Three Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District educators were honored with the SOAR (Starkville-Oktibbeha Achieving Results) Community Foundation Teacher of Distinction award.
Starkville High School History and BEST Robotics Teacher Ty Adair, Millsaps Career and Technology Center Introduction to Engineering Design Teacher April Dill and Henderson Ward Stewart Interventionist Henri Sue Kennard received the award at the Greater Starkville Development Partnership Banquet on Feb. 2.
The award honors the service and education of the recipients in the classroom and beyond. Each winner received $1,000 and a crystal world globe.
Adair’s AP history students have earned a 93 percent pass rate on the national AP exam from 2002 to 2016, and his BEST Robotics team won the BEST Robotics 2015 Regional Competition. He has received several other honors for his work, including being named to the Starkville School District Hall of Fame.
Dill has also served as a BEST Robotics coach with Adair, and holds National Board Certification. She holds several honors including a Mississippi Arts Commission Governor’s Award and the Larry Box Teaching Excellence Award. She has served as a volunteer in the community, including with Christian Women’s Job Corps.
Kennard is involved in several service areas outside of her teaching, and has received the Outstanding Young Woman in America Award.
“She did not see me as a student with a learning disability, but a young lady who had the potential to be very successful in school and also in life,” read a quote from a former student of Kennard.
The SOAR Community foundation is the Starkville arm of the CREATE Foundation, a Tupelo-based philanthropic foundation encompassing 17 north Mississippi Counties.