Jessica Martin and Mike Cowan were honored as the student scholar of the year and teacher of the year, respectively, at the Taft Union High School spring Renaissance rally Wednesday. Martin has the top academic grade point average among seniors, 4.4, and is on target to be valedictorian. She said Taft has been a great
school and praised history teacher John Kopp and AVID teacher Debra Popejoy for their inspiration, caring and spunkiness. Jessica said she excelled in high school because “I buckled down and decided to put my energy to succeeding in school.” She wanted to be a good role model for her freshman sister, Laura, who also earns straight A’s.
Jessica wants to be the first in her family to earn a college degree.
She plans to attend U.C. Santa Cruz and eventually become a
pediatrician.

Cowan, a Spanish and AVID teacher, said he was very surprised to
receive the honor in his fifth year as a Taft High teacher. He said
he knew he was the nominee when emcee Greg Goossen said the teacher was an Aztec. “I’m the only one on campus who graduated from San Diego State.” He earned his BA in Spanish there and his teaching credential at CSUB.
The San Luis Obispo native is a West High graduate, class of 1994.
He played on the golf team there and coaches girls golf and boys JV
tennis here. He spent his childhood between Taft and Bakersfield. His
father, Jim, taught at Connelly School and substitute teaches at Taft
High in his retirement.
His family from Taft and Bakersfield and his wife’s family from
Tehachapi joined him in Mullen gym to celebrate. “I can’t believe my
wife told everyone in my family and I had no idea. So I wonder what
other secrets she has,” Cowan joked.
Goossen said Cowan won in a landslide. Cowan said his secret to
success is a “good attitude, being happy and making students laugh,
which makes them open to learning. There’s no other place I’d want to
work. It’s the students’ good attitudes that make it so good to be
here.”
Renaissance is a national program promoting academics and
Renaissance students, under the direction of Goossen, the TV
productions teacher, staged the elaborate rally. Renaissance students
selected Cowan from among nominees made by the student body. Martin qualified to be scholar of the year by achieving higher than a 4.0 grade point average by taking honors and Advanced Placement classes.
Jostens representative John Hatten awarded Martin a $1,000 Jerry
Dragoo scholar of the year award scholarship in honor of former
student-turned-superintendent Gerald P. Dragoo. Hatten also gave
Cowan a class ring of his choice.
The award-winning drumline opened the rally, which had a caveman theme complete with five boys in cavemen costumes, three girls in cavewoman costumes and a mini Cooper-sized, papier-mâché triceratops. The stands were awash with students and staff sporting yellow Renaissance T-shirts. Students nominated staff for good attitude T-shirts and vice versa. Students also earned purple T-shirts for making the fall semester honor roll (3.0 GPA).
The rally also honored the Top Cats who earned higher than a 4.0 GPA.
The rally also honored the three students Jerry Bailey, Daniel Watts
and Chase Comfort, who improved the most on state-mandated STAR (Standardized Testing And Reporting) testing. The STAR test comes up again April 14-23, right after Easter week break. Principal/
Superintendent Mark Richardson praised the trio, gave them awards and encouraged students to perform well on the upcoming tests.
“Motivational speaker Matt Farley,” played by history teacher Brad
VanRoekel as a parody of the late Chris Farley, added some humor to
the serious message.
A new club, Broad Horizons, led by adviser Lisa Polk, gave Kim
Fields a $423 donation to the Shaye Fields Scholarship Fund. The
popular junior and top golfer was killed in a traffic accident this
school year. “This is undoubtedly the hardest 10 weeks of our lives,”
Fields told the gymnasium packed with students. Fighting back tears,
he added, “Do me a big favor and always wear your seat belt.”