MOUNT VERNON – A senior at Mount Vernon High School who plans a career in neuroscience research is the Knox Educational Service Center’s selection for the 2023 Franklin B. Walter All-Scholastic Award.
Tobias (Toby) Boggs will join other county ESC Walter Award nominees from throughout Ohio at the 36th annual program and luncheon at the Nationwide Hotel and Conference Center in Lewis Center on April 18.
“It’s quite an honor. I really appreciate it,” he said.
Boggs, who ranks first academically in his senior class of 266, scored 35 on the ACT, one point shy of a perfect score. As a neuroscience researcher, he said he hopes “to make a positive impact and truly change the world for the better.”
The Franklin B Walter All-Scholastic Award is named in honor of Ohio’s 31st state superintendent of public instruction. It was established in 1989 by the Ohio Educational Service Centers Association to promote and recognize outstanding student leaders for their academic achievement and service to their schools and communities.
Each public school district served by the Knox ESC – Centerburg, Danville, East Knox, Fredericktown and Mount Vernon – submitted a senior nominee. A Knox ESC committee scored the nominees on the basis of statewide criteria, which included an essay by each of the seniors.
“Each year we receive an exceptional group of nominees and this year certainly was no different,” said Dr. Timm Mackley, superintendent of the Knox ESC. “The seniors submitted by each of our client districts have outstanding records of achievement which point to success in college and chosen careers.”
A varsity soccer and tennis player, Boggs has been a percussionist in the MVHS band program and active in student government, Key Club and National Honor Society. He has received numerous academic awards, while serving as a youth tennis coach and a drum tutor/teacher.
In a letter of recommendation supporting Boggs’ Walter Award application, counselor Myrna Kennerly said, “Tobias Boggs IS the total package student.”
“Tobias is a superior student as evidenced by his academic record,” Kennerly wrote. “His service to his school and community is also impeccable. It speaks to Tobias’ dedication to make a difference in his school and community.”
Chemistry teacher Kristin Hofferberth lauded Boggs’ work in her Kenyon Academic Partnership (KAP) course, which she said is equivalent to a first-year college chemistry class.
“I can confidently say that he ranks among the top 5 percent of students I have had the opportunity to work with in my 20 years of teaching,” she said in a letter supporting Boggs. “For many of my students, the integration of math and chemistry that is needed for the course poses a great challenge. Toby had no difficulty whatsoever.
“He was able to master even the most complex concept with ease and do so in real-time.
“In addition to being an excellent student with tremendous potential, Toby is a really nice young man. He is pleasant, respectful, optimistic and well-spoken,”
Hofferberth said. “…Toby is well liked and respected by students and faculty alike.”
Boggs’ parents are Emily and Chad Chenault and Brody and Julia Boggs. He will decide by May 1 whether to enroll at Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, or the University of Alabama. Whichever he chooses, neuroscience research will be his focus.
“We have more neurons in our brain than stars in our galaxy,” Boggs wrote in his essay. “Considering the connections each of those neurons can have with one another, that adds up to an absolutely insane 100 trillion possible connections, and that’s only in one person’s brain.
“It’s an immensely fascinating and fairly undiscovered field of research, and I’m confident that uncovering the mysteries hidden within our gray matter will prove to be an extremely fulfilling career,” he wrote.
“Be it research on mental disabilities, educating on the effects of addiction, investigating how the brain creates consciousness, treating patients diagnosed with neurological conditions, performing surgery to remove brain tumors, or any of the other countless possibilities, neuroscience will allow me to make legitimate changes in people’s lives.”
