Local students recognized for being top five percent in their class
Story By Katie Hightower
On May 6, the Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce held its annual All-County Academic Banquet. For the past 47 years, outstanding students throughout Jackson County were recognized for their academic achievement of being in the top five percent of students in their class. There was a large turnout for the event including teachers, school administrators, city and county leaders and families of the students.
Brian Presson, Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce Chairman, welcomed the crowd. After his welcoming speech, DJ Smith from The Well Family and Worship Center gave the invocation. Sheriff, Rocky Harnen led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance and Scottsboro High School student, Jaycie Smith, sang the U.S. National Anthem.
Krystina Jackson, Assistant District Attorney of the 38th Judicial Circuit, was the keynote speaker. She also had been honored at the All-County Academic Banquet when she was in school. Jackson had accomplished many feats throughout her academic career and worked hard to achieve them. She said as the students get recognized for various awards at various events, it can become easy to define themselves by their accomplishments. She said it takes everything to define a person: the good and bad times, the happy times, the heartbreaks, the parts we love to talk about and the parts we don’t talk about to anyone.
“In the end, your accomplishments—don’t get me wrong, they are absolutely to be celebrated. You should very much be proud of yourselves this evening. They are milestones that you can check yourself along the way in the ups and downs of life to make sure you’re still working towards your goals. But it is your failures, your struggles, the times when you are not at your best, the times that you don’t want to talk about. Those are the times that make you who you are. So as you go out in to the world, I want you to remember that everything you have done, where you have gotten to tonight, where you will get in life — it is not in spite of what you have faced but it is because of it. So be proud of who you are, be proud of where you are from and if you ever doubt yourself, just know that we’re proud of you too,” Jackson said.
After Jackson’s speech, Rick Roden, President and CEO of Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce, conducted the award presentation. As the students’ names were announced, their schools’ superintendents, Amy Childress and Jason Davidson, distributed the awards to them.
North Jackson High School winners were Cooper Blizard, Irma Estrada, Jameshia Walker, Laurel Mantooth and Macy Brooks.
North Sand Mountain winners were Avery Cooper Landon Keller, Lily McBryar and Macayla Baty.
Pisgah winners were Bryant Burgess, Julianne Davis, Legion McCrary and Luke Gilbert.
Section winners were Benjamin Prather, Chloe Holcomb and Shelby Putnam.
Skyline winners were Katie Roach, Nevaeh Buchanan and William Avans.
Woodville winners were Charity Misterka and Olivia Parker
Scottsboro winners were Arlen Parr, Bryce Orgill, Ethan Evetts, Jaycie Smith, Jordan Sosebee, Josh Laney, Judd Black and Mary Bonsall.
All winners were presented with plaques and had their pictures taken. Congratulations!