Seven Chattahoochee Tech students were strong competitors at the 2024 SkillsUSA Georgia competition held recently in Atlanta, with four of them earning gold medals.
Bringing home the gold were students Darin Swagerty and Spencer Hachem, in Additive Manufacturing, along with Maria Luiza Rocha, in Electrical Computer Engineering Technology. Dual Enrollment student Stephen Garcia earned a gold medal for the HVAC portion of the state competition. Garcia is a Chattahoochee Tech Dual Enrollment student at the Cobb Innovation and Technology Academy (CITA). These four gold-medal winners will all advance to the SkillsUSA National Championship, which will be held this summer in Atlanta.
Earning silver medals at the SkillsUSA Georgia competition were students Mohamadreza Rashad, in Industrial Motor Control, and Octavio Cisneros, in HVAC. Cisneros is a Chattahoochee Tech Dual Enrollment student at CITA. Chattahoochee Tech student Corbin Head earned a fourth-place finish in Electrical Construction Wiring.
“The SkillsUSA competition allows students to showcase and hone their industry-standard expertise in the field. We are so proud of how well our students have represented Chattahoochee Tech,” said Jason Tanner, the college’s Executive Vice President for Instruction. “I also want to thank our instructors for working to prepare students for the competition and seeing them through these events,” said Tanner. “We have exceptional students at Chattahoochee Tech, partly because we have exceptional faculty.”
Chattahoochee Tech instructors Joe Kazemian and Alan Kazemian served as advisors for the college’s students participating in the 2024 SkillsUSA Georgia competition. John Martin served as an advisor for the competition’s Chattahoochee Tech Dual Enrollment students. Martin, who is a full-time employee with the Cobb County School District, also teaches Air Conditioning Technology part-time for Chattahoochee Tech at the Cobb Innovation and Technology Academy.
The 2024 SkillsUSA Georgia competition was held Feb. 22-24 at the Georgia World Congress Center. It featured 156 career competition events for over 3,400 student competitors. This event also included a career fair, seminars, and a chance for students to network with industry representatives and other students in various fields of study. SkillsUSA is a national, nonprofit organization representing a dynamic partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to build a skilled workforce.
