Georgia Northwestern Technical College (GNTC) Echocardiography student Christina Bullock has been named a 2020 Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership (GOAL) finalist while Mandy Jones, General Education English instructor, has been chosen as a 2020 Rick Perkins Instructor of the Year finalist by the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG).

The finalists were announced during a live streamed TCSG special presentation on Wednesday, Aug. 19.

“I want to say thank you to everyone who has been in my corner and I am looking forward to participating in the state competition,” said Bullock, a student on the Floyd County Campus. “It is an honor to be a GOAL finalist.”

At the age of four, Bullock entered the foster care system after her mother was incarcerated. It wasn’t until her father, who didn’t know she existed, found her at age seven that she was able to leave the system behind.

The 23-year-old was the first in her family to graduate high school, and Bullock said while that was an accomplishment unto itself she knew she had to keep going.

In the middle of her senior year at Sonoraville High School, her dad was diagnosed with an aggressive form of lung cancer.

“He was already disabled and barely making ends meet, I needed to get a job to help us both,” Bullock said. “He started his first round of chemotherapy and radiation, while I started my first job at Office Depot and first semester at Georgia Northwestern Technical College.”