The Mississippi State Board of Education (SBE) has selected 10 semifinalists for the SBE junior student representative in the 2025-26 school year.
The SBE student representative program includes one high school junior and one high school senior who serve as non-voting SBE members and provide input on policy decisions that affect Mississippi public schools. The current junior SBE representative, Crosby Parker of Gulfport High School, will serve as the senior representative in 2025-26.
The eligible applicant pool for the rising junior representative included 30 students.
SBE student representatives are responsible for attending monthly SBE meetings and any standing committees or subcommittees to which they are assigned. Student representatives are excused from school to attend SBE meetings as official school business.
The SBE adopted a policy in 2018 outlining the criteria for adding student representatives to the State Board.
Semifinalists will be interviewed and up to four finalists will be named. The SBE will interview the finalists and appoint one rising junior.
The 10 semifinalists are as follows:
Name District School
Isaiah Barbour Tupelo School District Tupelo High School
Amy Choi Starkville Oktibbeha School District Starkville High School
Katie Chung Starkville Oktibbeha School District Starkville High School
Price Denham Lamar County School District Oak Grove High School
Thad Garner Chickasaw County School District Houston High School
Avani Pacharne Starkville Oktibbeha School District Starkville High School
Abigail Ratcliffe Gulfport School District Gulfport High School
Angelina Tan Starkville Oktibbeha School District Starkville High School
Hayes Tyler Kosciusko School District Kosciusko High School
Michelle Xie Lamar County School District Oak Grove High School
Find all MDE news releases at mdek12.org/news.