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A dozen LCPS seniors from four high schools took a giant step in recent weeks toward all-expenses-paid college educations, advancing in the competitive process designed to bring top students to top four-year institutions and reward them for their academic excellence.

The prize for these students includes prestigious merit-based scholarships at storied universities like Duke, UNC, NC State and Campbell, as well as admission to the nation’s most elite service academies.

Lily Hartsell, a 7th grade history teacher at E.B. Frink Middle School and Lenoir County Public Schools’ Beginning Teacher of the Year, has been named one of 27 statewide finalists for the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching’s 2026 Burroughs Wellcome Fund NC Beginning Teacher of the Year Award.

Whether it’s social studies class or math class, STEM instruction centers on student engagement, where questions are encouraged and answers are often rooted out collaboratively. This inquiry-based learning engenders, as Principal Dr. Moon said, “an intellectual curiosity for students” that not only makes a class more meaningful but can also enhance the way they relate to school and to learning over a lifetime.

More than $40,000 in grant awards will allow Lenoir County Public School educators to provide special learning opportunities for thousands of students this school year, all thanks to the community’s support of annual fundraising events championed by the Lenoir County Education Foundation and its parent organization, the Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce.

In a classroom usually filled with lesson plans, lab sheets and the hum of kitchen equipment, two South Lenoir High School sophomores created something that reached far beyond their school walls. Jeremiah Bey and Christopher Rodgers are now among just five student teams in the state to be competing in the finalist round of the North Carolina Junior Chef Competition, a statewide challenge that pushes students to design nutritious, affordable meals that could realistically be served in public school cafeterias.

He is simply the best high school receiver in the state this year and one of the best in the state all-time. With a touchdown catch in the James Kenan game, Copper bested his own record for consecutive games with a TD reception at 16. His 30 touchdown receptions this season rank him first in the nation. With one game to go, he is within reach of all-time state records for single season receiving yards and touchdowns in a season.