The Trenton-Dade Optimist Club is pleased to announce not one but two 2018 STAR Student & STAR Teacher Awards for Dade County High School. This year there was a tie!
The 2018 STAR Students for DCHS are Cassie Rae Higdon and Jesse Chen, pictured above, and they have selected as their STAR Teachers Tonya Gatlin and James McMahan.
Ms. Higdon and Mr. Chen, both seniors at Dade County High School, were accompanied at the Optimist Club awards ceremony by their STAR teachers and by DCHS principal James Fahrney Jr. and guidance counselors Mitzi Davenport and James Emmett. Dr. Jan Harris, superintendent of schools, was also on hand to congratulate Cassie Rae, Jesse and their parents for striving to be the best and for representing their school with Wolverine pride.
(STAR) stands for Student Teacher Achievement Recognition. The program, now in its 60th year, is cosponsored by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) Foundation and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
Pictured left to right are Peter Cervelli, Optimist Club president; James Fahrney, DCHS principal; Tonya Gatlin, STAR Teacher; STAR students Jesse Chen and Cassie Rae Higdon; Dr. Jan Harris, schools superintendent; and Don Townsend, STAR program chairman. Not shown in the picture is STAR teacher James McMahan.
Since its inception, the STAR program has honored nearly 26,500 students and the teachers they have selected as having had the most influence on their academic success.
To obtain the STAR nomination, high school seniors must have the highest score on a single test date on the three-part SAT and be in the top 10 percent or top 10 students of their class based on grade point average.
STAR begins each year in participating high schools throughout Georgia when the STAR Student is named and chooses a STAR Teacher to share in this recognition. The students and their teachers are honored by their schools and receive special recognition in their communities from one of the more than 165 statewide civic organizations and businesses that serve as local sponsors of the STAR program.
Students then compete for school system titles, and those winners compete for region honors. Region winners compete for the honor of being named State PAGE STAR Student.
As a 501(c)(3) organization, the PAGE Foundation supports PAGE, encouraging and receiving charitable gifts that advance the association’s core business and PAGE Foundation programs such as PAGE STAR, PAGE Foundation Scholarships, the PAGE Academic Bowl for Middle Grades, the PAGE Georgia Academic Decathlon and PAGE TV.
To learn more about the PAGE Foundation and to donate, please visit www.pagefoundation.org.
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