Jaden Maddison was happy to shovel snow last month. He hopes he gets to do more of it at his college destination.

The Liberty County High School senior was named the STAR Student for his school and also for the county at a luncheon hosted by the Liberty County Chamber of Commerce. Maddison chose Tracy Austin as his STAR Teacher.

Maddison has his sights set on attending college up north, and has applied to several in Massachusetts and a couple in New York City, he said.

“I like snow. I miss snow a lot,” Maddison said. “My mom, not so much — she’s not a snow person. My parents were really surprised when I went outside and had fun shoveling snow.”

Bradwell Institute senior Kim Duong was named her school’s STAR Student and she chose Kathryn Snelson, a CTAE teacher at BI, as her STAR Teacher. Logan Brown was named First Preparatory Christian Academy STAR Student. He chose science teacher and former headmaster Dr. Charles Canup as his STAR Teacher, even though Brown has not had a class under him.

Maddison acknowledged he was surprised to be named the countywide STAR Student.

“I’m very happy about it,” he said.

Austin is a math teacher and head of the math department at LCHS. Maddison said he chose her — she was his precalculus instructor — because she is “a fantastic teacher.”

“Not just because she teaches math and she makes it very accessible, but she’s very diligent. She goes above and beyond. She’s always making sure we can do well on assignment and going back with us on a personal level, making sure we understand. Even though my precalculus class was a bit small, I was in a bigger class of more than 30 students and she still finds the time to do that sort of stuff. She runs the Drama Club. She does everything. She’s always there for you.”

Austin kept him so on track, Maddison said, that he could help his father in his university-level precalculus class.

“His mind amazes me,” she said. “He’s one of those ones, you see that student in your class, it makes you want to keep teaching because you really, really want to see more of those type of students, the ones who want to have those discussions that go beyond what you’re teaching because they’re curious why it works this way. I am so looking forward to what he does in the future because his mind blows me away on a daily basis.”

Outside of school, Maddison’s interests include baseball, reading classic literature and table top war games. Born at Fort Knox, Kentucky, Maddison has lived in eight homes before his family settled in Liberty County.