2008 Star Student and Teacher

 

                                              

Pictured Above - STAR Teacher Marie Bartels (left) and STAR Student Caterina Tran (right)

 

                Senior Caterina Tran has been named Our Lady Academy’s 2008 STAR student in the Student-Teacher Achievement Recognition Program.  She has designated Marie Bartels, OLA Spanish teacher, as her STAR teacher, the person who has made the greatest contribution to her scholastic achievement.   

            Daughter of Khai and Lien Hoang Tran, Caterina earned this recognition of STAR Student by having the highest ACT score of this year’s senior class recorded by December.

            Caterina, an Alpha Honor Roll student enrolled in Honors and Advanced Placement Curricula, is a four-year member and current treasurer of the OLA Monsignor Martin Maloney National Honor Society and a member of the National Spanish Honor Society.

            Caterina is a two-year member of the OLA Math and Science Team and the OLA Retreat Team, a member of the OLA yearbook staff and the Senior Charity Committee, and a four-year member of the OLA Varsity Track Team.

            Caterina was also the Sophomore Class Treasurer and a member of the OLA Mock Trial Team in her junior year.  In her freshman year, she was a member of the Junior Youth Legislature and the Pass Christian Youth Leadership Organization.

            A member of Holy Family Catholic Parish (the former St. Paul ’s Catholic Parish) in Pass Christian, Caterina is a church choir member and plays the piano at the Vietnamese services.  She attended the National Catholic Youth Conference in 2007.  She participated in the St. Paul ’s Seafood Festival and Christmas in the Pass.

            Caterina plans to pursue either chemistry or engineering.  Her college choice is unknown at the present.

            STAR Teacher Marie Bartels, a teacher for thirty-three years, has taught Spanish I-IV at Our Lady Academy since 1996.  She is also the Junior Class sponsor and the yearbook advisor.

            Named STAR Teacher twice before in 1996 and 2005, Mrs. Bartels has also been recognized in Who’s Who Among American High School Teachers three times and named a Most Influential Teacher four times.  She earned a BA Degree at Regis College , Weston , MA , and a M.Ed. Degree at Lesley College , Cambridge , MA .

            The Mississippi Economic Council and its M. B. Swayze Educational Foundation sponsor the Student-Teacher Achievement Recognition (STAR) Program in an effort to encourage scholastic achievement among the state’s high school students.  The STAR Program, now in its 42nd year, has two specific purposes:  Emphasis upon scholastic excellence and the encouragement of greater scholastic effort among Mississippi students and the recognition of the teaching profession.