For the fifth year in a row, Oscar Adams Elementary School is the only school in the district that has had a student recognized as a Carson Scholar in Alabama. For four of those years including this year that student has been selected for national recognition.
Fifth-grader Xylia Scott has been chosen for the honor for the 2020-2021 academic year. She was one of just three students in Alabama recognized for the accomplishment.
“I was really excited and also surprised,” said Xylia about receiving the award, “but I was really happy.”
Carson Scholars is a nonprofit organization founded in 1994 by pediatric neurosurgeon and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson. The award began in 1996 and through the years has been given to 10,000 students.
Cooper Smith sat at home before his computer screen as part of a virtual small-group meeting with the Etowah County 4-H Youth Council. A seventh-grader at Hokes Bluff Middle School, Cooper was attending his first meeting as a member of the Etowah County 4-H Youth Council, and even though it was a virtual small-group meeting, he was excited.
His group leader, Jacob Hodes, explained that they were looking for ways to hold their end-of-year 4-H banquet, which had been canceled because of COVID-19. Jacob asked the group to brainstorm ways that 300 people might socially distance, yet safely celebrate the accomplishments of all Etowah County 4-H’ers.