Rebecca Suh, 17, a senior at St. Andrew’s School in Savannah, excels in all academic subjects, founded her school’s mock-trial team, has been a top-ranked runner in cross-country competition, and made a score of 2360 at a single sitting on the SAT college entrance exam, where 2400 is perfect.

As Georgia Region 8 STAR student, Suh and her chosen STAR teacher, St. Andrew’s School history and economics instructor David Kelly, will now represent the region at the Student Teacher Achievement Recognition awards program in Atlanta. The Exchange Club of Statesboro, working with the Statesboro-Bulloch Chamber of Commerce and other sponsors, hosted the 2016 regional STAR luncheon Wednesday at Georgia Southern University’s College of Engineering and Information Technology.

District-level STAR student and teacher pairs from 16 county and city school districts in the region first had an opportunity to introduce themselves and compliment each other.

“Rebecca is a wonderful student who is the pride of our school,” Kelly said of the STAR student who chose him to share the honors as first St. Andrew’s, and then as it turned out, Chatham County’s and now the region STAR teacher. “She is a poised young lady who is as accomplished on the athletic field and in the orchestra pit as she is in the classroom.” 

Because of a death in his family, Kelly was not able to attend the luncheon. So St. Andrew’s School counselor Wendy Sutton read the words Kelly had written in praise of Suh.

“She views her assignments not as hurdles to clear on her path to success, but rather as opportunities to deepen and broaden her knowledge of the world,” Kelly wrote.

For example, for her International Baccalaureate history class, Suh wrote a paper assessing the accuracy of a film about British codebreaking efforts in World War II. For a math class she then did a presentation on the mathematical basis of both the Enigma code machine used by Germany and of the British codebreaking efforts. She analyzed a related topic for another International Baccalaureate class, called Theory of Knowledge.

International Baccalaureate is a trademarked program that leads to a special diploma at schools that offer the required, rigorous courses. To graduate with an IB diploma, Suh needed to take seven of the courses and complete a 4,000-word research paper, Sutton said. For that paper, Suh analyzed the New York Times’ coverage of the war in Iraq and how it influenced the decline of public support for the war.

As a sophomore, Suh started the mock-trial team, which is still growing. She usually ran cross-country in the fall, played on her school’s basketball team in the winter and did track and field in the spring. Her state top-five cross-country rankings were in the South Carolina Independent School Athletic Association, where St. Andrew’s competes.

She has played violin consistently since third grade, piano less consistently, from first grade, she said. She played violin with the Armstrong Youth Orchestra for more than a year, plays in her school’s orchestra, and played in the orchestra pit for school musicals.

Suh volunteers with the Ronald McDonald House in Savannah.

“I don’t know yet where I plan to attend college because I’m still waiting on the admissions and everything on April 1,” Suh said in her modest public remarks. “But I do think that I want to study political science because I’m interested in fields including law, history, politics, economics. A lot of that interest is due to my STAR teacher, Mr. Kelly.”

Kelly “is so dedicated to furthering every student’s knowledge” and so passionate about the subjects he teaches that he brightens her days, she said.

Political science could be a prelude to law school, but Hsu remains somewhat undecided about political science, she said. She is waiting on those April admissions letters from most of the 12 schools where she applied, from Ivy League schools in the Northeast to UCLA, UC Berkley and Stanford in California. But she has already been accepted to honors programs at the University of Georgia and the University of Michigan.

Her parents are Daniel Suh, MD, a neurosurgeon, and Helene Suh, PhD, a psychologist.

Other STAR winners

Bulloch County was represented at the region banquet by its STAR student, Statesboro High School senior Nick Harvey, and STAR teacher Richard McCombs, a Statesboro High science teacher.

Among the other school-district STAR students recognized were Candler County’s Andrew Earl Hendrix, a Metter High School senior, with STAR teacher Dr. Mary Ann Stanley; Evans County’s Lauren Dreggors, a Pinewood Christian Academy senior, with STAR teacher Angie Miller; and Screven County’s Erica Renee’ Sheley, a Screven County High School senior, with STAR teacher Tommie Evans.

To receive a STAR nomination, soon-to-graduate high school seniors must be in the top 10 percent or top 10 students of their class and  have the highest score from a single test date on the three-part SAT college admissions test.

Now in its 58th year, the STAR program is sponsored statewide by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, or PAGE, Foundation, but was founded by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

Since its inception, the program has honored nearly 25,500 students and the teachers they have selected.

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.