North Gwinnett News

At a recent event, Justin Jiang from the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (GSMST) was named the 2025 Gwinnett County STAR Student. The honor is given to seniors who rank in the top 10 percent of their class with the highest SAT score. Each honoree selects a teacher who has made a significant impact on their academic journey; Jiang chose Sarah McCook as his STAR Teacher.

The reception, sponsored by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) and Partnership Gwinnett, recognized 76 students and teachers from 33 schools. These included public and private institutions such as Buford City Schools, Gwinnett County Public Schools, Greater Atlanta Christian School, Hebron Christian Academy, Killian Hill Christian School, Notre Dame Academy, Providence Christian Academy, Sugar Hill Christian Academy, and Wesleyan School. Local sponsors for the event were Partnership Gwinnett, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine-Georgia Campus, Georgia Power, Gwinnett County Public Schools Foundation, Primerica, Peach State Federal Credit Union, Piedmont Eastside Medical Center, and University of Georgia-Gwinnett Campus.

The winners will advance to compete for the regional title. Regional victors will then have an opportunity to contend at the state level for Georgia’s 2024 STAR Student and Teacher honors.

Below is a list of some 2025 STAR Students and Teachers representing all Gwinnett High Schools:

- Al Falah Academy: Noor-Afsheen Ali and Dr. Gloria Bruce

- Archer HS: Kelly Lenox and Kathy Cusack

- Berkmar HS: Safaa Mohammed and Erin Claridy

- Brookwood HS: Sean Pozsgay and Megan Kendall

Among others are representatives from Central Gwinnett HS (Connor Schenke), Collins Hill HS (Ayman Khan), Dacula HS (Mark Ndoumna), Discovery HS (Zavish Abbasi), Duluth HS (Tan Le), Grayson HS (Minh Tran), Grayson HS (Maliha Hussien), Grayson HS (Moyinoluwa Adedeji), Gwinnett County Online Campus (William Fincher), Hebron Christian Academy (Samantha Swaim), Killian Hill Christian School (Essam Ackleh), Lanier HS (Pranay Fofandi), McClure Health Science HS (Beryl Prabhakar), Meadowcreek HS (Fayyad Mahdi), Mill Creek HS (Amelia Dyar), Mountain View HS (Anthony Pinzon), Norcross HS (Dorie Liu).

Further participants include North Gwinnett HS representatives Dilan Shingadia and Joseph Farkas; Notre Dame Academy's Bianca Amadi; Paul Duke STEM HS's Xavier Powers; Peachtree Ridge High’s Mackenzie Lee; Providence Christian Academy's Neal Alston; Seckinger High's Daniel Ahn; Shiloh High’s Damon Daley; South Gwinnett High’s Hyunyoung Jho; Sugar Hill Christian Academy's Nolan Swift; Wesleyan School’s Caroline Yates.

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