Two juniors have been nominated for the Excellence in Community, Education, and Leadership Award also known as the ExCEL award. This award sponsored by the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) recognizes juniors who show leadership skills throughout their academic, artistic and athletic lives.

BSM juniors Kelly Pannek and Carter Burn have been selected as candidates, having thrived in both academic and athletic environments at school. Both Pannek and Burn are honor roll students in link crew, national honors society and they both participate in numerous other extracurricular activities.

With Pannek being an outstanding player and leader in both soccer and hockey she is an obvious candidate to be chosen. “It truly is an honor to be recognized for this award. There are so many people at [BSM] that deserve this award and it is humbling to even be considered,” Pannek said.

As the male candidate for the award, Burn was assisted by Mrs. O’Keefe throughout the process. “Mrs. O’Keefe just nominated me and allowed me to fill out these forms. Each school nominates one junior boy and one junior girl. The forms had all of the activities that I participated in and a little bit of an essay that I filled out to demonstrate why I should win the award. I then turned the forms in to the MSHSL and they began the process that would select me for the actual statewide award,” said Burn.