Recently, the District’s Special Administrative Board, CLEAR and ITEF honored three outstanding participants from the benefiting programs by awarding each student with the Spirit of Excellence Award and a Kodak Zi8 camera.  Please congratulate:

·         Wonnell Byrd, the 2011 Valedictorian of Big Picture Academy, earned the Spirit of Excellence Award for exceptional academic achievements at Ranken Technical College. Working five hours a day for five days a week, Byrd earned a 3.8 GPA in the Industrial Technology Associate Degree program through the District’s Ranken Technical College Dual Enrollment Program.

·         India Riggins, a junior from Clyde C. Miller Career Academy specializing in the Biotechnology pathway, earned the Spirit of Excellence Award for her extraordinary participation the St. Louis University Anatomy Program. She worked with medical students at St. Louis University on dissections and then took the knowledge back to Clyde C. Miller Career Academy to teach sophomores how different organs function and how to properly dissect specimens. 

·         Adam Benckendorf, a junior from Metro Academic and Classical Academy, earned the Spirit of Excellence Award for his remarkable performance with the Saturday Scholars program sponsored by the University of Missouri’s School of Medicine and by the Washington University’s School of Medicine. The program, which focuses on medicine and human anatomy, brought students to the anatomy labs at both major universities for immersion experiences. Benckendorf stood out from his peers with his engaging attitude while shadowing doctors, performing dissections, and touring medical departments.