By Adam Dodson | The Selma Times-Journal

The members of Morgan Academy’s Academic Challenge for Excellence (ACE) team took home the top overall prize and multiple individual prizes during a recent multi-county competition at Wallace Community College Selma.

With over 15 different academic topics that participating students can choose, students at Morgan Academy are able to pick what best interests them, with multiple teachers assisting them during their studies and preparations.

The decades-old competition featured a new addition, with schools not only competing for the top trophy in their individual fields, but also for the trophy awarded to the school with best overall performance. After having students place first in seven different categories, and multiple others coming in second or third, Morgan Academy’s team brought home the top prize.

The M.A. students who won first place are listed as follows:

Information Technology Team- Kenzie Horton, Colton Roberts, Louise Stewart

Geometry Team- Hasten Bridges, Sydney Brooks, Grace Wilkinson

Advanced Math Team- Sara Matthews, Kellee Scheer, Ann Elizabeth Yocum

Advanced Math Individual- Kellee Scheer

Public Speaking- Colby Whitaker

Social Studies Division I- Tyler Elliot, Thomas Morris, Richard Alan Waters

Social Studies Division II- Ford Chittom, Baker King, Ed Williams

Morgan Academy’s success comes against competition from schools both inside and outside Dallas County, including nearby Wilcox and Pickens counties, and going as far north as Birmingham.

To Karim Oaks, teacher and coach for the Social Studies teams, the achievement of bringing home the first-annual first-overall trophy is a point of pride for her and her school. With over 30 years’ experience teaching at M.A., Oaks is passionate about doing whatever she can to benefit her students, and this includes over 20 years of helping out with the ACE team.

She, like many other educators, believes the ACE competitions aspire students to a higher degree of achievement and promote a sense of comradery.

“Our children like the competition and they like to meet other students from other schools. You know your students and you know which ones want to participate in math or history,” Oaks said. “We thought the event was great, and one teacher cannot take credit.”

With the event held at WCCS, Oaks says that she and other ACE members were very satisfied with the venue’s success at providing a fun environment for some friendly competition.

With more ACE events planned for the future, Oaks remarks that she and her students enjoy every time they go to Wallace, and hope that more competitions will be hosted there moving forward.

For more information on their ACE team, visit John T. Morgan Academy’s Facebook page. All students wishing to compete must be enrolled in the class matching the designated field area.