NHA Students Honored as Nominees for Louisiana Student of the Year Program

BATON ROUGE, La., Jan. 19, 2021 — Two Baton Rouge students, Epiphany London and Kellan Duhon, from Inspire Charter Academy, have been named in a cohort of students from the East Baton Rouge Parish as nominees for the Louisiana Student of the Year (SOTY), which recognizes outstanding students who have demonstrated excellence in leadership, citizenship, and academic and career and technical achievement.
 
“Epiphany and Kellan are true leaders within our school, and this accomplishment is a tribute to their hard work and dedication to education,” said Kimberly Boudreaux, principal at Inspire. “I am tremendously proud to have two Inspire students recognized as finalists for the Louisiana Student of the Year.”
   For consideration in the SOTY, students must submit an application and a writing sample comprised of an autobiographical sketch, provide academic records, offer proof of leadership and citizenship engagement, and participate in an interview with regional or state panelists. All submissions are reviewed by a highly esteemed panel of judges. 
 
“This is a fine example of the great students that we have at Inspire,” said Ronnie Harrison, director of school quality for Inspire. “They are exceptional students and great role models for the other students who attend Inspire. I am extremely excited about their accomplishments and wish that they continue to achieve even more success.”
   
Epiphany and Kellan will now move on to compete against other finalists across the state for the title of Louisiana Student of the Year. Both students have been enrolled at Inspire since kindergarten.

“I am excited to be nominated for the Student of the Year program because it shows that the hard work my teachers and I are doing is paying off,” said Kellan Duhon, fifth-grade student at Inspire. “It also motivates me to continue working hard.”

In her essay, Epiphany London, eighth-grader at Inspire, spoke about her future career aspirations, focusing on her ambition to enter a creative field. “The most important thing to me when I get a job is how creative it’ll allow me to be,” she wrote. “Whether it would be with words or a pen, I would like to get creative with any future endeavors I’m a part of.”

The annual program is sponsored by the Louisiana Department of Education and the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The program is open to all Louisiana schools. In the weeks ahead, one student from each of the three grade levels from the local zone will move on for the Regional Student of the Year competition in February.
 
Inspire also is celebrating a recent three-year charter contract renewal term, which was voted on during the school’s December Board meeting. This comes following years of hard-work building success, including, in 2018-19, Inspire was the highest performing K-8 school in its zip code. Additionally, in the same year, Inspire had a greater percentage of students meeting top growth in English language arts (ELA) and math than the state and its local district, East Baton Rouge.