Homewood students will be recognized for their hard work and exemplary attitude at the Homewood Chamber of Commerce’s annual Excellence in Education luncheon.
Each student will be honored at the luncheon on April 15 as a recipient of the Excellence in Education award.
“The principal and faculty at each school select an exemplary student as their school winner,” said McCall Hardison, Homewood City Schools’ director of communications. “Each school has its own process for selecting a winner, but all winners have excelled as individuals and as students possessing the ideals of character, scholarship, leadership and service.”
Each school has its own process for selecting a winner, but all winners have excelled as individuals and as students possessing the ideals of character, scholarship, leadership and service.
McCall Hardison
This year’s award recipients are Tru Egbe, Sutton Yates, Reid Smith, Meila Dominick and Luke Binet. Egbe is a fifth grader at Hall-Kent Elementary, while Yates is in fifth grade at Edgewood Elementary. Smith, also a fifth grader, attends Shades Cahaba Elementary, and Dominick is in eighth grade at Homewood Middle School.
Binet, a senior at Homewood High School, is on the physics team, plays tennis, serves as head drum major in the school’s band and plays the tenor saxophone. He was also recently named a National Merit Finalist — an honor earned by taking the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).
More than 1 million students take the exam, and about 50,000 of them are honored by the National Merit Scholarship Program. However, only 16,000 go on to be recognized as semifinalists, and about 15,000 of those students advance to the finalist round.
National Merit Finalists demonstrate a high level of academic achievement and represent the top 1% of high school seniors in the United States.
Finalists compete for one of roughly 6,870 National Merit Scholarships, worth nearly $26 million, that will be awarded this spring. About half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.
The chamber has partnered with Homewood City Schools to recognize these students and the city's school system for at least 16 years, according to chamber director Shay Gartman.
Regions Bank is the presenting sponsor for this year’s luncheon and will give brief remarks before presenting Binet with a $1,000 scholarship check.
Additionally, Vulcan Park and Museum will have a marketing booth at the luncheon to promote its summer activities.
Chamber members can register to attend the luncheon at business.homewoodchamber.org/events. The deadline to register is April 10.
