Smith-Cotton High School senior Alyssa Gear was named to the 2023 Missouri Scholars 100, a statewide program that honors 100 of Missouri’s top academic students in the graduating class of 2023. Fellow senior Caleb Ehlers received honorable mention.

Gear is president of HOSA, vice president of National Honor Society, a member of the Student Council Executive Board, and a member of Fellowship of Christian Students (FCS). She also is a two-year varsity letter recipient for volleyball, earning Academic All-State and All-Conference Honorable Mention recognition.

Ehlers has been a member of Team SCREAM, the S-C competitive robotics team, all four years of high school, serving as head programmer his junior and senior years. He also has been on the Math Team, serving on the board the past two years, and performs with the S-C Jazz Ensemble and S-C Orchestra.

Missouri Scholars 100 is a program sponsored by the Missouri Association of Secondary School Principals. Schools across Missouri nominate candidates, with selection based primarily on a formula using the student’s grade point average and ACT or SAT score. Each student nominated had first to meet criteria of an “Academic Decathlon,” which included 10 events designed to assure the academic strength of the student. The student also must be ranked in the upper 10 percent of the class and have taken high-level courses in mathematics, science, English, and foreign language. The student must also have excellent attendance, be an exemplary school citizen, and be involved in the school activity program.

Photos of Gear (top) and Ehlers (bottom) courtesy of the Sedalia School District