RMA Star Student and Star Teacher Honored

c/LTC Wang and MSgt. Bagwell Honored as STAR Student and STAR Teacher.
On Tuesday, Feb. 13, 10 students and their teachers were honored at First Baptist Church in Gainesville by the Gainesville Kiwanis’ Student Teacher Achievement Recognition program. Those eligible are high school seniors who posted the highest scores on a single SAT test date and a top 10 percent grade-point average for their class. We are so proud of c/LTC Runyi Wang, who expressed the following: 

"I am very honored to represent Riverside Military Academy to be the STAR student. I have chosen MSgt. Dennis Bagwell as my STAR teacher because he has been instrumental in my academic career by teaching me the importance of accountability and responsibility. Before coming to Riverside, I was a typical (lazy) student who was not very keen to do his homework, but the first thing that MSgt. Bagwell said when I was in his 7th grade World Studies class was “the fastest way to get into trouble in my class is by not doing your homework,” and that definitely got my attention. Once I no longer had to spend extra time to catch up on homework, I had slowly started to discover the pleasure of learning, not to mention MSgt. Bagwell’s humorous teaching style has captured my heart and mind. In MSgt. Bagwell’s class, I have rediscovered myself and gained the academic confidence to take challenging classes such as his AP US History and AP Psychology courses. I cannot dare to think where I would be today without his guidance and assistance in my early years at Riverside. To me, MSgt. Bagwell is more than a teacher but a friend, a mentor, and a father I have never had."

MSgt. Bagwell is very proud of c/LTC Wang's accomplishments and had the following to say: 
"Runyi came to my class as a shy 7th grader with limited English 6 years ago and has now taken every class I offer over the years.  Not only has he taken my classes, he has returned to be a Teaching Assistant every year helping me with long-range projects, class material development and peer to peer tutoring.  That is perhaps one of the most notable aspects of Runyi’s personality, his extreme helpfulness and dedication to service.  I have been teaching for over 20 years now, 12 of them at RMA and I have never met a young man who is more intelligent, hardworking or devoted to the ideals of helping others.  Runyi has risen to the highest rank at RMA not by selfish ambition but by selfless devotion to helping others.  There is no part of life here on campus that has not been impacted and improved by Runyi.  He is truly one in a million by any measure and it has been my great privilege to know him and mentor him."
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