Family and friends of more than 50 students walked across the stage of the Trinity Baptist Church, Friday, August 3 in a ceremony celebrating the attainment of their GED.

The speaker at the ceremony, Kevin Casey of WEBS Radio and Wall of Honor GEDD Winner spoke to the students before each one crossed the stage and received a dictionary and their diploma.

Present to award the students were Assistant Director of the Adult Learning Center Colleen Brooks, Kevin Casey, and Jane Rierson, President of the Gordon County-Calhoun Council for a Literate Community and Director of Human Resources at Mannington Mills.

According to Brooks, the dictionaries are donated by the Gordon County-Calhoun Council for a Literate Community, and have become a tradition for the students who graduate with a GED every year.

The ceremony was hosted by the Georgia Northwestern Technical College Adult Learning Center, and was sponsored by the Gordon County-Calhoun Council for a Literate Community, who also supplied a catered reception after the ceremony.

Students who walked at the graduation ceremony were: Ashley Anderson, Angela Ashe, Ameer Awad, Andrew Bailey, Michael Baker, Charles Bray, Christa Brock, Amanda Broome-Mulkey, Jasmine Brunni, Natasha Campbell, Victoria Canada, Kimberly Carder, Misty Carder, Samantha Caudle*, Darlene Chavez, Ty Christian, Alec Coe*, Kayla Collum, Krista Conrad, Michael Cox, Viridiana Cruz*, Bradley Davis*, Ginger Dickson, Sean Dunagan, Joyce Dyer, Kimberly Elridge, Casey Elliott, Brittany Evans*, Tiffany Foushi, Larry Franklin, Lemuel Frazier, Sandy Gann, Amanda Gomez-Perez, Yiri Gonzalez-Patino, Catherine Greeson*, Odalis Guerra, Lauren Gulledge, Alvin Hannes, Christy Hardin, Kenneth Hollingsworth, Fernando Ibarra, Cory James, John Jarrett, Charles Jenkins, David Johnson, Ashley Jones, Maryann Jones, Erica King, Kathleen Lamb*, Kaitlin McStotts, Vanessa Millwood*, Denny Moore, Pamela Morgan, Haley Mulkey, Hunter Nations, Mary Nelson, Griselda Padilla, Jimmy Parr, Gina Michelle Pate, Charlene Phillip, Pamela Postell, Gerald Postin, Michael Poston, Barbara Rankin, Nathan Renner, Joseph Revette, Benjamin Rigdon, Gabriela Rodriguez, Ashley Rogers, Amber Roundtree, Shonta Sanabria, Nicole Sanderson, Amanda Scott, Michael Scott, Ricky Siefert, Jessica Sims, Christina Slone*, April Squires, Laura Stockburger, Jacob Straughn, Allison Tanner, Joshua Tedder*, Chandler Thomassen*, Nina Thompson, Tammie Tudor, Alivia Tweedy, Amanda Upchurch, Miguel Vasquez, Norma Vazquez, Caleb Weaver, Carrie Weeks*, Aaron White, Glenn White, Robert Whitfield, Monica Young, and Jasmine Zimmerman. (*= Honor graduate)

Three students were given the Perseverance Award for students that never gave up even though they may have faced adversity, according to Brooks, who says they set their goals and strived to complete and achieve their GED.

In addition to the numerous graduates, many scholarships were awarded to students as well.