The Pike County Chamber of Commerce hosted its third annual Mississippi Scholars banquet Monday night at First Baptist Church in Summit, honoring a group of well-rounded high school seniors for their achievements, with some receiving scholarships.
Wendy Smith, vice president of the chamber’s education division, said that in order to be a Mississippi Scholar, students must follow a rigorous course of study, donate 40 hours of community service, score a 16 or higher on the ACT, maintain a 2.5 GPA, attended 95 percent of school days and receive no out of school suspensions.
Across the county, 147 scholars were identified, and 51 of those students applied for a scholarship from the program.
Smith said the goal was to give every scholar who applies some form of scholarship, and the group came close with 38 scholarships totaling $15,750. To be considered for a scholarship, students must fill out an application, submit a resumé and write an essay.
Southwest Mississippi Community College awarded eight $1,000 scholarships to two students from each school: Abigail Hooks and Erin Smith of North Pike High School, Raykesha Carter and Alexandria Bridges of McComb High School, Bernard Nichols and Sanetra Forbes of South Pike High School, and Joshua Hutson and Jacob Shepherd of Parklane Academy.
North Pike senior Dalton Pruitt received the $500 Carl Dunaway/Burger King Scholarship, and the chamber raised enough donations to give 29 $250 scholarships.
McComb High School seniors Crishuna Bell, Dorian Felder, Ariel Hutson, T’Keyah Jones, Lanessa Jordan, Zacchaeus McEwen and Zachary Schilling received $250 scholarships.
The North Pike students include Danaraye Parks, McKenzie Brock, Jacob Reed, Cameron Crawford, Kalie Green, Briana Tobias, Helen Henderson and Seth Nieman.
For Parklane Academy, Jennifer Mary, Madison Caire, Rachel Reeder, Bailey Terrell, Brittany Watson, Taylor Jeffcoat and Tanner Whittington received scholarships.And at South Pike, Renesha Cook, Niasha Davis, Dale Hall, Ashunti Robinson, Ravin Washington, Oliver Williams and Jawanna Wilson received scholarships.
Speaker Margaret Ann Morgan, a McComb High School alum, returned home less than a year after graduating from the University of Mississippi and moving to Hattiesburg to be a reporter for NBC affiliate WDAM.
Morgan spoke about the importance of high school accomplishments long down the road, even though they won’t always hold a spot on a resumé.
“Your resumé is ever-changing with things you do, but the things listed there that you’ve been so involved with since the ninth grade — what’s listed isn’t the important part, it’s what you’ve learned that’s intangible and can’t be described on a sheet of paper,” Morgan said. “It’s the character that’s built. It’s the morals that you learn. It’s the work ethic that you produce. It’s the role models you have. It’s the role model you’ve become for others.
“It’s so much more than cheerleading captain, or baseball all-star, or academic honors. There’s so much more to a resumé than what you list.”
Morgan encouraged the class of 2014 to follow their dreams and become brilliant adults while never forgetting where they came from and how they achieved those goals.
“You’re going to throw out your resumé from high school at some point in college,” she said. “But what you’re not going to throw out is the person you’ve become.”
Sponsors for the banquet, catered by Jolimar Summit, were Bus Supply Co., Pike Center Mart, Southwest Mississippi Community College and Weyerhaeuser.
Other sponsors include Clark Construction, C Spire, Entergy Mississippi, International Paper, McComb Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Neel-Schaffer, Pike National Bank and Trustmark National Bank.
