Bastrop Education Foundation honors 30 “Rising Stars” and their mentors

Thirty outstanding Bastrop High School students—and the educators those students named as having made a significant difference in their lives—were celebrated on May 21  at the third annual Bastrop Education Foundation “Rising Stars” Banquet.

Held at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa, the event drew more than 250 parents, Foundation board members, Bastrop ISD officials, and Foundation sponsors.  The Rising Star program, according to Wells, supports and recognizes excellence in student achievement and in the essential role that educators play.   “We are so proud of these students—both honorees and nominees—and of the recognized teachers and counselors.  Together they exemplify Bastrop’s best!”

Honored as “Rising Stars” for 2009 were 30 students selected from a field of 80 students nominated by Bastrop High School teachers as exemplary, in terms of academics as well as participation in extracurricular activities and community service.  

Each selected student was asked to identify the educator whom the student credits as having made a significant difference in the student’s academic success, served as a positive role model or mentor, or helped shape the student’s hopes for the future.  The students’ selections were also honored at the event.

“The event was certainly about these outstanding students and teachers,” stated  Vice President for Programs Sharah Johnson, “but it also celebrates the connection students and their teachers make.  Everyone, I suspect, has a teacher whose guiding hand did much to make us who we are today. This teacher-student connection has a profound impact on student achievement and lies at the heart of teaching excellence.”

The 2009 “Rising Stars” and the educators they saluted are: