Angela Yang, a 10th-grader at Wesleyan School, will play Carnegie Hall on Thanksgiving weekend in the 2014 American Protégé Piano and Strings Competition Winners Recital. Yang is a third-place winner and will play Chopin's "Fantaisie Impromptu."
***
Gwinnett Tech's adult education division was one of seven technical colleges in Georgia honored by the state technical college system for "overall achievement of educational gain benchmarks." Stephanie Rooks is the dean of adult education at Gwinnett Tech.
***
Woodward Academy Middle School was selected as the winner among all middle and upper schools at the My Atlanta exhibition of Atlanta Celebrates Photography. It's the second year in a row the school won the honor. Three Woodward eighth-graders were winners in the middle school category, Kaitlyn Bates, MaryCarol Huntz and Teagan Fritts.
***
Nine students from Fayette high schools were selected to participate in an honor jazz clinic in December at Valdosta State University and are in the running for the 2015 All State Jazz Band. The students are Andrew Dallas, alto saxophone, Whitewater High; Steven Lukehart, trumpet and piano, McIntosh High; Quincy Chapman, tenor saxophone, Sandy Creek High; Michael Campbell, bass, McIntosh High; Sangwoo Shim, tenor saxophone, McIntosh High; Parker Olson, drum set, McIntosh High; Joey Ciancia, trumpet, McIntosh High; Matthew Spindler, trombone, Sandy Creek High; and Timothy Boddie, drum set, Sandy Creek High.
***
The Milton High School band program was awarded the 2014 Exemplary Performance Award by the Georgia Music Educators Association, one of the highest honors a Georgia high school band can receive. Band president is Stephanie Perez and vice president is Alissa DeSousa.
***
Eljesa Haxhiu, a culinary arts student at Gwinnett Tech, won $2,500 and a first-place award in a national recipe contest for Maple Leaf Farms, an Indiana-based producer of duck products. Her "citrus-seared duck breast with herb goat cheese" also earned the school $1,000 in duck products for the culinary arts program.
***
B.E.S.T Academy teacher Barry Blackmon II was named the 2014-15 Atlanta Public Schools teacher of the year. Blackmon is a sixth-grade English and social studies teacher at the B.E.S.T. Academy at Benjamin S. Carson Middle School. The other APS teacher of the year finalists are Elementary School Teacher of the Year Kesha Payne and High School Teacher of the Year Jayongela Wilder.
***
Creekland Middle teacher Lindsay Bowley was appointed to the state school superintendent's teacher advisory council. Bowley teachers eighth-grade language arts teacher and is Cherokee's 2013-14 teacher of the year and a Georgia Innovation in Teaching Competition winner. Thecouncil meets twice a year and is made up of teachers from across the state.
About the Author
