Star Students are Akron-Canton area's top high school grads. Here's how they were picked
The Akron Beacon Journal, The Record-Courier, The Daily Record and The Canton Repository conduct the Star Students program each year to recognize outstanding high school seniors in Summit, Stark, Medina, Portage, Wayne and Holmes counties.
Guidance counselors selected the students based on scholarship and participation, along with leadership in school and community activities. This year, each high school could nominate two seniors. A panel of three judges selected the finalists and top three Star Students from a field that had been narrowed to semifinalists by Beacon Journal Managing Editor Cheryl Powell.
Our thanks to the three judges who selected the Top 25 Star Students: Yuvonne Bruce Webb, a former longtime editor for the Beacon Journal; Robert Fenn, public affairs specialist for the Social Security Administration; and Rik Goodright, former superintendent of the Massillon City School District.
Meet 2023's Top 3 Star Students in the Akron-Canton area:
Star Student Christine Mwangi of the Elms finds motivation through Kenyan heritage
When Christine Mwangi started preschool, she could only speak two words in English: "hi" and "bye."
Her parents arrived in the United States from Kenya in 2001.
Mwangi recently graduated from Our Lady of the Elms High School in Akron, where she was one of the top students and widely respected for her passion for language, literature and her own Kenyan culture.
'Amazing young woman': Hudson grad, Star Student Alice Xu aspires to be a doctor
When Alice Xu was born, her grandfather said right away, “This will be the next physician in the family.”
While other girls tried on pretty dresses and played with dolls, Xu donned her doctor’s coat and performed checkups on her parents.
Xu will take the next step toward fulfilling her dream of becoming a doctor when she starts the liberal medical education program in the fall at Brown University.
'He is truly the cream of the crop': Jordan Schwartz of Alliance named 2023 Star Student
Jordan Schwartz emerged from the coronavirus pandemic’s two-month shutdown of Alliance High School with renewed urgency to get involved.
On a whim, the then-rising sophomore joined Alliance High School’s newly established speech and debate team in the summer of 2020 because it sounded fun.
“And it was more than a little bit fun,” Schwartz recalled. “It has sort of dominated my winters for the rest of my high school career, which, unlike some people, I was quite happy about. It was a fantastic experience.”
Read more about Schwartz here.
Here are the 2023 Star Student finalists:
2023 Star Student finalists: Meet some of the region's top high school graduates
Here are the 2023 Star Student semifinalists:
2023 Star Students: Here are the semifinalists
Here are the 2023 Star Student nominees:
These Akron-Canton area graduating seniors were nominated for Star Student recognition
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Here's how the Akron-Canton 2023 Star Students were picked
