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Monday, 30 June 2008 |
Student earns ICS scholarship
Gabriel Poe is the 2008 Oktibbeha County Institute of Community Services Inc. (ICS) scholarship recipient. Gabriel is a graduating senior from West Oktibbeha County High School where he was a member of the Future Educators Association, Chess Club, Oktibbeha County 4-H, Student Council and Beta Club.
Poe's several honors include: all district baseball; all district football; all regional football; most valuable player-football; English, world history, chemistry; psychology; sociology; drug safety; Citizenship (4-H); Outstanding (4-H); I Dare Young (4-H); and Standard of Excellence (4-H). Other achievements noted by Poe were 4-H state parliamentarian; 4-H state vice-president, member of the 4-H State Leadership Team; member of the state Health Rocks Team (4-H); class president for five years, president of Controllers (4-H); and Legislative Day in Jackson (4-H).
Poe is the son of Raymond and Cathleen Poe and is an active member of St. Paul M. B. Church where he was involved in the youth choir; male choir and praise team; Whitefield District Convention; Northeast Baptist State Convention; Northeast Baptist Congress; Bible class; and Sunday school.
Poe has been admitted to East Mississippi Community College.
Each year the Institute of Community Services Inc. awards scholarships to 13 area high school students in each of the counties served by the agency in the amount of $1,000.
Arvern Moore, executive director of ICS, states that funds raised from the Community Friends of ICS Gospel Extravaganza supports this effort with Stella Award winners Lee Williams and The Spiritual QC’s, Doc McKenzie and the Hi-Lites and the William Brothers to name a few.
SHS student receives national award
Cooper Kennard, a student at Starkville High School, has received The Alexander Hamilton Citizenship Achievement Award for superior citizenship and achievement in national competition. Hamilton Awards are given annually by the Alexander Hamilton Friends Association (AHFA) of Seattle, Wash. The Hamilton Award includes a cash award; copy of the biography, Alexander Hamilton, autographed by its author Ron Chernow; a celebratory proclamation signed by Doug Hamilton, the fifth great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton; and other items.
Kennard was one of 50 from all over the United States who received cash awards. Candidates are judged on their personal and community service achievements. Achievement criteria include a general category as well as scholastic and entrepreneurial categories. Service includes service to the community at large and service to the student's school.
"The award was very competitive this year – over 400 applicants. We wish we could have made many more awards. We received applications from over 40 states and the District of Columbia," said George T. Cox, president of the AHFA. "Our goal is to identify young people who have set high standards for citizenship and achievement in their lives. We are very excited about, Cooper's potential for future greatness. The Starkville community is lucky to have him as a resident."
When Cooper's achievements are reviewed it is easy to see why the Seattle-based organization was so impressed.
Kennard is an extraordinary student, actor and organizer.
“I am motivated by the fact that I’m a perfectionist as well as the fact that I like working for what I have,” Kennard said.
Kennard grade point average is a perfect 4.0, and he is currently ranked number one in his class. He is very proud of his academic accomplishments and because of his achievements has been selected for National Honor Roll, Who’s Who Among American High School Students, U.S. Achievement Academy, National Society of High School Scholars and was elected Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi American Legion Boys State.
Theatre is one of Kennard's greatest passions and he spends much of his time outside of school on the stage. He has been interested in theatre for years and plans to be a professional actor. This year he competed in the Mississippi Theatre Association Drama Festival and was awarded the title of Best Supporting Actor in the state and was selected as a member of the Regional Festival All-Star Cast.
Outside of school, Kennard is very involved in his school and his community. In fact, he even founded an organization called Project Armstrong. This organization raises funds and gathers supplies to help The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital’s Ronald McDonald House families whose children are receiving treatment for cancer.
Kennard's other community service activities include: assistant chairman of the Northeast Mississippi Youth Foundation Board, monthly volunteer for Mandi Green Ministries and serving as one of the 18 members of Mississippi Youth Engaged in Service with the Mississippi Commission for Volunteer Service.
Kennard's community involvement is recognized throughout the state. This year he received both the Mississippi Governor's Initiative for Volunteer Excellence and the Jefferson Award and was named a Prudential Spirit of Community finalist.
Kennard is very connected with his family and finds them extremely uplifting and supportive.
“Both my parents have played an important role in my development as a leader and a student, and my 90-year-old grandfather would have to be the most influential person in my life,” he said.
In its first four years, the AHFA has recognized nearly 300 young people for superior service and achievement.
"These young people give us tremendous hope. With proper attitude, support, experiences and inspiration I have no doubt they will achieve great things in their lives," Cox said.
The organization is named for Alexander Hamilton, one of the most important of the 18th century group of people known as founding fathers. He was born out of wedlock in the West Indies. When he was nine, his father abandoned the family, leaving young Alexander, his brother, and their mother Rachel without a penny. Hamilton's mother died only a few years later, when he was thirteen. Yet within seven years, and barely out of his teens, he was appointed an aide to Gen. George Washington.
While a member of Washington's staff, Hamilton was invaluable. After the Revolution while still in his twenties, Hamilton emerged as one of the great legal minds of his day. He strongly opposed the institution of slavery, was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and authored of over half of the Federalist Papers - all before his 30th birthday. As the first treasury secretary of the United States, Hamilton was an administrative genius whose vision and policies turned a bankrupt collection of former colonies into a carefully-financed union with a stable, sought-after currency. His ideas are central to our capitalist banking system today, and form the core themes that regulate the Federal Reserve System.
"When you tell high school students these facts," said Cox, "their eyes light up, and they listen. There is something about Hamilton that is instantly engaging, disarming and current. Kids can identify with him as with no other founder!"
"America is a meritocracy and our history is filled with the names of the great. We believe our continued vitality — indeed our survival as a nation — depends on our ability to recognize, reward and promote those who have the ability to dream and deliver great things — to pull us up from the chaos of the present," Cox said. "We are dedicated to finding young people who are capable of achieving greatness in the years to come. They and we will be much the better for it."
"Our vision is to preserve Hamilton's legacy by energizing tomorrow's leaders," he said. "We feel the best way to do this is to help today’s young Hamiltons more fully achieve their potential so they will make for a better America tomorrow. And that will preserve his legacy, which is really a living one – the United States itself. Hamilton has no major monument in Washington D. C – some say none is needed, because the United States is his monument.”
Bio-sketches of this year’s winners and those from 2006 and 2007 can be found on the Hamilton Friends Web site at http://www.hamiltonfriends.org.
Starkville teen recognized as national leader in birth defects education
Claire Crawford, a 17-year-old high school student in Starkville, is the 2008 recipient of the Cleft Palate Foundation's Parent-Patient Leadership Award.
At the age of 14, Crawford began actively developing her role as advocate for and educator about individuals affected by cleft lip, palate and other craniofacial birth defects. Her advocacy and education activities have taken her as near to her home as local Kiwanis and Rotary groups and as far away as Cebu City, Philippines.
Crawford's service history includes:
• $13,000 raised to date for purchase and distribution of teddy bears with repaired cleft lips.
• Founding the Operation Smile Student Association at Starkville High School. To date, the student organization has raised more than $10,000 for the international medical aid organization, Operation Smile.
• Serving on a medical mission team traveling to Cebu City, Philippines, in March 2008.
• Multiple presentations to various local, state and national civic and service organizations, hospitals and universities.
Crawford, born with a clef lip and palate, said she always took a stuffed animal along with her to her own surgeries as a child. Nine surgeries later, she has grown into an advocate for individuals and families also affected by craniofacial birth defects. Among her goals is to give them a voice to be heard and understood along with a bear for comfort and companionship as they face their own hospital experiences.
Crawford accepted the Parent-Patient Leadership award at the annual meeting of the American Cleft Palate Craniofacial Association and Cleft Palate Foundation in Philadelphia, Penn., on April 17.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 July 2008 )
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