• The Culinary Cats at Fayette County's Whitewater High School, culinary arts students supervised by family and consumer science teacher Allison Buntyn, catered the Outstanding Archives Awards ceremony for the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council last month at the Georgia Archives in Morrow. One of the award recipients was Georgia's first lady Sandra Deal. Gov. Nathan Deal and his wife complimented the students on the food and how beautifully it was presented.
• Gwinnett County Public Schools' chief financial officer, Rick Cost, received the highest honor from the Georgia Association of School Business Officials, which recognized him as its 2015 Outstanding School Business Official. GCPS Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks said that Cost, who has been CFO since 2006, "frequently assumes the role of teacher, willingly sharing his knowledge and experience in school finance for the benefit of all."
• An elementary teacher who uses technology to engage students is the 2016 Gwinnett County Teacher of the Year. Trisha Connor of Harbins Elementary School, who was the Elementary School Teacher of the Year, was selected as Gwinnett's top teacher from six finalists that included two teachers from each level. Jennifer W. Sevier of Dacula Middle School is the 2015-16 Middle School Teacher of the Year and Alix McHardy of Norcross High School is the 2016 High School Teacher of the Year.
• Woodward Academy seventh-grader Sam Brummett was recently named first-place winner in the Simple Pleasures photography competition for his self-portrait, "Glimmer." The competition is open to professional and amateur photographers across the globe. Sam was the only winner under age 18. His photo will be on display until Nov. 30 at McRitchie-Hollis Museum in Newnan.
• Alpharetta High School won third place and an honorable mention for representing the Islamic Republic of Iran throughout the recent Georgia State Model United Nations conference. Iran was represented by Rahul Ramesh, Achintya Arora, Nikhil Havanur, Krishna Pari, Sawsan Selim, and Eisha Baig. Selim and Z'vonty Flugence, representing the Republic of Trindad and Tobago, had the Best Position Paper, and various specific outstanding efforts were awarded to Trindad and Tobago, represented by Harsh Patel, Rohan Nuthakki, Kristin Graves, Mariana Matias, Muskan Raghuwanshi, Sitara Mysore, and Flugence.
• South Forsyth High School students dominated the forty-third annual Clemson University Poetry Declamation Contest, a regional competition on Oct. 24 of over 200 high school world language students. Participants memorize two poems in their chosen language and present them before a panel of world language professors. South Forsyth students competed in Chinese, Latin, German, French and Spanish led by their coach, Caryn Craft. Winners in the Spanish 4 category were Sandhya Iyer, first place; Ashlyn Yule, second place, and Mary Zhoa, third place. Winning third place in the Spanish 2 and 3 categories were Conan Lynch and Maria Mathew. First-place winners in German were Ayonica Bhattachanya in German 1 and Jade Christman in German 2. Christine Yang won third place in German 3, and Samantha Seely won third place for German 4. Sabrina Chua won second place in Chinese 4 and Daisy Little won second place in French 2.
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