Award to honor teacher

Scholarship honoring former Hightstown High School teacher Betty Septer will be awarded to a a goal-oriented student who plans to pursue a career in education and who has benefited from mentoring.

By: Marisa Maldonado
   HIGHTSTOWN — Betty Septer was the teacher at Hightstown High School to whom guidance counselor Diane Hughes sent the students who she thought could use some extra mentoring.
   So when the longtime English teacher died Sept. 25 after a long illness, her two sons wanted to honor their 65-year-old mother by giving a one-time scholarship to a graduating senior who has dealt with tough times.
   The $1,500 scholarship will be awarded at the senior banquet on June 15 to a goal-oriented student who plans to pursue a career in education and who has benefited from mentoring. A committee of staff members who were friends with Ms. Septer will determine the winner.
   "(Ms. Septer) was especially good at being a mentor for kids who were not sure of their direction, most especially young men as a (result of) experience with her own two boys," said Ms. Hughes, who was a close friend of the late teacher. "This is for the kid, boy or girl, who has had a tough time for it and pulled themselves up by their bootstraps."
   Ms. Septer, who grew up in Kentucky, wanted no memorial service at neither the school where she taught for more than 20 years nor near her home in Levittown, Pa. — although Ms. Hughes said many people at the school would have attended such a ceremony.
   Her two adult sons — one is serving in Iraq until August and the other works in security at Princeton University — thought a fund would be an appropriate way to honor their mother.
   "She was a very unassuming woman — she didn’t want people sort of mourning her in that sense," Ms. Hughes said. "The guys thought that giving the money back to the school would be something she would appreciate."
   Ms. Hughes said the high school and its students were two of the most important things to Ms. Septer, next to her two sons and grandchildren.
   "She was into every possible aspect of it," Ms. Hughes said. "She was a mentor, she ran the Student Council for years."
   Students must be nominated by their teachers for the scholarship, which the high school will offer only once. The deadline for nominations is May 20. Ms. Septer’s sons gave the school full decision-making power in choosing the winner.
   The fund received $1,900 in donations. The remaining $400 will go toward erecting a permanent memorial after construction is done on HHS, possibly outside Ms. Septer’s former classroom.
   Ms. Septer also was kind to her fellow faculty members as well, Ms. Hughes said. She was known for her "Betty Surprises," a variety of gifts that she would leave in teachers’ mailboxes on birthdays.
   She refused to leave teaching, even once she hit retirement age, Ms. Hughes said. Even when her back gave out in September 2003, leading to a slew of health problems, she refused to walk away from her students.
   "She could have retired when she got sick, but she was determined to come back," Ms. Hughes said. "She felt she could come back. She just loved being here."