Twenty of the area’s top seniors and their educators of choice are honored each spring at The Joplin Globe’s annual All-Area Academic Excellence Team Awards Banquet. The students are selected to the team based on a formula using grade point average and ACT or SAT scores.

Nominations forms are mailed to schools in The Globe’s circulation area in early February and returned by mid-March for review by the selection committee.
At the spring banquet, held annually in April, The Globe presents awards to these outstanding students as well as the teachers who have inspired them the most personally and academically. A special feature about the team and the members’ future plans is published in the Sunday Joplin Globe edition following the banquet.

The Globe’s academic excellence program became the first of its kind in Missouri when it began in 1986. Dr. Ronald Lankford, Webb City R-7 superintendent, helped organize the program and is chairman of the academic excellence selection committee. Other committee members are Mrs. Janet Myers, Joplin High School communication arts teacher, and Mr. Steve Jameson, Columbus (Kan.) High School principal.