High honors

by Susan Gibbs Record Reporter
Published: May 15, 2008

When Greene County Technical Education Center Principal Harry Daniel introduced the Student of the Year at Career Achievement Night May 1, he said he knew that person could survive without either the Tech Center or William Monroe High School.
“But I don’t know if the schools can survive without him,” Daniel quipped at the close of the ceremonies that recognized the achievements of William Monroe High School seniors who completed courses at the Tech Center.
He was talking about 18-year-old Ryan Peacher.
And, reached after the ceremony, William Monroe High School Principal Mike Jamerson called Peacher “our go-to guy.
“We count on him for sound, lighting and visuals for any production; for drama productions, musicals and guest speakers,” Jamerson explained.
Peacher, who will be attending Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida in the fall, says stage work must have gotten into his blood back about the time his memory began to form, when he was about five or six years old.
“My uncle played with Bitter Creek (a band that has been performing southern rock, classic and contemporary country for 15 years in the Richmond area). My dad took me to see his shows,” Peacher says.
But it wasn’t until three years ago that he decided making the stage work would be his life’s work.
Three years ago, when the Kid Pan Alley professionals were in Greene, encouraging students to write songs, Peacher got to help Gary Green, audio engineer at Charlottesville’s Paramount Theater.
Apparently, Green saw some talent in Peacher.
“He said, ‘Why don’t you come work at the Paramount’,” Peacher explains. He took Green up on his offer, but still, Full Sail beckoned.
Full Sail University is a media arts school that offers degrees in Computer Animation, Digital Arts & Design, Entertainment Business, Film, Game Art, Game Development, Graphic Design, Music Business, Recording Arts, Show Production & Touring, and Web Design & Development.
Peacher knows he wants to study to study live production and touring - but he hasn’t yet decided if he wants to tour, or be a house engineer.
Peacher completed three Tech Center areas of study: Video broadcasting; auto mechanics; and computer information systems.
But he is by no means the only success story Career Night had to tell.
About 95 percent of the students who complete programs at the Tech Center go on to two- and four-year schools, officials say.
Nearly 20 of them received scholarships on May 1.
Six received Career & Technical Education Foundation Scholarships. In addition to Peacher, recipients were: Fashion Design/Design & Interiors Student Jerlissa Davis; Nursing Student Katie Shifflett; Business Management Student Christina Proffitt; Economics Student Erin Jones; and, Interior Design Student Rebecca McLaughlin.
Building Trades Student Michael Thisdell won the Allied Concrete/C.R. Butler Scholarship; Agriculture Student Ashleigh Shifflett won the Jaeger & Ernst Agricultural Scholarship; Interior Design Student Nina Lahham won the Career & Technical Education Foundation Stanardsville Hardware Scholarship; Nursing Student Maria Oliveri won the Morris Medical Scholarship; and Ashley Brown won the Bobby & Joyce Morris Health Scholarship.
“We Build Success” Scholarship recipients were: Nursing Students Victoria Hanson, Teri Johansen and Tiffany Thacker; Veterinary/Biology Student Tiffany Southard; and, Secondary Students Terri Burley and Cherylann Ward.
All told, 127 students completed one area of study at the Tech Center; 25 completed two programs; and, four students completed three programs