Scholar: Teacher was there for her

• By ELLYN COUVILLION
• Livingston-Tangipahoa writer
• Published: May 8, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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DENHAM SPRINGS — When Brandy Kenyata Davis, a senior at Springfield High School, had the chance to honor a teacher who had been influential in her life, she thought of her fourth-grade teacher, Lori Bratton.

Bratton, a teacher at Springfield Elementary, was on hand April 29, along with Davis’s family, when Davis was honored, along with other students, at a banquet for outstanding achievements.

“She was always very encouraging. She always said our best could always be better,” Davis, who’s planning to major in biology, said of her former teacher.

“It’s such an honor to have a student like Brandy nominate me. It makes me really humble,” Bratton said.

Last week, EATEL and SunShine Pages partnered with Livingston Parish Public Schools to host the first Top Scholars banquet held at Forrest Grove Plantation. 

Nine high school seniors were honored for academic success and community involvement. As part of the event, the students had the chance to honor, in turn, a teacher or counselor who had been the “most influential on their educational careers,” according to a news release from EATEL.

“She’s just there for you. She believes in me sometimes when I don’t believe in myself,” Laura Elberling, a senior at Doyle High School, said of her invited guest, Kelli Lebeau, a counselor at the school.

Another student, Jennifer Lauren Matthews, a senior at Walker High School, plans to major in math education and invited the teacher she had for advanced math in an earlier grade, Millie Powell.

“I like to go fast and be challenged,” Matthews said. 

In addition to the students named above — Davis, Elberling and Matthews — the recognized top scholars and their invited guest were:

--Emily Ann Parrill of Albany High School and Josh Burton, an Albany High School teacher.

--John Cole Forstall of Denham Springs High School and Norman Pendergrass, a retired Denham Springs High School teacher.

--Brian Whitaker of French Settlement High School and Beth Meyers, a French Settlement High School teacher.