By Staff
Each month, students are nominated for character trait awards at Newton County Elementary School. A drawing is held to select three students to represent the nominees.
The character trait for March was "courage," and the winners were J.C. Alexander, Kyle Dunkerson and Tommy Griffin.
The April character winners were Vivek Gosai, Lauren Lurk and Jacob Strebeck. The character trait for April was "honesty."
Tracy Holliman is chairman of the character program.
The winner of the first annual Mississippi Manufacturing Association/East Mississippi Manufacturing Association scholarship is Flora Sumrall.
Sumrall lives in Shubuta and is a graduate of Quitman High School. She is married to David Sumrall and has a daughter, Delysia.
Sumrall is enrolled in the Business Office Technology Program, with an emphasis in Medical Office Technology, at Meridian Community College. She will begin her second year in the fall. She currently has a 3.98 grade point average at MCC.
She was employed for 16 years at Burlington Industries in Stonewall until the plant closed last year. She had been out of school for 20 years before enrolling at MCC.
Sumrall is a member of Phi Beta Lambda and Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. She placed third in the state competition for medical terminology and earned an honorable mention in the Meridian Community College Literary Review for an essay.
East Mississippi Community College honored top students during its annual Awards Day April 29 on the Scooba Campus.
Brandon Flake of Collinsville received the freshman forestry award and Jeremy Creel of Meridian received the sophomore forestry award.
Justin Ward of Lauderdale received a collegian award, granted to students who do outstanding work for the college's student newspaper.
Emily Hardy of Meridian received the art award and Cassie Chance of Meridian received a collegian award.
Christine A. Maust, of Meridian, is among the 233 students who will receive diplomas Sunday during Goshen College's 105th annual commencement exercises. She will receive a bachelor's degree in social work.
Maust is a graduate of Meridian High School and attends Jubilee Mennonite Church. She is the daughter of Duane and Elaine Maust of Meridian.
Goshen College is a national liberal arts college known for leadership in international education, service-learning and peace and justice issues in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college has about 1,000 students in both traditional and nontraditional programs.
The college earned citations of excellence in U.S. News &World Report and Barron's Best Buys in Higher Education.