Each year, the Professional Association of Georgia Educators Foundation, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Georgia Department of Education partner to present the STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Recognition) program.

The program requires that nominees achieve the top SAT score on a single test date and be in the top 10 percent of their class. STAR Students then choose a STAR Teacher who has inspired them to strive for excellence.

Senior Charlie Hirsch was named Pace’s 2019 STAR Student and selected Upper School math teacher Gus Whyte as his STAR Teacher. Hirsch is co-editor-in-chief of The Knightly News, captain of the varsity tennis team, and president of the Knight Capital Investment Club and the Pace Academy Jewish Club.

Hirsch was part of a team that competed in the 2018 MathWorks National Math Modeling Challenge and placed among the top 20 percent of teams in the nation. His team also finished third out of 600 teams in the 2018 Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Students of the Year contest and raised more than $240,000 to help find a cure for blood cancers—a feat that merited a mention in Forbes magazine.