Hinesville, Ga. – Savannah Technical College will begin offering Cybersecurity degree, diploma and certificate programs at the Ft. Stewart Army Education Center starting in Fall Semester 2020 with both online and in-seat options.

The College currently offers Cybersecurity at its Savannah and Liberty campuses. For the convenience of the active duty assigned to Ft. Stewart and to meet the growing demand, these programs will now also be offered at the Education Center. This will give Soldiers the opportunity to earn credentials while still serving, helping to advance their careers while preparing them for transition after the Army. Cybersecurity has been identified as one of the strategic priorities for the Army, and there are currently more than 11,000 cyber job openings around the state.

The STC Cybersecurity program’s building block approach allows students to reach the level most appropriate for their career goals. The College’s Cybersecurity Workforce Education Center (CWEC) helps students integrate Cybersecurity knowledge and skills into other programs if they desire such as a Networking Specialist. STC’s programs are highly respected in the field as seen in the College’s partnership with the Army Cyber Institute at West Point.

“This approach allows us to increase the training and cyber skills development for our students by integrating cybersecurity skills and coursework in an interdisciplinary fashion to maximize cyber defense education growth in the region”, says Scott C. Scheidt, STC’s Director of the CWEC and Department Head of Cyber and Related academic programs.

In cooperation with the Army Cyber Institute, Savannah Tech will help facilitate Jack Voltaic 3.0 in September 2020. This is a regional cyber readiness training exercise that will allow its students firsthand experience in multi-sector cyber operations.

“Opportunities like JV3.0 and STC faculty expertise provide a unique and valuable learning experience for students at the Army Education Center,” said STC Military Military Outreach Coordinator Steven Cisneros

Even though the COVID-19 crisis has restricted in-seat classes at the AEC at the start of the Fall 2020 semester, STC will offer its Cybersecurity courses online and at the Liberty and Savannah Campuses. Once the AEC re-opens to the public, STC will offer in-seat Cybersecurity courses in the AEC.

Cybersecurity is one of the high-demand options receiving additional HOPE Career Grant funds for those that qualify. For more information about STC’s Cybersecurity programs visit: www.savannahtech.edu/cybersecurity

The College has the highest military-affiliated enrollment in TCSG. One in four STC students is a veteran, active duty service member, or a military dependent/spouse. The College has been ranked one of the top Best for Vets public technical and career college in the U.S. by Military Times. STC also has scholarships available to active duty, veterans, and dependents.

New students for all programs are encouraged to apply by August 14 to start with the Fall semester, which starts August 24. STC plans to offer a blend of in-person and on-line training options this fall at all of its campuses.

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# 2103 | August 7, 2020
Media Contact: Amy Shaffer, APR
912.443.5512 or ashaffer@savannahtech.edu

Savannah Technical College Foundation Board of Trustees celebrated accomplishments for the previous fiscal year, announced leadership changes, and welcomed new members to its board.

In FY2020, the STC Foundation Board of Trustees awarded $206K in scholarships to Savannah Tech students. In January 2020, its Opportunity Gala honoring Kevin Jackson raised $250K, which is nearly three times more than previous events. For the fourth year in a row, the STC Foundation earned the designation Role Model Foundation Board Certification in November 2019 from the of Technical College Foundation Association (TCFA).

The FY2021 executive committee includes: Gary Sanchez – Chairman; Loretta Cockrum – Vice Chair; Stewart Bromley – Treasurer; Sam McCachern – Past-Chair; and Lynne Marini and Robyn Iannone will serve as At Large members.

The Foundation welcomed three new board members: Kay Ford, Nick Puhala and Trip Tollison.

• Kay Ford, currently serves as the chairman of BankSouth’s advisory board for the Savannah market and she BankSouth’s Chief Banking Officer serving the bank’s markets throughout the state. The former president and CEO of SunTrust Bank, Savannah, Ford retired after serving 41 years at Suntrust where she held numerous senior level positions within retail banking and private wealth management, including the position of senior vice president of Private Wealth Management. She is a graduate of Leadership Savannah and Leadership Georgia, a member of the Executive Committee of Savannah Economic Development Authority.
• Nick Puhala is a partner with Sterling Seacrest Partners. Nick has volunteered and held leadership positions with various organizations including the Rotary Club of Savannah, Chamber CEO Council, Propeller Club, Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, and Savannah Golf Championship Founders Club. He is a graduate of Leadership Savannah, Leadership Southeast Georgia, and was noted as a 2016 Generation Next Rising Star of Business. Nick holds the Certified Insurance Counselor professional designation and earned a BBA in Management from the University of Georgia.
• Trip Tollison serves as the President and CEO of the Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA) which includes World Trade Center Savannah (WTCSav), Savannah Regional Film Commission and an EB-5 Investment Center. Trip serves on the board of directors for the Jekyll Island State Authority, the Savannah Convention Center Authority, the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce and the Savannah Music Festival. Trip is the former chairman of the Second Harvest Food Bank. He is a graduate of Leadership Savannah, Leadership Georgia and is a former Trustee of Leadership Georgia.

Founded in 1984, the Savannah Technical College Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization that exists to raise and disburse funds to support the College’s efforts to enhance learning, workforce training and economic development in Bryan, Chatham, Effingham and Liberty counties. 

# 2101 | July 14, 2020

Media Contact: Amy Shaffer, APR
912.443.5512 or ashaffer@savannahtech.edu

Savannah Technical College Construction Management student Zebulon Floyd was awarded a $2,500 scholarship from Fine Homebuilding.

Floyd was elected president of STC’s SkillsUSA chapter and has competed on STC’s SkillsUSA team for the past two years.

With eight years of military service, Floyd started the Construction Management program in January 2019 soon after he separated with an honorable discharge. He has a bachelor’s of science in health and physical education from Alabama State University and worked as an occupational therapy assistant in the U.S. Army.

He is poised to complete an associate of applied science in construction management this month. He plans to continue his training at Savannah Tech this fall to master electrical wiring, while he works as an apprentice to earn his construction license.

Prior to Savannah Technical College, Floyd said he knew absolutely nothing about construction or building anything. “Thanks to the hands-on instruction at Savannah Tech, I have a really good grasp on how to build things now and why buildings are built the way they are built,” said Floyd.

He says, it’s very important to keep this craft alive. “There’s no better feeling than to know that you built something from the ground up with your own two hands, and now someone is living in a house you built or putting to good use whatever you have built for them.”

 “I don’t know what I would do without Savannah Technical College or SkillsUSA because both have truly changed my life around and changed my perspective on a lot of things,” Floyd said. “It is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”

Fine Homebuilding awards scholarships to SkillsUSA high school or college/postsecondary students continuing their education or certification programs in construction-related fields.

“I’ve always wanted to have my own business,” said Floyd, who has already set up an LLC. “I wanted to put my dream into action and took the leap to train for a new career.” He looks forward to renovating and remodeling houses and starting his own business once he completes the program next summer.

About SkillsUSA: SkillsUSA is a career and technical student organization that annually serves more than 320,000 high school, college and postsecondary students–and their instructors–in technical, skilled and service-occupation instructional programs. SkillsUSA is a national, nonprofit student organization that has developed more than 10 million workers through active partnerships between employers and educators. Hundreds of American industries have turned to SkillsUSA as the source for employees who exemplify “Champions at Work” in both skills and attitudes. SkillsUSA’s mission is to empower its members to become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens. At the heart of this mission are SkillsUSA’s core values: integrity, responsibility, citizenship, service and respect.

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# 2102 | July 28, 2020
Media Contact: Amy Shaffer, APR
912.443.5512 or ashaffer@savannahtech.edu

SAVANNAH, Ga. – Savannah Technical College’s HERO Faculty and Staff Campaign won first/gold in the U.S. for a fundraising campaign with the 2019 Collegiate Advertising Awards. The College also earned two silver awards for logo design and self-promotion.

The College first started its Helping Everyone Realize Opportunity (HERO) campaign in 2015. STC’s marketing team developed the brand, built the campaign around personal interaction and offered incentives for donors. The HERO character was created as the original mascot for the campaign. The campaign surpassed fundraising and participation goals.

In 2019, STC rebranded its HERO campaign with custom hero characters that featured STC faculty and staff. This inspiration came from an incident when the five-foot foam-core HERO lost his head. He was on his way to be presented during a best practices workshop feature the HERO campaign for other colleges. To salvage the character, STC’s marketing team rounded off his shoulders, so donors could put their head on them for a photo. That’s when the team thought of the idea to create custom digital hero illustrations, bringing new life to the campaign.

Last year’s HERO campaign included 92% participation from STC faculty/staff raised $34,600+, which offered 20 student scholarships in FY2020. This also includes 32 who pledged 1% of their salary.

STC also won silver for developing a custom logo to promote Career Connections, a website connecting STC students and graduates with employers. Eric Willis with Fluorescent Design Studio designed the logo.

Another effort to promote Career Services won silver for self-promotion. To direct students to find the Career Services office at the Savannah Campus, STC’s marketing team had student success photos installed on the office windows. Photos were taken by Stephen B. Morton and installed by The Kennickell Group. Morton’s STC student success photography has previously been recognized with national awards.

The Collegiate Advertising Awards is an elite national program seeking to recognize today’s most talented marketing professionals for outstanding excellence in all forms of advertising, marketing and promotion specific to higher education products and services. All entries are centralized for judging (per category) by a panel of design and education marketing professionals with decades of combined experience. Entries are judged on: creativity, layout/design, typography, production, quality and overall effectiveness.

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# 2032 | June 10, 2020

Media Contact: Amy Shaffer, APR
912.443.5512 or ashaffer@savannahtech.edu

Keep STC Healthy Poster

Practice good hygiene & social distancing

• Stop handshakes and use non-contact greeting methods. No hugs, high fives or fist bumps.
• Wash your hands regularly and thoroughly.
• Wear a face mask any time you are sharing space with others, like in hallways.
• Keep your distance, allowing at least six feet of space between you and others at all times.
• Avoid touching your face and cover your coughs and sneezes with a tissue.

Stay home if…

• You are feeling sick
• You have a sick family member at home
• You have a fever of more than 100.4 degrees
• You experience symptoms of illness, to include:
  • Coughing
  • Shortness of breath
  • Loss of taste or smell

Check-in for safety!

• Only enter campus using designated entrances and check-in/check-out with the officer on duty.
• If you need to access campus after-hours or on weekends, contact the STC Police Department first to make arrangements.

Keeping it germ-free!

• Monitoring the number and location of employees on campus each day helps our facilities team ensure areas are disinfected after they are occupied.

Contact tracing

• Should a confirmed case occur on campus, knowing those in contact will allow us to notify individuals who may need to seek testing.

Source: CDC.gov

Most of Savannah Technical College’s summer courses will be offered online. In certain areas of instruction, there will be limited labs offered. Please check with your academic advisor or faculty for more information.

We aim to continue to serve you safely and virtually in advance of the start of classes on June 1. In the event there is something you feel you MUST come to campus to address, we will be offering very limited services and limited hours May 26-28 on our campuses.

If you do come to campus, please wear a face-mask. Savannah and Liberty campuses will be open for limited walk-in service from 8 AM – 5 PM those days. Because of space constraints, the Effingham campus will be seeing students by appointment only.  

To schedule appointments, we encourage you to use the following links:   

Savannah Campus:  

• Admissions: Savannah Appointments
• All other appointments (Financial Aid, Military Resources, Bookstore, Cashier, or Bursar) call 912-443-5513

Liberty Campus:   Liberty Appointments or call (912) 408-3024 x6000

Effingham Campus:  Effingham Appointments or call 912.443.4100

Advisement:  Academic Advisement’s

We are committed to serving you safely. Good luck with your studies!

Savannah Technical College’s Professional Continuing Education department and SCORE have created free weekly business survival webinar workshops to support area businesses starting May 22.

SCORE mentors and STC faculty and staff will lead workshops, which were created in an effort to help Savannah’s small business community deal with the serious challenges created by the Coronavirus crisis.

“We are proud to have our Savannah SCORE Business Mentors partner with the Savannah Tech faculty and staff to bring this series of webinars to our community,” said Certified Mentor and Chapter Chair for Savannah SCORE Michael Siegel. “This co-sponsored program is a great example of SCORE and STC’s shared commitment to support our local small businesses, especially during this incredibly challenging time.”

The one-hour workshops will be held at 1 p.m. on Fridays. Advance registration is required at https://www.savannahtech.edu/free-business-workshops/ Free sessions include:

• Pivot: Growing Your Business Now (May 22)
• E-Connect: Virtual Business Ops & Customer Engagement (May 29)
• Managing from the Heart: Building Teams in Crisis (June 5)
• Moving Targets: Strategic HR in a Pandemic (June 12)
• Business Continuity: Maintaining Effective Operations (June 19)

At the initial workshop on May 22 led by Siegel, participants will learn what to do now to help your business survive; how to create a “SMART” plan of action; how to assess market threats and opportunities; how to assess your cash flow, reduce expenses and streamline operations; and how to reimagine, transform and adapt your business.

SCORE is a non-profit resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration. With a network of over 300 chapters and over 10,000 volunteer business mentors around the country, SCORE is the nation’s largest provider of free business mentoring services and educational programs for aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners. Savannah SCORE and its team of 45 volunteer business experts were named SCORE’s “2019 Mid-Market Chapter of the Year”. The Chapter is the only 4-time Platinum Chapter in the State of Georgia. For more information or to schedule a free mentoring session with a Savannah SCORE business mentor, go to https://savannah.score.org.

STC’s Professional Continuing Education Department provides short-term classes in both traditional and online classroom settings. Courses cover a variety of skills and workforce development options that match local employer’s needs. For more details about other classes visit: www.savannahtech.edu.

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# 2031 | May 6, 2020

Professional Continuing Education: 912.443.3012
www.savannahtech.edu/LearnNow

Media Contact: Amy Shaffer, APR
912.443.5512 or ashaffer@savannahtech.edu

SAVANNAH, GA – Savannah Technical College is offering online non-credit hospitality training to help those displaced workers advance in their careers when they return to work or start a new career with a nationally recognized certification. In an effort to serve the hospitality community that was hit so hard by this pandemic, the College will offer the course at a drastically discounted rate of $25 per person compared with the regular cost of $650 per person.

“The hospitality and tourism sectors offer unparalleled opportunities for advancement and success,” said Tourism Leadership Council President/CEO Michael T. Owens. “Taking advantage of the programing at Savannah Technical College allows individuals to jump start their career or accelerate career advancement.”

The Hospitality Foundations course helps those that want to stand out among other applicants and advance their career. It also offers participants an option to explore the hospitality industry before entering the field. With the expansion of new hotels in historic Savannah, there is a projected demand to hire nearly 1,700 within the next year.

Scholarships will offset the next session cost to $25 per person, which is regularly priced at $650. The cost of the 48-hour online course includes the certification testing cost. Register now for the hospitality course at https://www.savannahtech.edu/business-industry/hospitalityfoundations. The next four-week session will be held online from 9 a.m. until noon on Tuesdays through Fridays starting May 19.

The nationally recognized certification is determined by an exam created by the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI), a nationally recognized organization that certifies and validates competencies in conjunction with academia and industry experts for more than 20 positions in the hospitality industry. Professional certification from AHLEI is the ultimate distinction of professional excellence for the hospitality industry.

Upon passing the certification exam, students will be certified with the following credentials: Certified Guest room Attendant, Certified Restaurant Server, and Certified Front Desk Representative.

Gloria Johnson, a Savannah native who has been a part of Savannah’s Hospitality Industry for more than a decade, teaches the course. She has taught this course for Goodwill in Savannah and is a hospitality trainer and job coach. She uses her experiences and current work to enhance training skills and techniques for others.

STC’s Professional Continuing Education Department provides short-term classes in both traditional and online classroom settings. Courses cover a variety of skills and workforce development options that match local employer’s needs. For more details about other classes visit: www.savannahtech.edu.

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2030 | April 30, 2020

Professional Continuing Education: 912.443.3012
www.savannahtech.edu/LearnNow

Media Contact: Amy Shaffer, APR
912.443.5512 or ashaffer@savannahtech.edu