Michael Johns, a student in Construction Management at Georgia Northwestern Technical College (GNTC), Gordon County Campus, was recently awarded the Helen and Vernon Crawford Scholarship. This prestigious scholarship is awarded to worthy students who have completed the GED and have elected to continue in secondary education.

Johns began the Construction Management program in January 2009. While a student at GNTC, he has maintained a 4.0 GPA. He was named as an EAGLE (Exceptional Adult Georgian in Literacy Education) for 2009 and represented Georgia Northwestern during the Literacy Institute in Atlanta in February 2009. He has been nominated for EAGLE Student of the Year in Georgia which will take place in October 2009 in Atlanta. He is slated to be student speaker at the GED graduation ceremonies on August 6, 2009 at the Calhoun Civic Auditorium.

The Helen and Vernon Crawford Scholarship is named for the couple who first began their work in literacy at Literacy Action, the largest community based adult basic education provider in Georgia, in the 1980's and soon became strong advocates for advancing the literacy of anyone who wished to learn to read. Vernon Crawford was a greatly loved physics professor at Georgia Tech and served in collegiate administrative positions after his retirement, culminating in the position of Acting Chancellor of the University System of Georgia. In that capacity he and his wife, Helen, traveled the state of Georgia and witnessed the serious need for more education among Georgians in all subjects.

Dr. Kenneth Breeden, who headed the Department of Technical and Adult Education (DTAE), convinced Dr. Crawford, who was on the DTAE Board of Directors, to help refine what became Georgia's Certified Literate Community Program. The Crawford's and Mrs. Shirley Miller, wife of former Governor Zell Miller, then traveled the state, introducing the Certified Literate Community Program model wherever they were invited as long as they lived. These scholarships are Helen and Vernon Crawford's legacy to all of Georgia to continue and excel in what they helped to begin.

Georgia Northwestern Technical College serves Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, Gordon, Polk, and Walker counties in Georgia with campuses located in Floyd, Gordon, Polk, and Walker counties. Approximately 16,000 people benefit from GNTC’s credit and noncredit programs, making it the largest college in Northwest Georgia and the fifth largest technical college in Georgia.