year.
GNTC students Daniel Heiman of the Walker County Campus (Economic Analysis), Irvan Santos and Gerardo Rameriz of the Whitfield Murray Campus (Network Design), Marcos Diaz of the Whitfield Murray Campus (International Business), Janice Fowler and Janeema Ware of the Whitfield Murray Campus (Human Resource Management), Heather Shirley of the Floyd County Campus (Marketing Concepts), and Manuel Montelongo of the Whitfield Murray Campus (Computer Applications) all took home top honors on the state level. Georgia’s PBL Conference was held April 10-12 at The Westin Atlanta North in Atlanta, Georgia.
Other categories also seeing GNTC national qualifiers were Jeremiah Thomas of the Whitfield Murray Campus (2nd - Sports Management and Marketing, 2nd – Contemporary Sports Issues), Heiman (2nd - Microeconomics), Joshua Godwin of the Floyd County Campus (3rd – Cyber Security), Rhys Turner of the Walker County Campus (2nd – Organizational Behavior Leadership), Diaz (Management Concepts), and Geovani Rameriz of the Whitfield Murray Campus (Computer Applications).
Just one year ago, Georgia Northwestern’s Mario Trejo of Dalton, took home first place at the national competition held in Nashville. Mr. Trejo claimed top honors in the Justice Administration category.
As well as qualifying already this year, Mr. Heiman also placed fourth nationally last year. Mr. Diaz, qualifying in two categories this year, qualified in 2013 and 2014, as well. “It’s a great testament to the college and the students with these sort of results,” said Dione Waddington, Phi Beta Lambda advisor at GNTC. “We traditionally perform well on the state and national level each year.”
“Sending 12 students to Chicago for a chance to show what they’ve learned and what they can do is pretty exciting,” said Waddington. “I wouldn’t be surprise if we saw at least the same success we saw last year at nationals.” Other categories GNTC students placed in at the state competition this year were Tanya Pearson (5th - Retail Management), Turner (4th - Macroeconomics), Jessica Griffith (4th – Personal Finance), Maria Bucio Almaras (5th – Sales Presentation), Fowler and Ware (5th - Business Presentation), and Montelongo (5th – Computer Concepts).