Riverwood Unveils 2017 STAR Student, Teacher

SANDY SPRINGS, GA -- Riverwood International Charter School has released the name of its STAR Student and Teacher for 2017.

Senior Jeremy Colton has been given the honor for the school year, an award based on SAT score and class ranking.

To obtain the STAR Student designation, a student must have the highest SAT score taken during one sitting throughout his or her's senior year. The student must also be in the top 10 percent or top 10 students of the class based on grade point average.

The STAR Teacher is chosen by the student as the educator who has had the most influence on his or her's academic career. Colton chose science faculty member Rama Balachandran -- affectionately known at Riverwood as Ms. Bala -- to serve as his STAR Teacher.

After he graduates from Riverwood, Colton plans to major in mechanical engineering. He has been accepted into the Georgia Institute of Technology and has MIT, Vanderbilt, the University of Pennsylvania, and Carnegie Mellon in his top college choices.

Colton said he picked Balachandran as his STAR Teacher because he enjoys how she "brings physics to life in the classroom."

"Instead of just lecturing, she uses physical examples that create an interactive learning environment that engages me in the subject," he added.

Colton, the son of Jonathan and Rachael Colton, has an impressive list of honors and achievements. In addition to achieving the highest SAT score, Colton holds the remarkable distinction of also earning a perfect score of 36 on the ACT.

He is a National Merit Scholar semifinalist, a Presidential Scholars Program candidate, is an AP Scholar with Honor and received the Georgia Certificate of Merit. A member of the Principal’s Honor Roll for four years, he also received academic achievement awards in AP calculus, AP physics and pre-calculus. Colton won the Renssalaer Polytechic Institute Medal for Excellence in math and science.

Colton is an avid Frisbee player and founded Riverwood’s Ultimate Frisbee club, serves as vice president of the Mu Alpha Theta Math Honor Society, is a member of the Beta Club, the National Honor Society, and the Science Honor Society. He performed research at the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Mechanical Engineering and medaled at the Science Olympiad Atlanta Regional Finals in 2016.

Colton volunteers as a teaching assistant at Ahavath Achim Synagogue religious school, and as counselor at Marcus Jewish Community Center. He enjoys tutoring other students in math and science courses.

Balachandran, a member of the Riverwood Science Department for 13 years, teaches all levels of physics, including AP and IB physics. She also serves as the chair of the Talented and Gifted program. This year marks the second consecutive school year Balachandran has been selected as the STAR teacher.

“It is a great honor and privilege to be recognized by the STAR student," she said. "Recognition by students is a great motivation for teachers to continue to strive to deliver their best in the classroom.”

Balachandran has been Colton’s teacher for two years and said while his abilities are evidence from his academic performance, "I am also fortunate to have observed his maturity of thought and reasoning, his ability to not get carried away by successes, and above all his trustworthiness and dependability as a lab aide and a peer tutor.”

Both will be honored at a breakfast by the Midtown Rotary Club this spring at the annual PAGE Foundation STAR Banquet.

Images via Riverwood International Charter School