Ashley Ford, having experienced great sadness, found working with children to be a reliable source of happiness and changed her career plan. Now working toward her associate degree in Early Childhood Care and Education at Ogeechee Technical College, Ford has emerged as the college’s 2024 GOAL winner.

The Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership, or GOAL, program, now in its 52nd year, has students compete through speeches and interviews to represent their colleges. Then, through regional and state-level rounds, a statewide winner is selected who receives a new automobile and serves as a spokesperson for technical college education in Georgia for the year.

Ogeechee Tech, its OTC Foundation and the OTC Student Leadership Council recognized the school’s seven GOAL nominees and four finalists chosen from among them Monday evening in the Oak Room of the Jack Hill Building.

Then Samantha Hanovich, a Fish & Wildlife Management program student, was recognized as the runner-up before Ford was announced as the winner. First, they and the other two finalists, Cybersecurity student Kaytlyn Colson and Paramedicine student Kaitlyn Hankinson, shared some of their OTC story with the audience.

“In April of 2020 my life changed forever,” Ford said, her voice breaking with emotion. “As I was walking with my newborn baby, my phone rang. I quickly answered and heard my best friend, ‘She is not breathing.’ I knew he was talking about my mom. I handed my baby girl to my husband and drove the quarter mile down a dirt road to my parents’ house.”

After collapsing on the kitchen floor, her mother, Susan Robins, died at the age of 54 despite Ford’s performing CPR and after further efforts by medical professionals.

Ford, who had given birth to her second daughter six weeks before and whose older daughter was only 3, then asked herself how she could be a mother when she had just lost her own mother, “my best friend … my everything,” she said.

Her father’s sister, Ford’s Aunt Tessa, soon stepped up to become “her listening ear for motherly advice,” and like “a second mom” while helping her cope with her grief. But Tessa Cassedy was diagnosed with COVID-19 in August 2021, and after fighting “really hard for two months,” passed away that October.

“And that is where my Ogeechee Tech journey begins,” Ford said.

In fact, Ford, who grew up in the Nevils community and graduated from Southeast Bulloch High School, had first attended OTC about 10 years ago, pursuing a degree in Funeral Service Education.

After losing her mom and aunt, “I decided I needed some happiness in my life,” Ford said. It was after seeing children as the greatest holders of happiness among human beings, and wanting to learn more about the “physical, cognitive and emotional development” of her and her husband’s two beautiful daughters, she said, that she again enrolled at Ogeechee Tech.

“The Early Childhood Care and Education program gives me the tools to become an effective educator while I’m gaining knowledge to become an awesome mom,” Ford said.

The college’s program allows her to study around her busy schedule “as a full-time mom working a full-time job,” completing her homework after her children’s bedtime, she said.

Having already attained a technical certificate of credit, Ford has been employed as a teacher at Kid’s World Learning Center in Statesboro since July.

OTC also coordinates with her employer so that she can earn credit hours on the job, she said. Now 36, she is now working toward her diploma and then an Associate of Applied Science.

Her daughter Everly is now 7, and Eliza is 3. Ford’s husband, Kenny Ford, and her father, Mark Robins, were among the family members attending to show support.

OTC Early Childhood Care & Education Director Paula Clifton nominated Ford, and so received the Nominating Instructor’s Award for 2024. In her eight years at the college, this her second time winning this award.

When Clifton told Ford she wanted to nominate her, she at first asked why, saying there was nothing more special about her than anyone else.

“So in getting to know her and asking her questions, I’m like, you are a great example for technical college for people who have challenges, who face obstacles and diversity and still find a way to educate yourself and promote self-growth, and I think she wants to promote that in the children that she works with as well,” Clifton said. “She’s a great advocate for children. She’s determined. She’s driven.”

Hanovich runner-up

Samantha Hanovich, the runner-up, introduced herself as “a mother, a wife, a member of the Air National Guard and a nontraditional student in the Fish & Wildlife program student here at Ogeechee Technical College.” But at 21, she is as nearly a traditional student as any of the GOAL finalists and the only one currently in her first go-round at OTC instead of having returned to enroll for a second time.

On track to graduate this spring, Hanovich plans to continue her education at Georgia Southern University, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Outdoor Recreation.

Her husband, Jacob Callis, and son Theodore, 11 months old, were there to show support.

Hanovich’s love of fish and wildlife started in high school when she bought her first fish tank. Now, “to my husband’s dismay but my son’s delight,” she said, she has begun to fill their home with fish tanks. She said she has launched her son on a “hands-on learning journey” inspired by the hands-on learning she has experienced in Air National Guard training and at Ogeechee Tech.

Fish & Wildlife Management instructor Casey Corbett nominated Hanovich.

OTC’s track record

OTC President Lori Durden told the GOAL nominees and winner they should all be proud of their accomplishments.

“You may not realize it, but you are in very good company,” she said. “You see, here at Ogeechee Tech, we are winners. In the past 15 years we have had three state GOAL winners, four (state) first runners-up and seven regional finalists. So, no pressure.”

Durden added that she believes this record “speaks volumes about the quality” of the college’s students, faculty and staff.

“OTC’s Foundation celebrates our students, their achievements and bright futures by awarding finalists and GOAL winners monetary rewards,” said staff member Sarah Beverly, in her first year as the college’s GOAL coordinator.

As the winner, Ford received $250. As the runner-up, Hanovich received $100. The other two finalists each received $50. The foundation also provided a $100 cash prize to Clifton with the instructor’s award.

A screening committee made up of five OTC staff members interviewed nominees and selected the finalists. Then a selection committee of community volunteers not employed by the college interviewed the finalists and chose the winners.

Ford is scheduled to compete Feb. 27 with GOAL winners from six other colleges. Three regional finalists will be chosen. Then a total of nine state semifinalists – three each from three regions – will compete at the state level before a statewide GOAL winner is announced in April, Beverly explained.

Finalist Kaytlyn Colson was nominated by Cybersecurity instructor Terry Hand. Finalist Kaitlyn Hankinson was nominated by Paramedicine Technology instructor Chris Page.

The other nominees were Gracie Burgin from the Business Management program, nominated by instructor Alex Harris; Dalton Flanders, Cybersecurity, also nominated by Terry Hand; and William Mixon, Fish & Wildlife Management, also nominated by Casey Corbett.