Jeff Stachura, an English teacher at Atlanta's Lovett School and a COE graduate, has been named Georgia STAR teacher for 2001.  Stachura, who received his M.Ed. in language education from UGA in 1995, was chosen for the honor by Lovett senior Victor "Skip" Perry, Georgia's STAR student of the year.

Perry was selected from 29 finalists at the annual banquet, sponsored by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators Foundation to honor student scholars with near-perfect SAT scores and an appetite for knowledge.  The creme de la creme of students spent May 2 at the Sheraton Buckhead Hotel in Atlanta before a handful of judges, who sized up candidates with questions about school improvements, education reform and their most-memorable book. 

Christopher Oh, a senior at Pinewood Christian Academy in Bellville in Evans County, was named runner-up. He chose biology teacher Tom Sollosi as his STAR teacher.  "(Everyone) has different talents and abilities," finalist Jennifer Spreng from Valdosta High School to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "My talents are based on tests. Everyone who got here this far is because of their SAT scores."   Their academic excellence paints a contrasting picture of Georgia, which ranked last among 50 states and the District of Columbia in the number of ninth-graders who graduate from high school, according to one study.   Fifteen finalists received a perfect 1,600 on their SATs. Perry will get two $3,000 scholarships, one each from BellSouth and Bank of America.