For horticulture students at North Metro Technical College in Acworth, being green means more than a rapidly spreading global trend. For many of these students, delving into a career of working with and caring for plants will soon become a livelihood in green industry fields like horticulture, lawn care, and landscape design and building.

This past spring – giving these students an eye-catching addition to their resumes - being green was translated into top honors  when a team of NMTC horticulture students captured first place in the 32nd annual Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) Student Career Days competition, which was held during March 2008.

Recently, the state board that oversees the Technical College System of Georgia took special notice of NMTC with a resolution from the entire board commending the students, faculty and staff on their important win in the PLANET competition. Click Here to see the resolution.

The resolution honors the team of NMTC environmental horticulture students who demonstrated that the knowledge and skills gained from their two-year college program could beat out 66 other green industry teams from major four-year colleges and universities from throughout the nation.

NMCT  hosted the PLANET event, which had a record-breaking attendance this year, on its campus. Among the other participants in the competition were teams from several large southeastern colleges and universities, including the University of Georgia, Clemson University, Auburn University, University of Tennessee and University of Florida.

Commenting on his college earning the top award, North Metro President Steve Dougherty expressed his pride in saying, “This is the second time that a team from North Metro has won the top honor in the PLANET competition.  What’s more amazing is that we’re the only two-year college to have won the award in the last 25 years. This is great teamwork by our staff, faculty, students, and community volunteers.”

Dougherty stated that there’s wide respect for the exceptional level of instruction offered by North Metro’s horticulture program and added that Rex Bishop, a horticulture instructor at the college, was named Educator of the Year during the PLANET competition.  “Our students enjoy great success in the industry because our program is blessed to have instructors like Rex Bishop in the classroom sharing their wealth of knowledge and assisting with outstanding hands-on training,” said Dougherty.

But that’s not all. North Metro Technical College student, Matthew Early, was named the “Superstar” of the event by scoring the greatest combined individual total score. To be eligible for this title, the 962 student participants were required to compete in five different events in an assortment of programs that included business management, arboriculture techniques, computer-aided design, exterior landscape design, leadership skills, safety management, maintenance cost estimating, and woody ornamental plant identification.

“Superstar” Matthew Early scored a combined total of 468.6 points out of a possible total of 500!

The top ten teams at the 2008 competition were:

1. NORTH METRO TECHNICAL COLLEGE
2. Brigham Young University – Provo
3. Brigham Young University – Idaho
4. Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo
5. Cal Poly – Pomona
6. North Carolina State University
7. Pennsylvania State College
8. Mississippi State University
9. Michigan State University
10. Columbus State Community College

North Metro Tech is a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, which comprises 33 technical colleges in communities throughout Georgia. Almost 141,000 students attended TCSG colleges in 2007, taking advantage of a broad range of opportunities for classroom, live work and online learning in more than 600 certificate, diploma and associate degree programs that lead to in-demand careers with outstanding earning potential. 

TCSG colleges feature small classes, hands-on experience and focused instructor attention.  40% of TCSG students are training in one of Georgia’s strategic industries, including healthcare, aerospace, life sciences, agribusiness and logistics and transportation.  The TCSG also manages the state’s adult education/GED program and Quick Start, which is internationally recognized as the best workforce development program in the nation.
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