Seven Cherokee County Students Earn Statewide Honors in Technology Competition

CCSD students competed against peers statewide in categories including animation, multimedia applications, and 3D modeling

Seven Cherokee County School District students have earned statewide recognition at the Georgia Student Technology Competition, holding their own against peers from districts across Georgia in fields that look a lot like the jobs of tomorrow.

The Georgia Student Technology Competition — known as GASTC — is an annual contest open to students in grades 3 through 12 statewide. Unlike traditional academic competitions, GASTC asks students to build original projects in categories that mirror real technology industry disciplines: animation, multimedia applications, 3D modeling, and related fields. The work these students submit isn't busywork — it's the kind of hands-on digital craft that underpins careers in engineering, software development, game design, and media production.

For a county that has watched technology-sector employers steadily move into the Cherokee County corridor over the past decade, that pipeline starts earlier than most people might expect. Cherokee County School District serves more than 42,000 students across dozens of campuses in the Canton and Woodstock areas, making it one of the largest school districts in Georgia. Reaching statewide recognition in a competitive, project-based contest means these seven students didn't just learn the tools — they learned to use them well enough to stand out.

The district announced the honorees with their school portraits featured in the official recognition, though student names and specific school affiliations were not included in the announcement. What the image does show, plainly, is the range of ages represented — from an elementary-aged student to what appear to be middle schoolers — a reminder that GASTC's reach across grades 3 through 12 means Cherokee County's technology talent isn't confined to any single building or grade level.

That breadth matters. Cherokee County families invest heavily in their schools, and results like these are a concrete return on that investment — evidence that technology education here isn't just a line in a curriculum guide, but something students are actually putting to work on a statewide stage.