Columbus Tech students graduate Thursday night

COLUMBUS, GA (WTVM) - Hundreds of Columbus Technical College students graduated Thursday night.

A winter commencement ceremony for 400 students was held at 7 p.m. at the Columbus Civic Center.

Columbus Tech says 20 percent of those graduates are honor grads, meaning they have a GPA of 3.8 or higher.

In addition to college graduates, 35 students will receive their GED certificates. Tonight's keynote speakers for the ceremony were the student of the year and the teacher of the year. The 2018 GOAL (Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership) winner was Trey Brown and the college's EAGLE (Exceptional Adult Georgia in Literacy Education) winner was Xavier Lewis.

"The first couple of words that come to mind is joy and satisfaction. Being able to see other students work as hard as they do coming from a student like myself, I know what it takes to put in the long hours of study," says GOAL winner Trey Brown.

"It makes me proud to see that we have other students that are graduating like I  did last year. It's a beautiful feeling just to see others accomplish what they accomplished,"  commented EAGLE delegate Xavier Lewis.

Columbus Technical College prides itself on having a 99.1 percent job placement and 87 percent of its students who graduate with an associate's degree go on to pursue their bachelor's  degree.

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