April 19, 2009
The Herald-Sun

From left: (front row) Amiris Brown, Briant Davis, (back row) George Johnson, Maria Ratliff, Rajdeep Dhesi, Christopher Hart and Laurence Novins.

Members of Durham Technical Community College’s Phi Beta Lambda organization won three first place statewide awards and 13 other awards recently at the State Leadership Conference in Charlotte. Approximately 350 students throughout the state participated in leadership workshops, state elections, and networking opportunities. Phi Beta Lambda is a non-profit education association with a quarter million students preparing for careers in business and business-related fields.

Eight Durham Tech students competed in 14 events, placing in each event. Amiris Brown and Briant Davis won first place honors in the Business Presentation competition and Minerva Lambert won first in the Job Interview category.

Second place winners: Impromptu Speaking - Maria Ratliff; Networking Concepts -Christopher Hart; Public Speaking - Maria Ratliff; Third place winners: Client Services - Minerva Lambert; Network Design - Rajdeep Dhesi and Christopher Hart; Telecommunications - George Johnson;

Fourth place winners: Computer Concepts - Laurence Novins; Cyber Security - Laurence Novins; Networking Concepts - Rajdeep Dhesi; Sixth place - Client Services - Amiris Brown; Computer Concepts - Briant Davis; Help Desk - George Johnson

Durham Tech’s chapter won a Terry Lowrance Leadership Award for completing a certain number of criteria, such as service projects and attending workshops, and was named a Gold Star Chapter for outstanding participating. Durham Tech won third place in the Central Region for Largest Increase in Chapter Membership.

Six students have qualified to represent North Carolina at the PBL National Leadership Conference in June in Anaheim, Calif.