This year’s Outstanding Young Educators (OYE) and Outstanding Teenagers have been chosen. RCS’ 2024 OYEs are middle school science teacher, Alex Porter and high school math teacher, Amanda Carter. RCS’ 2024 Outstanding Teenagers are Grace Bailey, Olivia Ess, Kaylen Newton, and Caroline Puryear. These selections were made by RCS staff, who voted last week.
Carter and Porter both said they were honored to be chosen. “It feels good to have your peers pick you [rather] than people that don’t know you,” Carter said. She explained that being chosen by the people she works with day in and day out adds magnitude to the honor. Porter added that being chosen by her peers is something special.
While they are honored, the idea of being a representative is a little scary to them both. They explained the community expects something different from RCS than other schools in the county, so they feel they have to keep the “perfection hat” on all the time, especially when out in the community.
They went on to praise their administrators for all their support. “It feels good to have an admin that supports you and recognizes your hard work and have peers that do the same,” Carter said. Porter said that it’s nice to know they truly care and are involved, frequently visiting her classroom to help give feedback. They both said it’s nice to get feedback from fellow staff and RCS’ Academic Coach, Melanie Winstead because with teaching you need to hear different perspectives to help you evolve.
The four Outstanding Teenagers, all seniors, have been at RCS together since they were in sixth grade. All of them agreed that it’s an honor to be chosen by their teachers and other staff members. Bailey described it as “humbling, but a confidence booster!” Puryear said “It’s such an honor to know that we have such incredible people that admire us, especially with our staff being, like I said, incredible people as amazing as [they] are.”
Newton added that it shows the importance of creating good relationships with the staff. “It sets a good precedent for younger students to show that it really proves well to make relationships with staff,” Newton said. “Whether it’s janitorial or teachers or admin staff, it’s really important because it can actually not only boost them, but boost you in the future.”
Ess said “It’s nice to be recognized because we have all worked really hard and I think that it’s nice that the teachers recognize that and see that and we were selected for a reason.”
Bailey also said “I also like that we all represent different aspects of RCS, based on our personalities.“Each person is super different.”
The girls are excited and proud to represent RCS in this way. Puryear said “So many people love RCS, so it’s awesome to represent something that is so widely loved.”
These ladies will represent the school at the Roxboro Jaycee Distinguished Service Awards on March 21, 2024.