VHS names 2025 STAR Student and Teacher

Published 4:41 pm Tuesday, February 4, 2025

VALDOSTA — Johnnie Marshall, principal of Valdosta High School, announces that Ray Moody is the 2025 STAR student. Each year, the Student Teacher Achievement Recognition program nominates Georgia high school senior students who receive the highest scores on a three-part SAT in one sitting and who must be in the top 10% of their class. To obtain the 2025 STAR nomination, graduating high school seniors must have the highest score on a single test date on the SAT and be in the top 10 percent or top 10 students of their class based on grade point average. In Valdosta, the Kiwanis Club sponsors VHS’s STAR student and teacher at the regional level, where Moody will compete for region honors.

Ray Moody, son of Kippy Tift and Avery Moody, began his education at St. John Catholic School and began attending Valdosta City Schools in the ninth grade. Moody is a key member of the Valdosta High School student body, being extremely involved in a multitude of activities. He is a member of the VHS International Baccalaureate program and has also taken many Advanced Placement classes. Ray is very involved with the VHS Marching Cats, serving as one of the drum majors during his junior and senior years, as well as being chosen for the honor of first-chair clarinet. Ray represented Valdosta City Schools and Valdosta High School in the summer of 2024 at the Governor’s Honors Program in Statesboro for communicative arts. He is a member of the VHS International Club and has traveled throughout Europe during Spring Break for the past two years, visiting Germany, France, Switzerland, and Italy with a planned trip for Spring Break 2025 to Greece with the club. Ray’s experiences with the International Club allowed him to be chosen as a Student Ambassador for Education First Student Tours and he will use this position to share his passion for travel. In addition, Ray is a member of the VHS Debate Team, Science National Honor Society, SNOOZE Club, Beta Club, and Interact Club. In his spare time, Ray enjoys photography and also has completed hundreds of hours of community service. After graduation, Ray plans to attend a liberal arts college somewhere in the Northeast United States to major in English and wants to ultimately become a high school English teacher.

Each STAR student has the opportunity to name the teacher that has been the most instrumental in his or her academic development. This year, Ray chose Ms. Gnann Moser as his STAR Teacher. Ms. Moser taught at Valdosta High School for more than 40 years until she passed away in October 2024.  “Ms. Moser taught me so much about writing, literature, and myself,” Ray said when asked why he chose Moser for this honor. “Of course, with her passing, all of her former students have been reflecting on how she has shaped our lives through her class and the sheer force of her determined, empathetic personality and high expectations, and I can think of many students who consider her their favorite and most influential teacher. She noticed my love for English and guided me through the application process for the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program, which allowed me to apply and expand on much of what she taught me. She is one of the most influential reasons why I want to become an English teacher. I chose her to be my STAR teacher because she never failed to inspire me to grow, and we had a friendship that expanded beyond the classroom.”

Moser had previously been chosen five times as STAR teacher. Moser had two children, Ellis Moser and Marie Brownhill. When told that their mom had been chosen as STAR teacher once again, Moser’s daughter, Marie, felt “mostly sad because she would have been so excited to have known. It was a great reminder of how much she was appreciated by her students and it was nice to know that appreciation continued posthumously.” “I felt humbled, yet not surprised, when I found out that she had been chosen as STAR Teacher. Throughout her life, there were only a handful of students she felt she couldn’t help. If Mom had any regrets from teaching, it was those few students she couldn’t reach. I can’t think of a single student that didn’t respect mom and value her investment in them–even if they didn’t think so at the time,” her son, Ellis, shared. Ms. Moser’s legacy will always be remembered at Valdosta High School and in each student she touched throughout her career.

Moody is the Valdosta City Schools system winner and will compete for region honors out of the 12 STAR Regions at a banquet to be held in March. Region winners and their STAR teachers are invited to Atlanta to compete for the state STAR scholarships and awards. Finally, region winners are interviewed, and the runner-up and State PAGE STAR student and STAR teacher are announced. STAR Teachers continue on with their STAR Students at every level of the program.