Chamber recognizes education successes

Thursday was a night to recognize success in education in St. Mary Parish. The St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual “Top of the Class” Education Banquet in Patterson.
The annual banquet is a time that the Chamber of Commerce honors Teachers and Student of the Year as well as recognizes recipients of the St. Mary Parish Chamber Scholarship Award and Art & Humanities Council Scholarship winners.
St. Mary Parish 2017 Teachers of the Year are Jenny Williams of Bayou Vista Elementary and Dru Hebert of Berwick Junior High School. The 2017 Student of the Year is Jennifer Tran of Morgan City High School.
The St. Mary Parish Chamber Scholarship Award is given to a senior at each high school in the parish. This year, each senior will be given a $1,000 award.
The 2017 winners are Grace Rentrop of Ber-wick High School, DaJia Phillips of Central Catholic High School, Slade Saintes of Centerville High School, A’Lyrah Jones of Franklin High School, Meghan Baham of Hanson High School, Caylee Deshotel of Morgan City High School, Monica Barajas of Patterson High School, and Kennedy Abney of West St. Mary High School.
The Arts & Humanities Council Scholarship winners were Olivia Orlando and Maddi McGonagill of Berwick High and Chris Ibert of Hanson High.
Dr. Willie Smith, interim director, and Anthony Baham, campus dean, of South Central Louisiana Technical College accepted a $1,000 donation from the Chamber in recognition for the local community college efforts to keep up with the educational demand with the demands of the evolving workforce.
The banquet is also a fundraiser for the Chamber’s scholarship program. During the banquet, the Chamber hosted both a silent and live auction in which all proceeds went to the scholarship program. During the live auction alone, the Chamber raised over $2,500 with items for bids such as gift packages to hotels, various gift certificates to local restaurants and a 50-inch Vizio television.