The Marionette would like to congratulate seniors Conner Mulvaney and Isaiah Gilley for their achievement of earning Academic All State. This prestigious award is awarded to the top 100 public high school students across the state. Historically, Harding Charter Prep has only had one Academic All State qualifyer; however, Gilley and Mulvaney both qualified.

“For two students being selected in such a small school, it really says a lot about the students,” said college counselor Kate Ferguson.

In order to qualify for nomination, students must have a minimum ACT score of 30 or be a National Merit semifinalist. The selected student must write an essay with the given prompt and are observed based on their academic and leadership qualities as well as extracurricular activities.

“Initially whenever I signed up for it, Mrs. Ferguson said I should do this [All State application]. I didn’t even know it existed but I wrote the essay about education. I kind of expected to get some sort of notification back but I wasn’t expecting to get the money,” Mulvaney said.

The winning students are awarded with a renewable $1000 scholarship.

“When I told my dad he just said ‘Oh, another award,'” Gilley said. Gilley was also awarded with the National Merit scholarship earlier in the year and will be attending the University of Oklahoma in the fall.

Gilley and Mulvaney may have been awarded with the top awards in the state, but it doesn’t make them any different from other hard working students.

“I’m not going to say I’m smarter than other people, because that isn’t true. The fact is that I make a horrid sacrifice between social life and school work. To some, social life is more important,” Mulvaney said.

Some advice given by both students to future seniors are to continue working hard or, as Mulvaney said,  “keep soldiering on and keep pushing forward.”