For Bulloch Academy valedictorian Lee Hendrix, his teachers and his classmates are his family. It’s that family atmosphere that he credits with helping him blossom and grow beyond his wildest dreams.
    “In a small school life like ours,” said the 18-year-old son of Jeff Hendrix and Tammie Bolton, “there is such a one-on-one relationship with everyone, from your classmates to your teachers to the head of school to the janitors. You don’t just have a close-knit circle of friends and everyone else is a stranger. Here, everyone knows you and takes an interest in you. Being at Bulloch Academy has allowed me to achieve more than I think I would have if I would have gone to a larger school.”
     Hendrix has become one of only a handful of young men who have earned the school’s top academic honor.
    “Coming into high school, it wasn’t something that I was interested in achieving,” the class vice president said. “But going into my junior year, I became aware that I was in the running. It was then that I began to strive to become valedictorian. It was very competitive. Girls do tend to be smarter than boys. But this year, we had the valedictorian, the salutatorian and the STAR student.”
    His classmates, aware of his drive, named him Most Likely To Succeed.
    “They believe in me,” said Hendrix. “They know that I not only have the ability to strive for grades but for anything that I may want to achieve in the future.”
    Hendrix, who plans to attend the Georgia Tech in the fall and major in biomedical engineering, gives a lot of the credit for his success to his teachers.
    “I really appreciate the determination from all of the teachers to help their students succeed,” said Hendrix, the recipient of a Zell Miller full-tuition scholarship. “In a smaller environment, your teachers seem to care about you more. They want each of their students to strive for their best. You don’t slip through the cracks … especially when your grandmother (Dean Hendrix) works in the lunchroom.”
    Hendrix was a member of the school’s inaugural robotics team as well as a scholar-athlete who ran cross country and track.
    “An environment like Bulloch Academy gives you the chance to advance in many directions,” he said. “It equips you so you can handle almost anything.”