North Springs Names Davis Alums as STARs
Two North Springs seniors that attended Davis Academy have been named STAR students in the Georgia’s Student Teacher Achievement Recognition program.
North Springs Charter High School has named two seniors as STAR students instead of one for the first time in its history with Georgia’s Student Teacher Achievement Recognition program, and both are alumni of the Davis Academy and members of Temple Emanu-El.
Jared Matthew Coffsky and Eric Nathan Miller tied for the highest SAT score in one sitting in the North Springs Class of 2018: Each scored 1580, including a perfect 800 in math.
Both are in the math/science magnet program, are 2018 National Merit Semifinalists, are in their second year of college math (applied combinatorics and differential equations) through Georgia Tech after taking AP calculus as 10th-graders and are co-presidents of the Spartan math team.
They are active in North Springs’ Jewish Culture Club, as well as being members of the National Mathematics Honor Society and National Honor Society.
Coffsky, 17, co-captain of the varsity tennis team and the son of Amy and Adam Coffsky, chose his calculus teacher and tennis coach, Rahim Ghassemian, as his STAR teacher.
Ghassemian has been honored as North Springs’ STAR teacher three times in his 10 years teaching math at the school. He has a degree in metallurgical engineering from Iran’s Sharif University and undergraduate and master’s degrees in math education from Kennesaw State University, and he translates nonfiction books from English into Farsi.
Miller, 18, the son of Mindi and Scott Miller, is the president of the Latin Club and gold medal winner in the National Latin Exam. He chose his Latin teacher, Thomas Henderson, as his STAR teacher.
Henderson, who has a doctorate in Greek and Latin languages, ancient history, and classical art and archaeology from Florida State University, began the first middle school Latin program in Fulton County Schools at Sandy Springs Middle School before moving to North Springs. He has a book on Greek history being published this year.
Coffsky, who has been a private math tutor since his sophomore year in high school and has volunteered with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk since middle school, plans to attend Georgia Tech and major in engineering or math.
Miller, a 2018 UGA Ramsey Scholar and a 2017 Governors Honors finalist in math who is the president of Emanu-El’s youth club, is working on a paper for publication about prime numbers. He plans to major in computer science but hasn’t picked a college.
Student President Is AJA STAR Student
Atlanta Jewish Academy has named Maayan Schoen as its STAR student for the Class of 2018, and she chose Judaics teacher Rabbi Reuven Travis as her STAR teacher.
The Student Teacher Achievement Recognition program honors the senior in the top 10 percent of the class who has the highest SAT score on a single test date.
Schoen, who is the student government president, has been involved in bringing matzah to Jews in Azerbaijan and in leading anti-hunger efforts locally. She wrote and directed the AJA Upper School Chagiga play for girls this year, “The Might of Right” (see Page 22), and she recently wrote in the AJT about the Jewish outreach efforts by a Catholic science teacher at AJA, Catherine Brand.
comments