Red Bay native Keenan Sparks was one students recently selected to the 2016 All-Alabama Academic Team for Northwest-Shoals Community College. He, and selectee Carly O’Dell, were honored April 15 at the All-Alabama Academic Team Recognition Luncheon in Montgomery.

Sparks currently is majoring in pre-engineering at NW-SCC and plans to attend the University of Alabama to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering.

The faculty and staff of NW-SCC nominate students from each campus of the college. The criteria for voting for a student is to choose students who “excel academically; demonstrate intellectual rigor in their course of study; show academic growth and potential; and use their two-year college education to better themselves, their schools and their communities.”

All nominees are presented to the national Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society for final selection. Each community college in Alabama has two representatives.

The Alabama College System’s All-Alabama Academic Team Recognition Program was established in 1995 as an enhancement to the All-USA National Academic Team Recognition Program, which is sponsored by the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, the American Association of Community Colleges and USA Today.