For years, elite students across the state have been honored through selection to the All-Alabama Academic Team, a program of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. For the 2017 selections, one of the two awardees was Ashley I Dulce Rosa Figueroa-Cifuentes of Russellville.

Figueroa-Cifuentes, a 2014 Russellville High School graduate, currently is majoring in criminal justice at NW-SCC and plans to attend Athens State University.

“I was truly honored because I had heard about it last year, and I was really wanting to be in it because I thought it would be a huge honor,” said Figueroa-Cifuentes.

Figueroa-Cifuentes said she was particularly gratified because, while she was a high-achieving and active student in high school, she had warned friends and family that she wasn’t sure if she could keep that up in college. She said she has been able to achieve far more than she expected, and being named to the All-Alabama Academic Team was “something I never imagined.”

A native of Guatemala, Figueroa-Cifuentes said this latest accomplishment fits into her philosophy to “never let the color of your skin determine your actions in life.” She said she aims to give 110 percent in everything she does. In particularly, she tries to excel with all her heart to honor her family, both family in America as well as well those still in Guatemala – parents and brothers and sisters and cousins she wants to make proud.

“I do it for them,” she said. “Family is the first thing; family comes first.”

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.

Kaylen Bishop, a Haleyville native, was also selected to the team from NW-SCC. A secondary education major, Bishop said being named to the All-Alabama Academic Team “was pretty awesome. That was a big honor.” Bishop graduated Haleyville High School in 2014 and will transfer to UNA in the fall.

All-Alabama Academic Team members were honored April 14 at the All-Alabama Academic Team Recognition Luncheon at Ross Bridge Hotel and Spa in Birmingham.

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.