Lee County names STAR student, teacher for 2017

LEESBURG — Lee County High School senior Chihye Kim was named Lee County’s STAR Student for 2017 Tuesday during a Lee County Chamber of Commerce Eggs and Issues Breakfast at The Bindery at Oakland Library. Kim chose Deborah Howell as the system’s STAR Teacher of the Year, while Courtney Greenway was named as the system’s Teacher of the Year.

Chihye, who plans to attend Brown University, is the daughter of Ha-Rim and Byung-Hoo Kim, while Howell is a language arts instructor at the school. Greenway is a marketing instructor in the system’s CTAE department.

“It is an honor to be STAR Teacher of the Year at Lee County High School,” Howell said. “In all my years in teaching, I have never taught anyone like Chihye before. They say teachers often learn more from their students than we teach. This is certainly the case with Chihye. I’m very proud of her.”

The Lee STAR student said she chose Howell as her STAR Teacher because Howell helped hone her writing skills.

“She (Howell) introduced me and my classmates in the 10th grade to writing,” Kim said. “That’s when we all jumped into it.”

The PAGE STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Recognition) Program honors Georgia’s highest-achieving high school seniors and the teachers most instrumental in their academic development. Since the inception of the program, more than 24,000 STAR students and teachers have been honored.

The STAR program was launched in 1958 by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. In 1994, the PAGE Foundation was invited to coordinate the program in association with the chamber and the Georgia Department of Education. The 86,000-plus members of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators recognize Georgia’s future leaders and the professional educators who have nurtured these scholars through the program.

To obtain the STAR nomination, high school seniors must have the highest score on any single test date of the three-part SAT taken through the November test date of their senior year and be in the top 10 percent or top 10 students of their class, based on grade-point average.

Nominees’ SAT scores must be equal to or higher than the latest available national average on the critical reading, math and writing sections. Each high school STAR Student is asked to name his/her STAR Teacher.

High school STAR Students compete for system titles, and system STAR Students in turn compete for regionwide honors in the 12 STAR regions. Region winners and their STAR Teachers are invited to Atlanta to compete for state STAR scholarships and awards.

Locally, STAR Students and STAR Teachers are honored by their schools and receive special recognition in their communities from the more than 165 civic organizations and businesses that serve as local STAR sponsors.

Lee County School Board member Louis Hatcher, an attorney, was the event’s keynote speaker. He touted the district as one of the best school systems in the state.

“The public school system exists for one reason and one reason only, and that is to give the very best education possible to the children of that community,” Hatcher said. “We do that here in Lee County. When implementing new programs, the first question that should be asked is ‘Is this in the best interest of our children?’ If the answer is yes, then you don’t have to ask if it’s in the best interest of the school board or the teachers.

“If you answer that first question ‘yes,’ then you do it. Lee County, Georgia, is a special place with great potential, and there is no better place to live. The only way to reach that potential is to nurture our greatest asset, which is our children.”