The Shelby County Board of Education honored the district’s top scholars at the Superintendent’s Super Scholars Awards held March 8 at Helena High School. The awards night is designed to honor the academic achievement of high school students throughout the Shelby County School District.

The guest speaker for the event was Shelby County Assistant District Attorney Daniel McBrayer.

Students who were honored included 2016 National Merit Finalists, 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, and the 2016 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, which is awarded to students who score in the top one percent.

This year, there are three students from Shelby County who have been named National Merit Finalists. They are Chelsea Ivy from Chelsea High School, William Cooper McMeans from Helena High School and Jake Elkins from Oak Mountain High School.

Nine students were honored as National Merit Commended Students.  These students scored in the top five percent in the nation on the PSAT.  Those honored included Christian Fauer, Gabriella Hartman, and Meg Wilson from Chelsea High School; Jordan Ingram and Brody Rhodes from Helena High School; and Julia Bray, Julia Buckner, William Dobson and Daniel Stanton from Oak Mountain High School.

High school seniors across the nation that score exceptionally well on either the SAT or ACT are invited to apply to be considered for the Presidential Scholar Program, which 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 following students were honored as Presidential Scholar Candidates: Elizabeth Hurley from Chelsea High School, Cameron Giordano from Oak Mountain High School, and Landon Bentley from Shelby County High School who recently scored a perfect 36 on the ACT.

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 Jordan Mooney, Calera High School; John Tyler Guess from Chelsea High School; Jordan Ingram from Helena High School; Kelli Sellers from Montevallo High School; Aleksandra Foksinska and Joshita Suresh (tie) from Oak Mountain High School; Landon Bentley from Shelby County High School; and Jada Harris from Vincent High School.

Others honored as Super Scholars included 10th-grade students who exhibited outstanding performance on the Fall PSAT/NMSQT and 12th-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.

Advanced Placement Scholars with Distinction awards were given to students who receive an 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 that were taken on full-year courses.  Julia Bray and Aleksandra Foksinska from Oak Mountain High School were honored.

Advanced Placement Scholars with Honor is awarded to students who receive an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP exams taken and scores of 3.0 or higher on four or more of the exams that were taken on full-year courses.  Students who received this award were Christian Fauer and John Tyler Guess from Chelsea High School and William Dobson, Cameron Giordano, Daniel Stanton from Oak Mountain High School. 

Advanced Placement Scholars awards were given to students who receive scores of 3.0 or higher on three or more AP exams that were taken on full-year courses.  Honored were Kristen Hamby, Gabriella Hartman, Elizabeth Hurley, Kennedy Ivy, Tyler Richardson, and Claire Wilson from Chelsea High School; Jordan Ingram and Jarred Wheeler from Helena High School; Lindsey Aston, Hannah Atkins, Julia Buckner, Lyric Buxton, Sean Drummond, Jacob Elkins, Taylor Fondren, Robert Fuller, Reid Golson, Hunter Holstad, Claire Kicklighter, Hannah Kniphfer, Tristan Macke, Nealy Martin, Yeadon Patrick, Holden Paz, Jared Rocha, Sarah Beth Sanford, Emily Schramek, Joshita Suresh, Kathryn Tautkus, Halle Thannickal, and Nicholas Young from Oak Mountain High School; Landon Bentley and Noah Reece from Shelby County High School; and Chaney Cooper from Vincent High School.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PSAT Scholars who were honored included: Jessica Bausch, Emma Bunyard, Carter Burleson, Ahmad Elgazzar, Meagan Eubanks, Evan Mealins, Michael Middleton, Jonah Moore, Patricia Noel, Alexander Rettig, Morgan Seay, and Samuel Towery from Chelsea High School; Christopher Adams, Jace Aldrich, Lauren Beagle, James Brakefield, Laurel Briley, Blake Bullock, Ashley Causey, Alyson Chandler, Mara Davis, Peyton Farmer, Zane Forbus, Quinn Frank, Joshua Garner, Katie Graham, Justice Houser, Ashlyn McClearia, Elizabeth McFall, William Melton, Mary Oehrlein, Joshua Pastor, Samantha Pearce, Madison Rhodes, Julia Stith, Patrick Vaughn, Rebecca Wolf, and Noah Yawn from Helena High School; Jesse Evans from Montevallo High School: Daniel Adwell, Kaylie Beard, Lawson Brown, Jan Foksinski, Alyssa Gruman, Mary Hannum, Jovanna Kloss, Emery Little, Gabriel McPherson, Wyatt Mercer, Steve Namkoong, Amelia Patrick, Joseph Pendry, Mitchel Pinkston, Lindsay Roberts, Alden Rogan, Hunter Rush, Olivia Shivers, Jonathan Stroud, Trae Stroud, Cole Sullivan, Alex Thomas, Samantha Whitt, Warron Wilcox, Samuel Williams, and Omar Zuaiter from Oak Mountain High School; Savannah Brown, Alexander Hyatt, Coleman Jeffries, Kobe Martin, Charity Miller, Charles Morris, and Trenton Sullivan, from Shelby County High School; and Broxton Sanders from Vincent High School.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students who scored in the top five percent on the PSAT were given the Larry Headrick Award, which is named for the district’s former High School Coordinator.  Students who were honored were Evan Mealins from Chelsea High School; Jace Aldrich, Blake Bullock, Alyson Chandler, Peyton Farmer, Quinn Frank, and William Melton from Helena High School; Lawson Brown, Alyssa Gruman, Gabriel McPherson, Joseph Pendry, Olivia Shivers and Cole Sullivan from Oak Mountain High School; and Coleman Jeffries and Charles Morris from Shelby County High School.