{"id":3464,"date":"2025-04-22T13:46:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T19:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/?p=3464"},"modified":"2025-04-22T13:46:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T19:46:14","slug":"nine-mississippi-high-school-seniors-named-semifinalists-for-2025-u-s-presidential-scholars-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/2025\/04\/22\/nine-mississippi-high-school-seniors-named-semifinalists-for-2025-u-s-presidential-scholars-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Nine Mississippi high school seniors named semifinalists for 2025 U.S. Presidential Scholars program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NEWS RELEASE<br \/>\n<\/strong>For Immediate Release: \u00a0April 22, 2025<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nine Mississippi high school seniors named semifinalists for 2025 U.S. Presidential Scholars program<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>JACKSON, Miss. \u2013 The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) announced today that nine Mississippi students have been named 2025 U.S. Presidential Scholars semifinalists. The program honors the nation\u2019s most distinguished graduating high school seniors.<\/p>\n<p>The semifinalists are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sohni Rainna Beamon, Gulfport High School<\/li>\n<li>Bryan Epps Dye, Southern Baptist Educational Center<\/li>\n<li>Alexis Griffith, Long Beach Senior High School<\/li>\n<li>Emily X Jia, Madison Central High School<\/li>\n<li>Nichols E. Katsaboulas, Jackson Preparatory School<\/li>\n<li>Celia Lane, St. Andrew\u2019s Episcopal School<\/li>\n<li>Jackson Alexander Pearce, Gulfport High School<\/li>\n<li>Pranav Reddy, St. Andrew\u2019s Episcopal School<\/li>\n<li>Ryan Wu, Mississippi School for Mathematics &amp; Science<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mississippi\u2019s semifinalists were selected from among thousands of candidates nationwide. The semifinalists form the pool from which up to 161 students will be chosen a 2025 U.S. Presidential Scholar.<\/p>\n<p>Scholars are chosen based on accomplishments in academic and artistic success, career and technical fields, leadership, and involvement in school and the community. The scholars represent excellence in education and the promise of greatness in America\u2019s young people.<\/p>\n<p>Created in 1964, the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program honors the nation\u2019s top-performing students with the prestigious award given to honorees during the annual ceremony in Washington D.C. The program was later expanded to recognize students who demonstrate exceptional talent in the arts and career and technical education fields.<\/p>\n<p>Find all MDE news releases at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdek12.org\/news\"><u>mdek12.org\/news<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">###<\/p>\n<p><strong>Media Contact:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jean Cook, APR<br \/>\nChief of Communication<br \/>\n601-359-3515<br \/>\n<a href=\"mailto:jcook@mdek12.org\">jcook@mdek12.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Shanderia Minor<br \/>\nPublic Information Officer<br \/>\n601-359-3515<br \/>\n<a href=\"mailto:sminor@mdek12.org\">sminor@mdek12.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JACKSON, Miss. \u2013 The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) announced today that nine Mississippi students have been named 2025 U.S. Presidential Scholars semifinalists. The program honors the nation\u2019s most distinguished graduating high school seniors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3465,"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464\/revisions\/3465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdek12.org\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}