Meredith Clontz Brings Effingham’s Voice to State Council

Story By Gail Parsons
Photography by Leidy Lester

In a move to amplify student voices, Georgia’s State Superintendent, Richard Woods, has spent more than a decade assembling a council of diverse high school students. For Effingham County’s representative, this is a chance to showcase the strengths of rural education and advocate for innovative ideas like interdisciplinary studies and anti-bullying initiatives.

Selected as one of just 75 students statewide, out of 1,550 applicants, Meredith Clontz will bring her perspective to Georgia’s Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council. Meredith is a junior the Effingham College and Career Academy and her base high school is Effingham South.

“I have a lot of things that I could talk to Superintendent Woods about,” she said. “I would like to talk to him about interdisciplinary studies, which is, whenever you combine two different subjects to create a larger, more overarching way for students to learn about the connectivity between different topics.”

For example, she said in her Advanced Placement chemistry class they work with Melissa Almeida, the culinary director at ECCA to investigate how limiting ingredients can impact the results of cookie baking.

“I would also like to get the word out about Effingham’s prowess for agricultural development, especially with our new Honey Ridge Agricenter,” she said. “But by-and-by, with all the different things that I could talk to him about, I really want to let Superintendent Woods know about the way that Effingham shines and the way that Effingham shows care for their students and their faculty and the parents.”

Shining a Light on Rural Communities

Because Effingham is rural, Meredith believes sometimes it is easy to overlook everything the district has to offer because the metro area garners more attention.

“It is impossible to discount the work that the students put in, that the teachers put in, that the administrative team puts in, that our own county superintendent puts in—Dr. Yancy Ford,” she said. “I want to bring to light how important it is for support within rural communities. I believe that that has been given, but I think that it just needs to be acknowledged slightly more, because rural education matters just as much as education in Atlanta.”

When she attended a meeting with other council members, Meredith said she listened to the superintendent talk about why he started the council in the first place. He was getting feedback from teachers and employees around the state, but realized he was missing the student perspective.

“He really values the opinion of Georgia students,” she said. “I feel like I have a pretty broad perspective on the schooling in our county, and I feel like I'm intertwined well enough within the education system to give a proper perspective and be a voice for Effingham.”

This is why when she applied for a seat on the Council last year. When she wasn’t chosen, she tried again this school year.

“I want to represent my county because I'm proud of where I come from in Effingham,” she said. “I believe that we have one of the best school systems, especially down here in South Georgia. I really do take pride in my education and where that actually comes from.”

Effingham Schools

For Meredith, Effingham County isn’t just a school district—it’s a launching pad for success, offering Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math certifications, AP courses, and career-ready programs that make a real-world impact."

“I think Effingham County really is working and striving towards becoming a STEM-forward county, while not discounting the need for education and humanities,” she said. “I went to South Effingham Middle School for the majority of my middle school education … they got certified as a STEM school in my eighth-grade year. But even before that, I could really see the effort to better students’ education.”

She isn’t saying that her school career hasn’t been without struggles. She admits to having had issues with bullying and her fair share of peer struggles. Her experience with bullying was the springboard to develop the service project she is required to do as a member of the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council.

“My idea is an anti-bullying seminar at the high schools and the middle school, about the tragedies that can occur due to cyberbullying and bullying in person; and the impact it has on teen and adolescent suicide rates,” she said.

Looking to the Future

Those issues aside, she has never been concerned with the quality of education she is receiving in Effingham County as she prepares for her future. A future that may include political science or legal studies when she gets to college.

“I'd like to be a lawyer,” she said. “I'm still debating whether or not I want to go the legal studies route or major in something like biochemistry and then do a sort of specialized thing with law.”

She has time to make that decision but she’s not wasting it. Meredith said the Effingham School District offers a wide variety of classes and opportunities. She is grabbing everyone she can.

“As a high schooler, I take a lot of AP courses,” she said. “I'm taking four this year, and I'm self-studying for one of them. Self-studying for an AP is not something that a lot of students would be looking to do. Nor is it something I think that a lot of school districts would allow their students to do it.”

The faith the faculty has in their students helps encourage her and she knows that even though it is a self-study, her teachers have her back and help as needed.

 “There's never been a time in my education where I have been stopped from doing something to better myself,” she said. “I also think that our school district really prepares students for what it's going to be like outside of high school. Effingham County schools know how to properly prepare their students, both educationally and with practical skills that will teach them how to thrive in life.”

Applying for ECCA was the first step she took in taking control of her education. It is a place where students prioritize their education, which is what Meredith knows she needs to do to reach her goals.

Not everyone gets in. She said students are accepted through a lottery program, but first, they must qualify for it. When she was in the eighth grade, her Iowa State Test scores met the qualification. 

“Luckily for me, we actually had not had enough students apply to go, which is a little bit ridiculous now that I'm here and I understand the beauty of it, but all of us got in,” she said.

Making Time for Fun

There’s more to life than work and studying but Meredith’s extracurricular activities fit into her life’s goals.

One of her favorite clubs is Model UN, held at Effingham South High School. She has been an officer every year and in ninth grade when she was the only freshman on the team; this year she is secretary. Model UN is a simulation of the United Nations, a group of 194 countries that discuss geopolitical conflicts and how to improve the world the environment and the lives of citizens.

“Model UN is my lifeblood, it's my passion,” she said. “

The club meets twice a week; however, as a competition day approaches, they will often meet every day, she said.

“We are an academic competition team,” she said. “We learn to hone our skills in public speaking, collaboration, and diplomacy.”

She received three different awards in the five competitions she competed in, including the highest-level award a student can earn. The team also recently won their first team award, she said.

She is also the president of the Chemistry Club, and is in Healthcare Occupational Students of America, the Biotechnology Club, FFA, and National Honor Society.

On top of that, Meredith is a school ambassador and occasionally helps her mother at the Mars Theater.

“This past this past semester, I was a Big Futures Ambassador,” she said. “Big Futures is the parent company of College Board, which handles all the AP exams and the SAT. Basically, being an ambassador just means getting the word out about taking AP courses and taking the SAT.”

As a member of the BETA Club, she recently went to a competition where the team raked in the awards. “I am so proud of my fellow competitors,” she said.

With everything she is already involved in, she is working with her friend Bridget Cabrera, to start a chapter of Model UN at ECCA.

“I will be the vice president of that club, and I am absolutely beaming with joy and pride of that,” she said.

She still has a year of high school left, but Meredith made it clear—she is glad that year is at Effingham College and Career Academy. There she said she has made friends with like-minded people who she would likely never have met.

They are all there because they are committed to their education and putting in extra effort and time to succeed.

“I was able to meet an incredible group of friends,” she said. “I'm able to see how beautiful our community is and how intelligent and smart and the expansive the wealth of knowledge that we bring to the table.”