African-American group honors outstanding students

Two Hanford High seniors received top honors Sunday from the Tri-City chapter of Afro-Americans for an Academic Society.

Mariah Kelly, 17, of Pasco, and Elwood Davis III, 18, of Richland, were honored during the ceremony marking the group’s 40th anniversary. They each received a laptop computer for maintaining a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0 since the fourth-grade.

Mariah and Elwood also received scholarships from the organization. Mariah said she plans to attend Washington State University at Pullman to study sports management. Elwood also will attend WSU. He has not settled on a future career but plans to study business or finance.

In all, 31 high school seniors received more than $40,000 in scholarships during the annual awards ceremony. And more than 500 students were honored for meeting the organization’s GPA requirements, said president Sharon Straws.

The keynote speaker was Anthony Brown, one of the first students to go through the chapter’s program.

This story was originally published May 16, 2016 at 5:43 PM with the headline "African-American group honors outstanding students."