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VGCC Names Volunteer Firefighter Its Vocational Student Of Semester

Josh Bennett of Franklinton is just looking for a job when he finishes Vance-Granville Community College, and he thinks he’s found the path to get one in industry through the Industrial Systems Technology program.

Excelling in this program earned Bennett the Vocational Student of the Semester recognition for Fall Semester 2003. He received a plaque declaring this at a lunch in his honor Dec. 10.

A graduate of Franklinton High School, Bennett works part-time with Collins Grading, currently installing underground piping at the Novozymes plant near Franklinton. It is in such a manufacturing situation as Novozymes that Josh would like to apply the skills he is acquiring in the Industrial Systems program.

Industrial Systems Technology is a one-year diploma program that prepares people to perform a multitude of tasks involved in maintaining industrial equipment and physical facilities. Students get exposure to, and limited practice, in electricity, hydraulics, welding, machining and other industrial procedures.

Josh Bennett said he likes the variety of skills one is exposed to in the program, and he really likes the machine shop section of study. Robert Hudson, program head and instructor for Industrial Systems, said Bennett has taken to, and become more proficient in machining than many students ever do.

Hudson said the student is so quiet in class, you don’t know if he’s getting it. But Hudson said Josh does well on tests and once he is in the shop, putting classroom instruction to work on welding or machining, he is top notch and should do well in the workplace.

In his spare time, Josh Bennett also attends Vance-Granville Community College, taking Firefighter I and II courses to help him in his duties with the Franklinton Volunteer Fire Department. He has been a firefighter volunteer one year and has also been a member of the Franklinton Rescue Squad more than three years, since he was 16.


Josh Bennett, second from right, receives the Vance-Granville Community College Vocational Student of the Semester Award from James H. Wheeler Jr., chairman of Vocational Education, after a lunch in Bennett’s honor Dec. 10. At left is Robert Hudson, program head and instructor for Industrial Systems Technology, which Bennett is studying, and Herbert Washington, Vocational counselor/recruiter, is at right.