Honored student honors teacher

Archbold High School senior Daniel Higginbotham won the Franklin B. Walter award, and his teacher Brian Becher believes that he will be a very successful college student.

ARCHBOLD Daniel Higginbotham, who is serious about his studies, says calculus is fun.

The Archbold High School senior says that his teacher, Brian Becher, has a great sense of humor. He is one of the best teachers I have ever had. He does a great job getting the point across so you can understand the concepts.

At a recent awards ceremony, young Higginbotham was honored for his outstanding academic achievements and in turn, he honored Mr. Becher as a teacher who is making a difference in the classroom.

Mr. Higginbotham was the top student from Fulton County to receive honors from the Franklin B. Walter scholarship program; he was awarded a $500 scholarship.

One outstanding student from each public school district in Fulton, Defiance, Henry, and Williams counties was honored during a recent awards program at Northwest State Community College near Archbold.

As part of the scholarship program, students pay tribute to teachers who influenced their successes, and the teachers are recognized and honored for their contributions.

Fulton County winners of $150 awards and the teachers they selected to be honored were:

• Evergreen, Rachel Saylor, honoring teacher Connie Barden;

• Gorham Fayette, Tyler Rupp, honoring teacher Kenneth Cronin;

• Pettisville, Sylvania Hernandez, honoring teacher Rich Reid;

• Pike-Delta-York, Jill Snyder, honoring teacher Michele Engel;

• Swanton, Ryann Waterstradt, honoring teacher Julie Wright;

• Wauseon, Mark Brown, honoring teacher Rebecca Stuckey.

Mr. Higginbotham, 18, has been a student at Archbold High School since he was a freshman; prior to that, he was homeschooled. He plans to study engineering in college. President of the National Honor Society and secretary of the student council, he is active in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Mr. Becher, who has been an Archbold teacher for seven years, described young Higginbotham as a student who isn t afraid to work. He s going to be a very successful college student. Instead of scrambling to write everything down in class, he ll sit and observe. It s more important for him to understand, to get the idea. He is a pretty mature math student. He does a great job with everything he does.

Miss Hernandez, the award winner from Pettisville, said that she honored Mr. Reid because he s the one who pushes me the most to get involved. He s my Spanish teacher, but he can teach anything in life.

A senior from Wauseon who plans to major in education at Boston University, she has been involved in fund-raising efforts, including an event for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

To be eligible for the scholarship program, senior students had to demonstrate outstanding achievement in five areas: involvement in school activities, awards received, personal goal statement, grade point average, and ACT-SAT scores.

Contact Janet Romaker at: jromaker@theblade.com or 419-724-6006.