The theme for Enid monthly articles for this year was “The OBA Commitment.” And throughout the past year, we’ve had several articles to try and convey people’s expressions of commitment to the OBA mission. As the new Communications Director, who stepped into the year halfway through, I can say that this year’s Class of 2023 embodies our theme well.
Now we want to take a moment to recognize this senior class’s achievements. We will have five Valedictorians, two Salutatorians, eight students graduating with honors and a National Merit Scholar. That’s over half the class. One student passed all nine of their AP exams. We have three students attending college as athletes after successfully leading their teams this year. This year’s seniors have one of the highest collective ACT scores in OBA history and already acquired hundreds of hours of college credits. We had three students win the Oklahoma Arts Excellence Award and one write and direct their own play. They’ve excelled as members of Gaslight teens, church youth group leaders, travel sports team members, and one already sworn into the Air National Guard.
While these students are standouts in terms of academic excellence, they shine in other ways. When I asked some of OBA’s faculty how they would describe this year’s senior class, they said things like: relational, loyal, and unified. These are all traits that they can take with them into their future endeavors. The one trait that stood out among the rest was that they are “zealous in their choice to serve.” These seniors have learned ‘to do hard better’ because of overcoming challenges like emergency online learning as freshmen and an irregular learning environment of social distancing and quarantines as sophomores. They will continue to serve others upon the completion of their time at OBA.
We’ve highlighted a few individual class members here and there over the past year, but this entire class deserves to be celebrated. They are not only smart, high achieving, and excellent in academics, but they are also kind and wonderful leaders. We look forward to seeing the Class of 2023 grow into great contributors and become ambassadors for OBA and our kingdom mission. Congratulations, Class of 2023! We are so proud of you.
