Smart Is As Smart Does
This morning, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation is releasing the names of the 2007 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists. If you were to dig deeply enough into the Alabama list, you would find the name of Number Three One Son, one of 28 National Merit Semifinalists from Virgil I. Grissom High School in Huntsville. He’s the one smack dab in the middle, with the large, no-orthodontia-thank-you-very-much grin.
Sixteen thousand out of the more than 1.4 million students who took the PSAT last year were named Semifinalists. Grissom usually produces more National Merit Scholars than any other high school in Alabama, and that’s the case again this year. For Number Three One, it’s the proud payoff for the prep he put in last summer before the 2005 Fall PSAT. I made sure he was aware of the fact that doing well on the PSAT was the key to some possible scholarship money, and he put in the work and took it the rest of the way. Should he progress on to Finalist (about 90% of Semifinalists do), then he will likely be offered some nice scholarships by the three colleges on his short list.
Well done Number One! Your Mom and I are beaming with pride and breathing a little sigh of forthcoming financial relief.
Now, having said all that, please be sure to do the following: take out the trash, straighten up your room, remember your Creator and, as always, go easy on the gas pedal.
After all, smart is as smart does.
12 Comments
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Hal
In your first paragraph you mention that number 3 son is the NMS semifinalist, then you congratulate the number 1 son in the third paragraph. I’m guessing that number 3 is too young for this recognition. And, I don’t see a red cast in the photo.
Congrats to #1. That’s fantastic.
Mike the Eyeguy
Oops, I stand corrected. I’m glad somebody can keep them all straight!
DAVID u
Congrats to #1!! We have a bed for him here at good ole HU! 🙂
DU
Donna
Way to go #1—- Remember Roll Tide!!
Mike the Eyeguy
DU and Donna–
It’s neck and neck between Bama and HU now. Bama just sent him some tickets for Saturday’s game (shameless, just shameless). I’ll try to get him back over to HU at Homecoming and maybe a basketball game in the winter.
Try telling a Bama boy that college is more than football! 🙂
Brady
That’s real good, having kids that are smarter than you. I’ve got the same problem. I just keep my mouth shut at the table now when the kids start talking math.
Tickets to ballgames? That’s a great way to choose an education path… Enjoy.
Mike the Eyeguy
“Tickets to ballgames? That’s a great way to choose an education path… Enjoy.”
Yeah, I know, but it is the South after all. For what it’s worth, The Honors Program at Bama is holding a reception here in Huntsville in a couple of weeks to show Number One and his friends the academic side of things.
Hey, the reason Number One is smarter than me is that Eyegal is smarter than me. Nothing like “marrying up” to raise the level of the old gene pool.
Nancy
YAY! Way to go, for all involved!
Mike the Eyeguy
Is that just “Yay” or did you mean “Yay Alabama?” 🙂
Either way, thanks!
Mark elrod
Give my best congrats to #1. I want him at Harding too.
I wish I had known about this earlier; I would have had the HU athletic department send some tickets to the HU-North Alabama game in Florence tonight!
Mike the Eyeguy
Will do, Mark, and thanks. And I just found out that he is going to the HU-UNA game tonight. In fact, he’s going with another Honors Symposium participant.
Ah, football–the way to a future student’s heart!
Mike the Eyeguy
Uh oh. That didn’t go so well (UNA 41 HU 14).
I hope that doesn’t hurt Harding’s chances. Maybe Bama will lose to LA-Monroe and then it will be a wash.