By TESA CULLI

tesa.culli@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — Two area seniors have been named students of the year by the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce — Jessa Hawkins and Brock Kabat.

“I’m pretty excited,” Kabat said. “It’s a big honor to be named student of the year for Jefferson County and I’m happy to get the award.”

With the honor comes a $1,000 scholarship.

“I’m thrilled and honored,” Hawkins said Thursday morning. “I appreciate all the financial aid I can get for next year.”

In addition to the students of the year, the JCCC Educational Clearinghouse announced the Rend Lake College Tuition Waiver recipient, Casey Schwartz; and six classroom grant award recipients.

“This is a big day for the Educational Clearinghouse Committee,” committee chairman Chad Copple said. “This is one project we are pretty proud of.”

The awards are possible through donations made to the program by area residents and businesses, which include 2020 Broadway Apartments; Beck Bus; Byrd Watson; Campbell, Black, Carnine, Hedin Ballard and McDonald PC; Jim and Teri Clark; Coldwell Banker; Continental Tire North America; Norma and Don Fairchild; FGM Architects; First State Bank of Dix; Green Hills; Heartland Radiology Associates; Heritage Woods; Hughey Funeral Home; Kevin and Cheryl Settle; The Insurance Store; Mitchell Law Office; NAPA; Old National Bank; St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Hospital; and Texico State Bank.

The students of the year were required to provide an essay in the form of a letter to the Jefferson County Development Corporation with suggestions for economic development of the county in addition to their applications detailing their many activities in school and the community.

“I wrote that there needs to be a place for families to do activities together and we need to provide infrastructure for new businesses to come to town,” Hawkins said. She wrote that “by opening centers that encourage communication, current residents would have a place to enrich their relationships with each other while simultaneously enriching the economy.”

Kabat said education was the focus of his letter.

“My main ideas were that we need to better educate students, get the education system providing different classes,” Kabat said. “In these tough financial times, we need to be better educating students and providing more business and financial courses.”

Kabat wrote, “Knowing what stocks are and how they work, how to wisely spend your money, and how to balance a checkbook will provide much-needed real-world knowledge.”

Hawkins, the daughter of Jim and Janice Hawkins, will attend St. Louis University next year and hopes to major in investigative and medical sciences with a focus on forensic and a minor in anthropology.

Kabat is considering attending Southern Illinois University at Carbondale or St. Louis University to major in pre-medicine with a focus on medical research. After completing his pre-med classes, he will be able to attend medical school and earn a doctorate.

Schwartz, the RLC tuition waiver recipient, and daughter of Marty and Margie Schwartz, will be attending the local college before transferring to a university to pursue a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

Schwartz stated she knows the “importance of having an adult in your life that believes in you and supports you. It is my personal goal to be able to be that mentor to the troubled and underprivileged youth in Mt. Vernon.”

Classroom grant recipients each received $300 from the committee. The grants were:

n Bonnie Tickner, Woodlawn High School, for the purchase of one or two NEO2 laptop computers, which can be used in conjunction with the school’s Accelerated Reader program as part of the English curriculum. The computers also could be used as word processors for student assignments;

n Jean Ann Scroggins, fourth grade teacher, Waltonville Elementary School, to assist in production of a spring program, open to the public, based on 200 years of American history.

This program will cross the curriculum, taking in aspects of social studies, computers and music;

n Valeria Zgonina, kindergarten teacher, District 80, to purchase an audio library for the classroom, which will assist with several components of the Response To Intervention program. Research has shown that readers who engage in regular repeated readings improve their vocabulary, fluency and comprehension;

n Crystal Nowak, Mt. Vernon Township High School, to purchase bead-making tools and supplies to enable a ceramic beading and jewelry component within the occupational design course. The tools can also be used in the basic art course;

n Anita Allen, first and second grade teacher, McClellan Elementary School, to purchase a LeapFrog Tag Reading System and several books. Students will use a pen to touch words and pictures in books, which are then read aloud by the system. Parents will be able to track their child’s progress on the LeapFrog Web site; and

n Rebecca Nation and Karen Hales, kindergarten and first grade teachers, Farrington Elementary School, to purchase the Handwriting Without Tears writing program. This system was developed by an occupational therapist to help make handwriting a natural and automatic skill for children.

The kindergarten program currently uses the HWT program and the grant will allow the school to expand it into the first grade.