Education news of interest in Central Kentucky
▪ Three Central Kentucky Youth Salute students — Henry Clay High School senior Hye Jee Kim, Alpha Omega Home School senior John “J.D.” Noe II, and Zebulon James Hart, a Montgomery County High School senior — have been named “Top Twelve Leaders Nationally” at an awards ceremonies recently in St. Louis.
Noe and Hart were also awarded the “Insightful Leader Award,” as voted by their team members. Three more students from Central Kentucky attended the conference: Kennedy Sabharwal, Sayre School; Maison Nichols, Madison Central High School; and Cameron Hedden, Shelby County High School.
The all-expense paid trips to attend the National Council on Youth Leadership conference at Washington University in St. Louis were sponsored by Holifield Photography. The students were joined by other Youth Salute leaders from across the nation at the four-day event, held Oct. 15-18.
Kim, daughter of Eun Jung Bae and Yung Soo Kim, was named Lexington’s 2016 Youth Leader of the Year and Top School Winner from Henry Clay High School. Noe, son of John and Melissa Noe, was named 2016 Central Kentucky Youth Leader of the Year and Top School Winner from Alpha Omega Home School. Hart, son of Steven and Tamara Hart, was named Top School Winner from Montgomery County High School.
▪ Corbin High School’s “Still Waters Run Deep” won best play at the Kentucky Theatre Association’s annual High School Theatre Festival, and Bryan Station High School won first runner-up for its play, “Cagebirds.”
The two-day festival was Nov. 11 and 12 at the University of Kentucky Fine Arts Building. The two productions will represent Kentucky at the Southeastern Theatre Conference’s high school play festival in March. The conference will be in Lexington March 1-5.
“Dear Kitty: The Intimate World of Anne Frank,” by the School for Creative and Performing Arts at Lafayette High School, was second runner up, and will go to the conference if Corbin or Bryan Station cannot make it.
The panel of judges selected an actor from each production for its all-star cast. They were Alexandra Simpson (SCAPA at Lafayette), Conrad Strepp (Clay County High School), Allison McKiernan (Atherton High School), Kaelyn Peyton (Bryan Station), Yulie Busser (Bracken County High School), Zac Hart (Corbin) and Lexi Johnson (Apollo High School). The judges also gave two discretionary awards to Apollo’s Gabe Bartley for best student direction, and Bryan Station’s Chris Copley and Ellie Stevens for musical composition.
▪ Kim Sword, the STEM lab teacher at William Wells Brown Elementary, has been selected as the 2016 Elementary School Science Teacher of the Year. Sword received a plaque, a $100 grant, and a one-year Kentucky Science Teachers Association membership, with complimentary conference registration.
A native of Pikeville, Sword earned a bachelor of arts in education from Midway College, and her master’s degree from Georgetown College. She has taught in Fayette County Public Schools for nine years, including eight at William Wells Brown.
▪ During the state high school field hockey tournament on Oct. 27, Midway University and the Kentucky High School Athletic Association presented the Female Student-Athlete of the Year Award to Elizabeth Allgeier, a senior at Louisville’s Assumption High School. The award caps a career in which Allgeier won local, state and national honors for her talents on the field. Allgeier was nominated as an All-American for the 2016 season.
▪ Campbellsville University’s Distinguished Alumna, Lindy Forbes (Class of 1987), who served as an educator in the Barron, Green and Hart county school systems, was recognized during Campbellsville University’s homecoming reception Oct. 14.
This story was originally published November 21, 2016 at 9:35 AM with the headline "Education news of interest in Central Kentucky."