Local student wins 2017 regional STAR award

Houston County High School’s senior class president has been named the region’s best and brightest student of 2017. Nivedha Soundappan won the STAR Student award during a banquet at the Charles Jones building at Middle Georgia State University on Tuesday night.

The STAR Teacher she selected is Sheila Jones, who has taught business and computer science at Houston County High for four years.

Soundappan was among 20 students in the running for the Region 6 STAR award after winning at the county level. She took the Houston County honor Feb. 22 during a reception at the Board of Education’s central office in Perry.

Soundappan, the daughter of Dr. A. Soundappan and Kanjana Jayaraman, has a 4.0 GPA and scored a 1600 on the SAT. She hopes to get an aerospace engineering degree and then work with the research and design division in the Air Force.

Students are eligible for the Student Teacher Achievement Recognition award if they have the highest SAT scores of their graduating class and grade-point averages in the top 10 percent, or the top 10 students. Each nominated STAR Student chooses a teacher who has made a difference in his or her education.

Soundappan, Jones and the other regional winners will move on to the state banquet April 24. The STAR program, hosted by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators and Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce, has honored almost 26,000 students and teachers since it started 59 years ago.

This story was originally published March 21, 2017 at 8:31 PM with the headline "Local student wins 2017 regional STAR award."