VALDOSTA — Wiregrass Georgia Technical College hosted 241 students and advisors from across the state for the Student Professional Development Conference this weekend.

“This is the first time the competition has been hosted in the south,” said Shalonda Sanders, Executive Director for Human Resources at Wiregrass. “Usually the competition is held in Atlanta.”

The students all come from various technical colleges in Georgia and compete in leadership, management, marketing and other areas. All the participants are a part of their college’s student leadership  organizations—SSLC (Statewide Student Leadership Council) and NTHS

(National Technical Honor Society)—or DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America).

“We brought these three organizations together because on their own they are relatively small organizations, but as a whole we represent business leadership, we represent leadership skills in general,” said Sanders.

Sanders explained that SSLC is the governing authority at the colleges, collegiate DECA is the marketing and business organizations and then NTHS is the cream of the crop students who maintain a certain grade point average to be able to be part of the organization. While each organization is different, they all maintain similar academic goals and values.

Bobby Lucas came all the way from Atlanta Technical College to participate in the conference. This is his fourth year competing.

“We are competing in events that consist of accounting, financials, fashion, retail, business ethics and business law,” said Lucas.

Lucas explained that there are three aspects of the competition which are business and relations, case study and prepared presentation.

“Business and relations we have to take a 100 question test and you get 60 minutes and then you have to do role playing,” explained Lucas. “The case study you get a scenario and you have to make a solution ... and the presentation is you have to do a project ahead of time and then you go to the judges and present it.”

Students are scored in each of these events. There are also side competitions—prepared speech and job interview—that students may also compete in.

Yolanda Presley, a student at Wiregrass on the Cook County campus, competed in the interview competition. This was her first year competing. The interview competition was judged by a panel of three judges. The competitor is given a job scenario ahead of time.

“You have to research the job that you're given and prepare yourself to answer the questions,” said Presley.

This conference was also an opportunity for students to campaign for various state offices within NTHS, SSLC and DECA. Some students were handing out buttons, some had candy and many had science boards with \pictures and qualifications. Students across the state in these organizations vote on who they feel should lead the organizations.

“They campaign, they hand out buttons, they shake hands and kiss babies,” said Sanders. “The students then vote on who they want to lead their organizations for the next year.”

In these elections, students don’t elect a president or a vice president, they elect a panel of individuals who they feel will make efficient leaders and then those leaders are sent to a conference where they will undergo training and then training officials will place them in office.

Mathew Tootle from Altamaha Technical College was campaigning for a state office within SSLC.

“It’s going to help that I’m not only a leader on a local level, but

I’m a leader on the state level,” said Tootle. “People are going to look at that and it shows that you have leadership and determination and you're willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.”

The conference’s competitions started on Friday with the DECA written exam competition. Saturday continued with the remainder of the competitions as well as a series of leadership sessions lead by staff from various technical colleges. Student competition winners were presented in the evening.

Sunday, newly elected state officers will have orientation and all students will attend a closing general session until noon.

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