STARS shining bright at Kemper Academy
Jayne Wiggins was really looking forward to taking Joy Brown Sorrels’ phycology class this year, but instead Sorrells decided it was time to retire after 40 years of teaching at Kemper Academy.
Obviously Wiggins, who was recently named STAR Student for Kemper Academy for the 2021- 22 school year by the Mississippi Economic Council, didn’t hold any grudges because the KA senior chose Sorrels as her STAR Teacher.
Wiggins, the daughter of Marvin and Holly Wiggins of DeKalb, and Sorrells will be two of more than 600 STAR Students and STAR Teachers who will be honored at the MEC’s annual Education Celebration on April 14 at the Clyde Muse Center in Pearl. The theme of the celebration this year is “Journey to the STARS.”
STAR students are elected on the basis of academic excellence, with scores on the ACT and high school grade point averages being taken into consideration.
The STAR Student then selects the teacher that has had the most influence upon his or her education as the STAR Teacher.
“I really enjoyed Mrs. Brown’s Music Appreciation class,” Wiggins said. “It was one of most fun classes I have taken.”
Wiggins said she has been drawn to music since childhood.
“When I was little I grew up watching Barbie movies and the first few have songs in them that were from ballets,” she said. “Tchaikovsky is something that has really been with me for a long time, so getting to explore that was really fun.”
Wiggins said her educational plans were to go to East Mississippi Community College for two years, them transfer to Ole Miss and study clinical phycology.
Sorrels, who is a repeat winner of the STAR Teacher award, said Music Appreciation was a relatively new class for her to teach, with most of her time being spent teaching Social Studies and French. Not only did Jayne Wiggins take Sorrel’s French classes, but so did her now graduated brothers Matthew and Jonathan.
Sorrels said Wiggins was one of those students that don’t take a lot of prodding. “You never had to worry about whether or not she was going to have her work done,” Sorrels said. “She was pretty much a self starter and you cold tell she enjoyed the classes I taught.”