Meagan Amburg has advice for students who may be struggling.

“As simple as it is to say, just don’t give up. Push through,”Amburg said. The dark times are bad but when you actually succeed it is worth everything you’ve done.”

Justice of the Peace Pct. 7 Brad Burnett honored the Port Neches-Groves High School senior as the 2018 Shining Star recipient Wednesday.

“It feels surreal. I can’t even put it into words,” she said after the ceremony in the courtroom. “It’s crazy because I didn’t think I’d be here graduating with my class or graduating at all.”

Burnett has given the award annually since 2003 to one high school senior from either Port Neches-Groves or Nederland high schools for “overcoming challenges and taking advantage of opportunities and shining with a major turnaround,” Burnett said. A teacher, counselor, school police officer or principal from either of the schools nominates students for the award.

Amburg made a major transformation in high school, going from being nervous and unsure of herself and opting not to do the school work at all if the work was too complicated. She was the victim of some bullying in her freshman and sophomore years. Feelings of anxiety and depression were also an obstacle.

In addition, she is the oldest of four children and her mother is a single mom working hard to provide for the family, leaving her to assume the role of substitute parent, Laura Haycock, her Spanish teacher from ninth and 10^th grades, said in the nomination letter.

“She was one of those kids that was shyer and a little less sure of herself than others and I tried to reach out to her her first year,” Haycock said. “We had a little bit of one on one and I reminded her that whatever I threw at her she was capable of doing.”

Lauren Melancon, English II teacher who worked with her in credit recovery, said they bonded over their love of reading. Amburg was eager to work on independent projects and helped pick out books that would be of interest to the class.

“And I always checked on her grades,” Melancon said. “Looking back she told she appreciated me asking and caring.”

Greg Sims, Amburg’s high school counselor, also stepped in to help the student succeed.

Jon Deckert, high school curriculum coordinator, continued the story, saying that Amburg began to come to school regularly and understand what was asked of her. She had a lot of catching up to be back on par with her peers and rose to the challenge.

“Even with the deficit of lacking previous knowledge, Meagan today maintains almost all A’s and B’s in her senior level classes,” Deckert said.

Amburg attends tutorial sessions and is asking for help without “feeling like she is stupid for asking.”

Amburg has applied and been accepted to Lamar State College Port Arthur, where she will begin the journey to become a history teacher.

Her mom, Shelly Christian, was beaming with pride.

“Meagan is a great kid. She had a choice to continue n the path she was headed and decided to do better,” Christian said. “She stuck through it through thick and thin.”

Amburg also has the support of family through it all.

A year or so ago, Amburg came home with information about a school-sponsored trip to Europe thinking there was no way the family would be able to afford it.

They began saving and now Amburg will take that trip to Europe and be able to visit the home of Anne Frank — in a nod to her love of history.