Photo by Samantha Davis Left to right, Marshall High School seniors Ryan Botsford, Carter Gehrke, Jack Gunn and middle schooler Glober Htoo received student recognition for Tiger Spotlight nominated by school faculty Monday evening at the school board meeting. Not pictured are Carolina Ramon Ramos, Kaden VanBronkhorst and Patrick Helderson.

MARSHALL — The Marshall Public School Board honored a handful of students from the elementary schools, middle school, high school and Area Learning Center Monday evening in a meeting for Tiger Spotlight.

Students were nominated by their principals or teachers, and recognize the hard work and accomplishments they’ve been doing.

“This is my favorite part of any board meeting that we do all year,” board chair Matt Coleman said.

High school seniors Ryan Botsford, Carter Gehrke and Jack Gunn are semifinalists in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, in a pool of 16,000 other students around the country. They have the opportunity to compete for around 6,870 National Merit Scholarships that will be awarded, worth nearly $26 million collectively.

Over 1.3 million students around 21,000 high schools entered the program by taking the 2023 preliminary qualifying test. The group of semifinalists represent less than 1% of all United States high school seniors and include the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

To become a finalist, the student and a high school official will next submit another application including academic record, proof of participation in the community, leadership abilities, employment and other honors received.

National Merit Scholarship semifinalists will be notified if they advance to the finalist level in February, and winners will be announced in four nationwide news releases between April and July.

Carolina Ramon Ramos was the Area Learning Center’s selected student.

“You are kind and respectful to students and work extremely hard to keep your grades up in class. Even when you are absent, you go above and beyond to do your work,” teacher Ann Richardson said in a presentation given to the board. “Your work demonstrates thoughtfulness and consideration to whatever the topic of the assignment.”

A group of eighth grade teachers nominated Glober Htoo as the middle school Tiger Spotlight student. He was described as having exceptional kindness, work ethic and always having a positive attitude. He is also involved in soccer, and does well in time management and organizational skills.

Kaden VanBronkhorst was Southview Elementary’s recognized student, nominated by teacher Jamie MacKinnon.

“Kaden is such a wonderful student. He is always showing Tiger Pride, and he is kind to everyone. In our classroom we have a student that is new to the district, and Kaden has been so welcoming and helpful with this student,” MacKinnon said.”Kaden is always willing to participate in class and he has such well thought out answers. He is a great role model for his peers, and I am so happy he is in my classroom this year.”

The final student comes from Park Side Elementary, as Jamie Brigger nominated Patrick Helderson.

“Patrick is a sponge. He loves taking in all and any information he has learned during the day and then shows his knowledge in his writing,” Brigger said. ” What sets Patrick apart is he also encourages others in their writing. He will say, ‘You can do it,’ or ‘Mistakes help you learn,’ when others are struggling. He is an all-around amazing first grade writer.”

The board plans to continue to host a Tiger Spotlight section and honor district students in one meeting each month.