Twenty years ago, Luella Gregory was a Montgomery County High School graduate.

Now, she’s enjoying a successful career that includes being a founder and executive director of the Foundation for Food + Farm Connections, an owner of Barn Light Press and an author of a cookbook that is titled, “Luella’s Farm Kitchen.”

On the morning of Sept. 17, Gregory got to share her life at the Annual Academic Honors Brunch at the MCHS gymnasium. The event honored 50 MCHS students for their academic efforts from the 2025-26 school year.

Gregory has been the Foundation for Food + Farm Connections director since 2019. She has been involved with Barn Light Press for 19 years, four of those years as owner.

“Her work has taken her across the United States, working with state and national organizations in family farms from California’s Cattle Country to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Pennsylvania,” said MCHS English teacher Julie Ellis, who provided the opening remarks of the ceremony.

Gregory had Ellis as one of her teachers while she was in high school. She still has her binder she got while taking a language arts class.

“I have it at my office today because I’m so proud of it,” Gregory said. “It had so much work that was put into this binder. I wrote several stories there that I refer back to as inspiration. It was truly impactful to my life. Also, what a wonderful opportunity to bridge as I went into my college career because it taught me how to work and that it was going to take time. Some of the best things take a lot of time.”

The seniors had the most award recipients than any other class with 22. Out of that group, 14 of them received awards all three years.

Sarah Waters is one of the seniors with three academic awards. She plans to attend Murray State University next year and major in veterinary technology.

“Being part of that class is really nice,” Waters said. “I feel like we all have a good respect for each other. We know how to work together and communicate well. I think that’s something really special because a lot of classes have difficulty kind of putting aside their differences so they could continue to communicate and work through certain issues so they could collaborate with each other.”

There were 17 juniors and 11 sophomores who earned academic awards. There were 13 juniors who earned an award for the second straight year.

Jordan Finke was one of the 11 sophomores who earned an award. She had three older siblings – Renee, Tyler and Conner – who earned academic awards in the past.

“I was a little nervous when I was getting here because I had no idea what I was supposed to do,” Finke said. “But I was also really excited to go here because this felt like a big deal. I was looking at our list and I was one of a kind because there were only 11 of us in my grade who got this as freshmen. So I was really excited. I felt proud of myself.”

To earn an award, a student must have an annual grade point average of 3.70 or higher, must set high citizenship standards in both the school and community and have a 95 percent annual attendance rate.

The Academic Honors Brunch, which was sponsored by the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce, started off with students and parents having breakfast, then it had remarks from Ellis and Gregory and the presentation of the awards.

“This world is a busy, often complicated place and it’s nice to take a moment to share time and celebrate hard work and accomplishments from these students inside the classroom,” Ellis said.

Gregory, who grew up on a farm in Jonesburg, said one of the best highlights of being a student at MCHS was being part of its FFA chapter.

“I loved FFA,” Gregory said. “It was my place to really bloom and blossom in ag education, but to learn to come out of my shell. I was very, very shy, very tender-hearted and lacked confidence.”

Gregory said she spends plenty of time doing storytelling and applying what she learned from Ellis while at high school.

“Words have been something I have loved since I was a little girl,” she said.

Waters said she learned from Gregory’s 11-minute speech that it is important to be yourself and find your passion and purpose in life.

“A lot of times it’s hard because you want to blend in with each other and you don’t want to be seen,” the senior said. “You want to hide behind the crowd. But being yourself is really how you shine and how you can become recognized. I think that’s a really important message to take beyond high school because if you’re not afraid to stand out, then it’s hard for people to recognize you and recognize your work that you’re putting in.”

Finke said she learned from Gregory’s speech that life is not easy .

“I was hoping I could blow through life, get a lot of money and live a chilled life,” the sophomore said. “But obviously, there are going to be a lot of ups and downs and it’s going to take hard work to get to it.”