McLean Students, Teachers Honored by Business Community

A McLean High School junior who helps teach his Advance Information Systems class, and a Langley senior voted "most likely to brighten your day" were honored Thursday by the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce.

About 50 people were at Cafe Oggi for the annual Education Awards ceremony, which salutes an outstanding student and teacher from each of McLean's public high schools.

The audience included: Merritt Green, Chamber chair; Hunt Burke, chairman and CEO of Burke & Herbert Bank, which opened a branch in McLean in May; Langley High principal Matthew Ragone; Dranesville Supervisor John Foust; Virginia Del. Barbara Comstock (R-McLean, Great Falls and Loudoun County); attorney Pam Danner, who is also president of the McLean Foundation, and who is running against Comstock for the delegate seat; and Dranesville school board member Jane Strauss. It's an election year and all these politicians are candidates.

The Langley winners:

Student Caitlin Cox. "I'm really bored if I'm not doing a project," she said. She does volunteer work primarily with the Safe Community Coalition, which seeks to curb teenage drug and alcohol use,  and works part-time.

"I just love being involved in the community . . . anything I can do to help, I'll do it," she said. "It's a great honor" to win the Chamber award, she said.

Caitlin, who is involved in academics, sports and clubs at Langley and was voted "most dependable" by her teachers, will attend Clemson University in South Carolina in the fall.

Teacher Sandy Hamilton, English Teacher. Hamilton spent eight years as a special education teacher but became an English teacher four years ago.

Biggest accomplishment: making senior English class interesting to seniors the second semester when they catch "senioritis" and want to play.

She says she has her senior class read British Literature and do research papers in the fall. Then for second semester they read books "with a lot of action involved. One is a coming-of-age novel. All have a lot of themes that promote really good discussion, " she said.

The list includes: "The Kite Runner," "Life of Pi" and "The White Tiger."

The McLean High winners:

Student Kais Sorrells. He serves as a team leader and mentor to Information Systems students. He said of his award, "I'm very happy. It's pretty honorable."

He loves computers because "There is a lot that technology is capable of doing," he said.

Teacher Lonnie Bickel. He has two jobs at McLean --- counsel and advise a group of emotionally disabled students and teach four classes of history. Bickel started his teaching career as a music major who received an advanced degree in administration then decided he really want to be in the classroom.

"I was shocked and humbled by this award because it's from my peers," he said. "To have my peers vote me as teacher of the year was humbling," he said.

Each of the student winners received a new savings account at Burke & Herbert Bank with an initial deposit of $200.