Kaleb Estes ranks among top scholars
By By Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
Kaleb Estes is doing his part to keep the National Merit Scholarship tradition alive at Hartselle High School.
The senior honor student was recently selected as a Merit Scholarship Semifinalist, an honor reserved for 16,000 of the nation’s most successful young scholars. As a semifinalist he will go on to compete for listing as a Merit Finalist and the opportunity to earn a valuable scholarship to the college or university of his choice.
Kaleb is following in the footsteps of Laura Davis, Hartselle High’s 2007 Merit Finalist.
The finalists will be announced next spring.
Kaleb’s academic achievements include a 4.095 grade point average (tied for first in a class of 205 students), a 35 composite ACT score and a PSAT score of 218.
He is president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a member of the golf team, statistician for the boy’s varsity basketball team. and a member of the Student Council.
He was selected by Daikin Corporation to served as a student ambassador to Japan last summer, attended Boys State and a summer seminar sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Academy.
He is also a Decatur General Hospital volunteer with more than 165 hours of service, a member of the VIVA Youth Council and has received several awards for his work as a volunteer with the Volunteer Center of Morgan County.
He is a member of Decatur Baptist Church where he is a member of the youth choir and is active in the Kidstuff Drama Ministry.
Kaleb said he would seek admission to Duke University next fall where he will begin preparing for a career in biomedical engineering.
He is the son of Keith and Melissa Estes of Hartselle and has an older sister, Kiersten who is a nursing student at UAB.