The STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Recognition) Student Winner from Chatham County, Emiline Baxter of Savannah Country Day School, will now compete at the state level on April 29 in Duluth, GA. STAR honors Georgia’s highest-achieving high school seniors and the teachers most instrumental in their academic development. 

Several weeks ago, Baxter and her STAR Teacher, AJ Goldman, were among the STAR Students and Teachers from 17 counties recognized for outstanding scholastic achievement at the Region 8 competition. Baxter and another student, Eli Compton of Statesboro High School, tied to receive the regional STAR Student honor. The State PAGE STAR Student will be selected from the STAR Region Winners by a panel of judges.

In February, Baxter earned the 2024 STAR Student honor for Chatham County when the Kiwanis Club of Savannah honored Baxter, her STAR Teacher, AJ Goldman; and STAR Students and Teachers from 19 other private and public schools in Chatham County during a lunch and ceremony. For more than four decades, The Kiwanis Club of Savannah has served as the local sponsor of the STAR program. In recent years, Kinder Morgan has been the underwriting Corporate Sponsor. Allen Fore, Kinder Morgan Vice President, delivered the Keynote Address at the local 2024 event.

The Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) oversees the STAR Student/Teacher program which was created by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce in 1958. PAGE has overseen this program since the mid-1990s.

Each year, the STAR program recognizes the state’s highest achieving high school seniors and the teachers who have been most instrumental in those students' academic development. High school seniors must have the highest score on any single test date of the SAT taken through the November test date of their senior year and be in the top 10 percent or top 10 students of their class based on grade point average in order to obtain the STAR nomination. Each high school STAR Student is asked to name his/her STAR Teacher.

For more information about the Kiwanis Club of Savannah, please visit their website at www.savannahkiwanis.org.