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Catherine Hodge named Indiana Academic All-Star
Having earned honors ranging from the Putnam County Lilly Scholarship to being voted South Putnam’s homecoming queen last year, being one of 40 Indiana high school seniors recently named an Indiana Academic All-Star is another notch in Catherine Hodge’s belt of accolades.
Talking with her about this or other recognitions, the key descriptor might just be humility. It is ultimately about a drive to learn, and from that follows academic excellence and community involvement. For the teacher who has most influenced her, it is wanting students like her to succeed.
The Indiana Academic All-Stars program, facilitated by the Indiana Association of School Principals, invites each public and private high school accredited by the state to nominate one senior as an Academic All-Star. A selection committee then taps students representing five regions in the state, and then finally the 40 Academic All-Stars.
Meanwhile, the schools’ considerations for their nominees include a mathematical formula that combines either an SAT or ACT composite score with a seven-semester grade-point average, academic rigor and achievements and extracurricular activities, community service and leadership.
Trying to overview her involvement, Hodge is a three-year member of the Putnam County Community Foundation’s youth philanthropy committee, having served as its secretary. She has served as the South Putnam FFA chapter’s president and is a 10-year 4-H member. She has also organized Special Olympics, managed the South Putnam girls’ basketball team and is a two-sport athlete in golf and tennis. She is also a member of the National Honor Society and Student Council.
Even so, Hodge relates that she did not know what the Academic All-Stars program meant before fellow Lilly recipient Evan Steffy was named one last year. Afterward, the recognition was another she wanted to strive for.
“It’s a real honor,” Hodge simply told the Banner Graphic about it recently. Essentially, though, there was a sense that the recognition was not, and should not be, only about her.
There is agriscience teacher Amanda King, whom Hodge chose as the educator who has most shaped her as a student and an individual.
Indeed, she said King got her interested in FFA. Without her guidance, she would not have built her leadership and public speaking skills. King otherwise, Hodge said, has encouraged her to go outside of her “shell” and try new things. She has helped her “accept” her energy as a strength.
“It took me a long time to learn to love that,” Hodge said candidly. “I’m not a particularly nervous person. However, there are certain things that I think are really cool that also are nerve-wracking a little bit. Ms. King helps flesh out that nervousness and say, ‘Hey, you got this. This is okay.’”
Hodge will attend Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology to study electrical engineering and engineering management, and she hopes to stay local while working in energy resources or on power grids. She has stuck with electric projects in 4-H, even as she thought about becoming a doctor until recently.
Hodge suggested that she listens for, as well as sees, opportunities to get involved. Whether inside or outside of the school community, she wants to know “what is going on.” She as such is part of the legacy of South Putnam, as her father Michael is from the area and mom Natalie is a biology teacher. Aside from that legacy, King said, Hodge has a vision for what it can become in the future.
That awareness is part and parcel of the qualities and initiative which, for King, make students like Hodge stand out and excel. With South Putnam being as small as it is, committed teachers and staff provide those opportunities.
“One of my favorite things with teaching is they can do something or be curious about something that I didn’t know about, and then I get to learn from them, too,” King said, iterating how “the list is long” with how she has worked with Hodge in FFA and other activities. “She’s definitely pushed me to be a better teacher.”
King described Hodge as “super fun” and “super goofy.” There are those times where both will be serious and work hard; but then they will turn around, let that go and, as King put it, “be people.”
Acknowledging her colleagues having their own in Hodge’s education, how they have worked together, and how she has seen her grow up, for King makes her individual impact on her success all the more special.
“I don’t know that she always internalizes how skilled and how special she is,” King remarked. “It shows how special our teachers in our building are, that we can continue to build really good kids. For Catherine I think it’s amazing, and also for our community, I think it shows we’ve got some really strong educators here that I think are gonna stick it out and be good for the kids.”