Top Poplar Bluff High School senior Addison Shell has been awarded the $1,000 Missouri School Boards’ Association annual student scholarship from 220 applicants submitted throughout the region.
The student was formally recognized during the Board of Education meeting held Thursday, April 18, in the Administrative Building.
“She hit some good competition along the way, and came out on top,” school board member Dave Elledge said.
Addison will go on to compete among the individual recipients of the organization’s 17 regions for the statewide $1,500 scholarship, the winner of which will be honored during the MSBA Summer Summit in Branson in June. MSBA awards $18,500 annually under the scholarship initiative through its FutureBuilders Foundation.
With plans to attend Saint Louis University, Addison is presently undecided on her major, she shared. Initially, she was leaning toward political science with a desire to help shape government policies, perhaps as an analyst, she wrote in her successful essay.
She told a story about how she worked so hard during her junior year to organize a service project that coincided with the homecoming assembly, court recognition at the football game and subsequent dance that she had fallen ill from exhaustion. This experience taught Addison the value of the community she had helped foster through her leadership post as a member of Student Council.
“I realized that people cannot only rely on themselves; they must rely on others,” Addison stated. “…A strong support system and community can pull together and do great things.”