For 57 years, the Dominion Post newspaper in Morgantown has been awarding the best and the brightest in the state with the Annual Honor Student program.  The competition is fierce and based on school recommendations, class rank, grade point average, test scores, leadership roles, and extracurricular activities.  After meeting all that criteria, students are then interviewed and they compete in an essay contest.  For the first time in the history of the awards, the first place winners were both from the same school and that school is none other than Bridgeport High School.

 

Emery Smith and Katie Mossburg were each awarded first place winners during the Dominion Post Honor Student Awards Banquet, held on May 1 at the Ramada Inn in Morgantown.  Among the top-performing seniors from 15 high schools in North Central West Virginia, the top three males and females were recognized at the banquet. 

 

All students in the contest received a $100 check to honor their achievements, third place winners won an additional $500 and second place winners won an additional $1000.  Mossburg and Smith each won an additional $2000 scholarship for their academic achievements as first place winners. 

 

Bridgeport High School Counselor Jane Byrd and BHS Principal Mark Defazio nominated both Mossburg and Smith earlier in the year.

 

“The selection is quite rigorous and includes an essay contest and an interview in addition to the extensive criteria required,” said Byrd.  “We are absolutely thrilled to have both first place winners come from Bridgeport High School, making history at the awards.”