Gwinnett County Honors STAR Students, Teachers

SUWANNEE, GA. ‑ Two of Gwinnett County’s top high school students have been recognized for their academic accomplishments. Seniors Sabarish Sainathan of Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology and Peachtree Ridge High School’s Eric Yan have been named to represent Gwinnett’s public and private schools by sharing this year’s title of Gwinnett 2017 Student-Teacher Achievement Recognition (STAR) Student honors.

The STAR student honor is awarded to the senior in the top 10 percent of his or her class with the highest SAT score. Sainathan and Yan were selected after notching the highest SAT scores among the countywide Class of 2017. As part of the recognition, each STAR student from every high school selected a teacher who had the strongest influence on his or her academic career.

Sainathan chose his AP Calculus BC teacher, Greg Field, as his STAR teacher, while Yan selected Gabriel Pak, who taught him AP Physics C: Mechanics. The Buford City STAR Student and Teacher honors went to Hee Joo Choi and her teacher Amy Lister.

All of the local STAR Student and Teacher honorees were recognized earlier this week at the annual STAR Student and Teacher Luncheon at the Northeast Atlanta Hilton in Norcross.

As the Gwinnett County and City of Buford STAR student/teacher winners, the teams of Sainathan/Field, Yan/Pak and Choi/Lister will advance to compete for the regional title. Regional winners will then move to the state level in the hopes of being named Georgia’s 2017 STAR Student and Teacher.

Here’s a list of all the STAR Students and Teachers from all Gwinnett County high schools:

School STAR Student STAR Teacher

• Archer H.S. Hannah Mahaffey John Jameson
• Berkmar H.S. Diane Lin Christopher Pae
• Brookwood H.S. Karl Patram David Dimsdale
• Buford H.S. Hee Joo Choi Amy Lister*
• Central Gwinnett Qasim Hassan Lindsay Bates
• Collins Hill H.S. Douglas Court Ryan Keefer
• Covenant Christian Aca. Caleb Godwin Brandon Buchanan
• Dacula H.S. Paul Dittamo Matthew Ludewig
• Discovery H.S. Brandon McCoy Jonathan Larese**
• Duluth H.S. Margaux Ratcliff James Reason
• Grayson H.S. William Taylor Jeremy Mulkey
• Greater Atlanta Christian Mason English Derek Wilson
• GSMST Sabarish Sainathan Greg Field
• Hebron Christian Aca. Katherine Reynolds Shomari Young
• Killian Hill Christian Ke jia Zhang John Allan
• Lanier H.S. Ashley Park Collin Jones
• Meadowcreek H.S. Aljon Pineda Pintu Thaker
• Mill Creek H.S. Bryan Endsley Aylen Parra
• Mountain View H.S. McKade Stewart Billy Jones
• Norcross H.S. Jennifer Wang Michelle Larate
• North Gwinnett H.S. Jonathan Park Jeremy Martin
• Parkview H.S. Mohammad Makhmudov Caroline Miklosovic
• Peachtree Ridge H.S. Eric Yan Gabriel Pak
• Providence Christian Aca. Joshua Randrup Randall Cailor
• Shiloh H.S. Mehul Mehra Vincent Tran
• South Gwinnett H.S. Isabelle Williams Meryl Weaver
• Wesleyan School Angela Yang Deborah Brown

* Currently teaching at The Newton College and Career Academy

** Currently teaching at Apalachee High School

»Photos courtesy of Gwinnett County