On Wednesday, April 29, nine seniors from St. George’s were recognized as academic all-stars at the 2015 Academic All-Star Luncheon for the Memphis area. The event was held at the Hilton in Memphis, Tenn., and was sponsored by Republic Services.

Throughout the year, high school seniors were nominated for this title by their teachers and recognized in the weekly spread in the Commercial Appeal. The luncheon was held to recognize the 197 nominees, out of 25 thousand to 30 thousand seniors eligible in the Memphis area and to award the finalists.

“It was a big honor because it was out of all of the Memphis area and I think around 200 or so were chosen out of the thousands of seniors in Memphis, and that’s a really big deal,” senior Allie Buckmaster, who was nominated in the drama and speech category, said.

The ten achievement categories for the competition are drama and speech, art, english and literature, foreign language, mathematics, music, science, social science and history, career-technical, and general scholarship, and seniors

Nine seniors, Anna Marie Beard, Kathryn Heard, Nathan Weinreich, Hallie Gillam, Rebecca Matson, Julia Spinolo, Cole McLemore, Josh Walker and Buckmaster represented seven out of the ten categories, ranging from arts to sciences to general scholarship.

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam was also present and gave the commencement speech congratulating the nominees.

“It was really interesting to hear Governor Haslam speak,” Julia Spinolo, who was nominated in the general scholarship category, said. “He did a wonderful job and his words really stuck with me.”

Out of the 197 nominees that were named as an academic all-star, one from the nine subject categories and two from the general scholarship category were named as finalists. No St. George’s students were finalists, but many stated that they were grateful for the opportunity to eat lunch with their friends and family and be nominated.

“I’m so happy to be nominated, and I think my nomination really helped me stand out, especially in the college application process,” Spinolo said.