Honoring Chas County Teacher of the Year & Rotary Scholars

May 14, 2013: Today, the Rotary Club of Charleston was proud to honor outstanding Charleston County teachers and scholars.  Nancy McGinley, the superintendant of Charleston County Schools and a member of our Historic Rotary Club was our speaker and presented each of the award recipients.  Nancy noted that her goals for Charleston County students are for them to be both academically competitive and compassionate.

The first student honored was Rae-Nessha White from Burke High School.  She has been taking advanced placement classes and will already have six college credits when she attends Clemson in the fall where she will be studying Pre-Professional Health Studies.  Rae-Nessha gave much credit to her history teacher, Mr. Fields, for challenging her.  She was characterized by the terms radiant, adventurous and enthusiastic.

Mary Schweers from Ashley Hall introduced the next scholar, Chris Quinn.  Chis exemplifies the Rotary motto of service above self.  She spearheaded a Dragon Boat campaign that raised $2,700 for cancer research, served breakfast at the soup kitchen, and took mission trips to New Jersey, Kentucky and Maine.  Chris will be attending Bucknell in the fall, where she hopes to play volleyball.


 

Skylar McClain was the next scholar honored and was introduced by her coach, Will McCombs from First Baptist.  Skylar has attended First Baptist since the first grade.  She is a golfer and was characterized as having a relentless pursuit of excellence.  She has 38 hours of dual credit at Trident Tech and was a member of the National Honor Society.  Skylar has gained a true appreciation for our beautiful city and its history while working as a tour guide at the Edmonston-Alston House.  She was also closely involved with the Folly Beach Surfers Healing group for autistic children.  Skylar will be attending USC Honors College in the fall.

 
The last scholar, Colin Wallace, was introduced by her service coordinator at Porter Gaud, Gretchen Tate.  Colin amassed 120 service hours while at Porter Gaud by working with the Miracle League, Habitat for Humanity, Special Olympics and Pet Helpers among others.  She was characterized as dedicated, selfless and having a passion for service.  Colin enjoyed alternative spring breaks, traveling to Costa Rica and Nicaragua to help children in need.  She received a Richards Memorial Award for $3,000 for her help with schools in Tanzania.  Colin will be attending Washington and Lee in the fall.

 
There were a total of five teachers honored including Angie Grimes, Melissa Yarbrough, Paul Pallagi, Teacher of the Year Runner-Up Kirk Lindgren and Teacher of the Year Lisa Trott.  Angie Grimes is a reading interventionist at Morningside Middle School.  She has also the founded of the Real Men Read book club.   Melissa Yarbrough is a third grade teacher at St. Andrews School of Math and Science.  Melissa was a state finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching.  Paul Pallagi is a fourth grade teacher at Ladson Middle School.  Paul believes that teaching is a way of life and that teaching styles must adapt to different student learning styles.  Kirk Lindgren, Teacher of the Year Runner-Up, graduated from the University of Virginia and is a twelfth grade Physics teacher at Charleston County School of the Arts.  He believes in being well prepared, caring and positive.  Kirk has a strong sense of service above self and spearheaded the service projects at his school as well as being the wrestling coach.

 

The Charleston County Teacher of the Year is Lisa Trott, a fourth grade teacher at Ashley River Creative Arts Elementary.  She attended public schools here in Charleston at Mamie Whitesides, Laing, and Wando and is quite proud that her own children attend Charleston County public schools.  Lisa was a Journalism major at USC and CofC.  However, motherhood moved her in the direction of becoming an educator.  Instead of the three R’s, she believes in the three A’s.  Lisa believes that academics, arts and athletics make well rounded human beings.  She was also voted the Humane Teacher of the Year.   One gets the sense that her classes are enjoyed greatly by the students.  Lisa’s classes are nothing short of innovative and engaging as she will try just about anything to get the students involved in learning.  One can imagine learning about the protests of the 60’s and civil rights while singing along with Bob Dylan on YouTube.  Lisa said that one of their biggest challenges is staying a step ahead of students with so much technology at their fingertips.  More access to information seems to have led to an even greater demand for it. 
 
Reported by Doug Holmes, Keyway Committee