The Shelby County Board of Education honored the district’s top scholars at the Superintendent’s Super Scholars Awards held March 10 at Helena High School. The awards night and reception is designed to honor the academic achievement of high school students throughout the Shelby County School District.

The guest speaker for the event was Ameen Barghi, an Oak Mountain High School graduate currently attending the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).  Barghi is majoring in Neuroscience and Transnational Research with a minors in Chemistry and Biology.  He was recently named a Rhodes Scholarship recipient, which he will use to attend Oxford University to study Clinical Neuroscience.

Students who were honored included 2015 National Merit Finalists, National Merit Semi-Finalist, National Merit Commended Students, Presidential Scholar Candidates, Advanced Placement Scholars with Distinction, Advanced Placement Scholars with Honor, Advanced Placement Scholars, PSAT Scholars, Larry Headrick Award winners, PLAN Scholars, ACT College and Career Readiness Awards and the 2015 top Valedictorians (Evan K. Major Award winners). 

Each year, over one million high school students nationwide take the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) to compete in the National Merit Scholarship Program.  High School juniors who score in the top two percent in each state are selected as semi-finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program.  These semi-finalists are then considered for the National Merit Scholarship Awards.

This year, there are five students from Shelby County who have been named National Merit Finalists. They are Alexander Candelaria-Fouse, Andrew Davis, Nathan Holt, and Sujin Powers from Oak Mountain High School, and Christopher Robinson from Chelsea High School.

Nathan David Ledbetter from Oak Mountain High School was honored as a National Merit Semi-Finalists, while Jack Emerson and Matthew Tindal were honored as National Merit Commended Students.  

In addition to being a National Merit Finalist, Nathan Holt was also honored as a Presidential Scholar Candidate. The Presidential Scholar Program recognizes 141 of the nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors.  These scholars are selected on the basis of broad academic achievement, or because they demonstrate exceptional talent in the visual, creative and performing arts. Presidential Scholars will be named in April and will be honored in June during a National Recognition week held in Washington, D.C.

The top valedictorians from each school were  honored with the Evan K. Major, Jr. Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement. The award is named in honor of former superintendent, Evan K. Major, Jr. Students honored included Raven Amber Edwards, Calera High School; Christopher Robinson, Chelsea High School; Grant Beard, Helena High School; Meredith Paige Goggins, Montevallo High School; Matthew Tindal, Oak Mountain High School; Rebecca Tucker, Shelby County High School; and Elizabeth Evelyn Ross, Vincent High School.

Others honored as Super Scholars included 10th grade students who exhibited outstanding performance on the Fall PSAT/NMSQT and 12^th grade students who demonstrated exceptional achievement on the college level Advanced Placement (AP) exams.  Less than ten percent of the more than 840,000 students nationwide who took the AP exams performed at a level high enough to merit this recognition.  PSAT Scholar honors are awarded to students with PSAT Selection Index scores in the top 20 percent.

PSAT Scholars who were honored included: Hannah Dawson, Lilian Hayes, Juliette Lewis, Morgan McGuire, Cynthia Mims, Patrick Orman, Sidney Smith, Grant Wilkinson,and Kathryn Williamson, from Chelsea High School;  Andrew Bush, Cole Carpenter, Jared Cleghorn, Austin Findlay, Madison Franklin, Savannah Key, Samantha Moon, Philip Parker, Stephen Pitts, Trevor Smith, and Nicholas Williamson from Helena High School; Armeen Barghi, Madeline Barnhill, Arianna Candelaria-Fouse, Casey Carre, Sade Gabier, Kathryn Holt, William Laycock, Cassie Ledbetter, Nicholas Lee, Elizabeth Matta, Luke Rakers, Goodwin Rhodes, Sara Scherer, Gunnar Schultz; Thomas Short, Samantha Taylor, Caleb Van Geffen, Kyle Waldrop, Colby Wetzel, Sarah Whitley, Michael Whitner, Lauren Whittle, Kara Wingard, and Mohammad Zuaiter from Oak Mountain High School; and Faryn Fryer, Mattingly Harmon, Merritt Harmon, Gabriel Hunt, Cameron Jackson, Samantha Slaughter, and Julie Smith from Shelby County High School.

 

The Larry Heardrick Award, which is named in honor of the district’s former high school coordinator,  is given to students who scored in the top five percent of the PSAT Selection Index. Those students were Patrick Orman and Grant Wilkinson from Chelsea High School; Armeen Barghi, Kathryn Holt, Cassie Ledbetter, Elizabeth Matta, and Colby Wetzel from Oak Mountain High School.

 

AP Scholars are identified by the fact that they scored three or higher (scale of 1-5) on three or more AP exams on full-year courses.  AP Scholars honored were Raven Edwards from Calera High School; Christopher Robinson and Tanner Sulser from Chelsea High School; and Heather Boyle and Kylie Woodman from Helena High School.  Additiona  AP Scholars from Oak Mountain High School were Ashton Acree, Jennifer Adwell, Ali Al-Farhan, Jessica Ballard, Alexander Candelaria-Fouse, Stephen Chandler, James Coleman, Andrew Davis, Amanda Flamerich, Matthew Handley, Frances Harris, John Harrison, Nathan Holt, Ian Jenkins, Rae Johnston, Grace Lott, Olivia Nix, Daniel Nolen, Peter Rish, Savannah Stewart, Chase Stiffler, Rebecca Thomas, and Benjamin Williams.

AP Scholars with Honors are those who receive an average grade of 3.25 on all AP exams taken and a 3 or higher on four or more of these exams for full-year courses.  AP Scholars with Honor who were recognized included Lauren Nesmith and Alexa Pappanastos from Oak Mountain High School.

Advanced Placement Scholars with Distinction honors are awarded to students who receive and average score of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken and scores of 3.0 or higher on five or more of the exams taken on full year courses.  Students honored this year were Kevin Luu, Sujin Powers, and Matthew Tindal from Oak Mountain High School.

PLAN Scholar awards were given to students with ACT PLAN composite scores in the top three percent.  Those honored were Jacob Cook and Miranda Marsh from Calera High School; Haley Addiss, Chase Coody, Zachary Davis, John Dillon, David Dixon, Elizabeth Dotson, Ryan Eastman, Lilian Hayes, Anna Honea, Tyler Johns, Juliette Lewis, Leslie Mann, Morgan McGuire, Cynthia Mims, Olivia Moody, Patrick Orman, Morgan Robertson, Mitchell Tsokatos, Grant Wilkinson, and Zachary Young from Chelsea High School; Brandon Beers, Marjorie Blanton, Jared Cleghorn, Hannah Crowe, Nigel Dollentas, Taylor Handley, Savannah Key, Ian Kramer, Samantha Moon, Katherine Moore, Philip Parker, Stephen Pitts, Boston Sharp, Trevor Smith, and Nicholas Williamson from Helena High School; Samuel Reece from Montevallo High School; Armeen Barghi, Madeline Barnhill, Ashley Burt, Arianna Candelaria-Fouse, Casey Carre, Nathan Evans, Sade Gabier, Kathryn Harris, Gabriel Helu, Kathryn Holt, William Laycock, Cassie Ledbetter, Elizabeth Matta, Evan McPeak, Thomas Price, Goodwin Rhodes, Sara Scherer, Gunnar Schultz, Thomas Short, Nathan , Stephenson, Lyndsey Stott, Samantha Taylor, Colby Wetzel, Sarah Whitley, Michael Whitner, Kara Wingard, and Mohammad Zuaiter from Oak Mountain High School; and Jackson Bailey, Faryn Fryer, Merritt Harmon, Gabriel Hunt, Cameron Jackson, Sean Peeler, and Samantha Slaughter from Shelby County High School.

 

 Also honored were 12th grade students from each high school who had been nominated and selected for the ACT College and Career Readiness Award.  Students selected for this award were honored for their academic achievements, as well as participating in extra curricular and community activities.  Students selected for this honor were Aidan Ryan from Calera High School, Tanner Sulser from Chelsea High School; Grant Beard from Helena High School;   Gregory Spence from Montevallo High School;  Chase Stiffler from Oak Mountain High School;   Virginia Mack from Shelby County College and Career Center; Somer Hall from Shelby County High School; and Keenan Wallace from Vincent High School.