Academic excellence was celebrated Sunday with four Tri-City students receiving top honors for earning good grades since fourth grade.
Akwasi Abrefah, 17, from Hanford High, Brittany Townsend, 18, from Richland High, Tujuan Colbray, 18 from Pasco High and Dar-Ci Calhoun, 18 from Pasco High each received $3,000 scholarships and desktop computers at the Afro-Americans for an Academic Society's annual awards banquet at the Pasco Red Lion.
AAAS recognizes black students in grades four through 12 who maintain a cumulative 3.0 GPA or higher for three consecutive quarters of each school year.
The four seniors honored met the goal for nine consecutive years.
"Once I realized the opportunity this provided, I knew I needed to be all nine years," said Calhoun, who has a 3.4 GPA.
The daughter of Alicia Upton of Pasco and Darcy Calhoun of Pensacola, Fla., has wanted to be a doctor "since I was a little girl," and plans to study pre-med at the University of Washington.
Abrefah, the son of Rita and John Abrefah of Richland, has a 3.91 GPA and plans to attend Stanford University, where he'll study physics and psychology.
He said being a nine-year AAAS recipient is a "good accomplishment" and it's fun to see other blacks in the community making studying a priority.
Townsend, the daughter of Christy Caldwell and Jaime Townsend, both of Pasco, agreed that AAAS is a good program for black students to get a chance to get scholarship help.
Townsend, who has a 3.5 GPA, plans to attend Victoria's Academy of Cosmetology in Kennewick to become a hairstylist.
Colbray said he first heard of AAAS when his brother hit his fourth or fifth year, but he missed it one year when his grades dropped.
"I told myself every year I want to have a 3.0 to be one of the top seniors in the class," said the son of Wanda Gilmore of Pasco and Dean Colbray of Anchorage, Alaska.
Colbray, who has a 3.5 GPA, achieved his goal and now has his sights set on getting a degree in marketing. He plans to attended Columbia Basin College for two years and then transfer to a four-year school.
Keynote speaker Dr. Sheila Edwards Lange, vice president of minority affairs and vice provost for diversity at the University of Washington, challenged all the students in the room to learn about their history, legacy and inheritance.
Lange also took a cue from a quote in the awards program by UCLA basketball coach John Wooden -- "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts" -- and told the students it's a simple, but important thing to remember.
"To me ... academic excellence is always asking why," she said. "... We need you in our community. We need you to answer those questions that have not even been asked because you weren't in the room."
This year, 236 students were recognized, including 27 seniors. About $34,500 in scholarships were given to 18 seniors who were AAAS recipients this year and one other year in high school.
Each senior also received a Collegiate Dictionary/Thesaurus from Fantastic Sam's Hair Salon.
The desktop computers given to the top four honorees were donated by Lockheed Martin/IT and Fantastic Sam's Hair Salon.
Scholarships were sponsored by United Way contributors, Tri-City Herald, Bechtel, Fluor, Ch2MHill, Drs. Feyi and Andy Ward, Battelle, American Tax Consultant Inc. (Wayne Jackson), AACCES, Roach & Petersen LLP, Baker & Giles P.S., Pioneer Lodge No. 39, Fantastic Sam's, Lockheed Martin/IT, Columbia Basin College, Department of Energy, New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, Mr. and Mrs. Ron Wade, Tommy's Steel & Salvage Inc., Morning Star Baptist Church and Group Health Cooperative.
Other scholarship recipients
* Danielle Amparan, Ashley Boge, Kylee Frazier, Christopher Schmidt and Audrayona Wirth, $500 each.
* Kye Freeman, Tameka Harris, Cassandra Sanders, $700 each.
* Whitney Hughes, $900.
* Tanisha Cole, and Timothy Kirima, $1,100 each.
* Garrett Woods, $1,300.
* Jordan En'Wezoh, $1,700
* Tujuan Colbray and Shakell Walker, $3,500 each from the Fluor Hanford CBC Scholarship and the CBC Department of Diversity.
* Whitney Hughes and Destynee Morris, $1,000 each from Tri-Cities WA Chapter of the Links Inc.
* Tameka Harris, $300 from Miss Juneteenth Scholarship.
* Dar-Ci Calhoun, $2,500 from Miss Juneteenth Scholarship.
* Other seniors honored were Shawndea Avant, Jez'Reel Carson, Aaron Carson, Rachel Foster, Mapiyid Goha, Trinidad Gonzalez, Winston Stafford, Tremayne Turner and Jazmin Watson.
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