Shuang Gao

ESCANABA — Nah Tah Wahsh PSA senior Shuang Gao has been selected as the Daily Press 2024 Student of the Year.

As Student of the Year, she will receive a $1,000 monetary award from the Daily Press. The Student of the Year program kicks off with Student of the Week in the fall, where students are selected by their schools for the weekly recognition in the Daily Press. At the end of the school year, each school selects a finalist among graduating seniors who were picked as Students of the Week throughout the year. The finalists were instructed to write an essay on why they should be chosen as Student of the Year.

“We love having the opportunity to honor so many of the area’s talented students in the Student of the Week program,” said Daily Press Editor Brian Rowell. “We’ve had the Student of the Week program in place for a number of years now, and we feel honoring these deserving students is an important part of what we do here at the paper. It’s great to know that we have so many exceptional young people in our community.”

Shuang Gao is featured on the Student of the Week page — page 7A of today’s Daily Press. Student of the Year finalists were: Ellie Nedeau – Big Bay de Noc School, Julia Olson – Bark River-Harris Schools, Harekleia Economopoulos – Escanaba High School, Graison Pare – Gladstone High School, Piper Burrows – Holy Name High School, Ryan McEvers – Manistique High School, Bradly VanDamme – Mid Peninsula School and Hunter Robinson – North Central High School.

Schools that participate in the Student of the Week program are: Bark River-Harris, Big Bay de Noc, Mid Peninsula, Escanaba, Student Success Center, Gladstone, North Central, Nah Tah Wahsh PSA, Delta-Schoolcraft Intermediate School District, and Holy Name.