Hundreds of graduates walk at Albany Technical College 2015 Fall Commencement

ALBANY — Albany Technical College held its annual fall commencement exercise Thursday night at the Albany Civic Center. According to college officials, more than 250 candidates for associate degrees, more than 700 candidates for diplomas, and more than 1,250 candidates for technical certificates of credit graduated.

Among the graduates was Ayana Harpe who graduated in June as a dually enrolled student from Albany High and earned earned her Associates degree in Pharmacy Technology at ATC. During that time she worked as intern at CVS Pharmacy and plans pursue her BS at Florida A&M University.

“Being dually enrolled definitely put me ahead of the game as far as getting into college,” Harpe said. “There are certain classes I don’t have to take and I will enter FAMU with 31 hours behind me.”

The keynote speaker of the event for the ceremony was J. Randy Jackson, senior vice president of Human Resources and Administration for Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia. Kia has a manufacturing facility in LaGrange.

“I’d like to congratulate all the graduates and urge that you think about looking at jobs in the automotive industry,” Jackson said. “You’ll either love it or hate it. It’s the perfect job for Type A driven personalities because it is fast-paced industry. We have a great workforce in that (LaGrange) factory and are always in need of driven employees.

“Seventy percent of the jobs in the future will be VoTech related. You have the skills we are looking for and you will be in demand.”

Jackson encouraged the graduates to work on their ‘soft skills,’ adding, “most of our hires had never built a car before. We can teach you the technology of how to build a car, but learning the soft skills necessary to keep that job ar up to you.”

Among these graduates, nearly 130 students were honored at an earlier ceremony on the Albany Tech campus Tuesday with such distinctions as General Education Development highest test scores, Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership (GOAL), Presidential Scholar, Honors with Distinction, National Technical Honor Society (NTHS), ATC Ambassadors, American Criminal Justice Association Club, Collegiate DECA, Phi Beta Lambda (PBL), Student Government Association (SGA), and SkillsUSA. In addition, nearly 100 high school students will graduated with college credit through Albany Tech’s dual/joint enrollment programs. More than 50 students graduated with their General Education Development (GED®).

Among the list of Thursday night’s graduates was 2015 Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership (GOAL) winner and Medical Assisting student Jerri Jarrell, who said she came back to school after deciding it was time for her to do something for herself and pursue her passion to work in the medical field.

“I had a long road ahead of me trying to balance my school life with my life at home, however, I meant I was going to finish school this time no matter what,” said Jarrell. “The months seemed to just fly by and it was time to take our national certification test, which we all passed.”