2021 North Star Award Recipients Announced

Nkemjika Glory Obi and Samuel Seckar are the 2021 North Star Award recipients at Shawnee Mission North High School.

The North Star Award is presented to one male and female Shawnee Mission North student each year. They are selected by the school’s faculty, administration and staff, based on their academic excellence, leadership, school and community involvement, teamwork, and respect for others. They receive a $2,000 scholarship as part of the recognition.

Seckar and Obi are “incredible young adults,” Jeremy Higgins, principal, noted.

Obi has served in numerous leadership roles, including co-founding Coalition for Racial Equality (CORE). She has served as president of the school pep club and Spanish National Honor Society. Obi also was a student representative on the district’s Strategic Planning Steering Committee. She is President of the Senate for Kansas YMCA Youth in Government Conference and serves on the Overland Park City Teen Council.

Obi plans to attend Stanford University and major in political science and minor in African and African American Studies.

“She’s had a great impact here and I know she is going to continue to have a great impact as she moves forward,” Higgins said.

Seckar has been very involved in the school’s Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) including the athletic team, academic team, drill team, color guard, and served as commanding officer. He also served as a senior class representative , Northman Nominee, swim team captain nominee, and earned the Navy Leagues Teddy Roosevelt Youth Medal.  

Seckar had a “legendary” way of leading the school daily in the Pledge of Allegiance, Higgins noted. He plans to attend Kansas State University and is majoring in architecture.

Both students are noteworthy for the ways they embody perseverance, David Ewers associate principal shared.

“They have persevered and survived a lot in order to be as successful as they are,” he noted.

Steve Sears, SM North graduate, created the scholarship and presents it to students on behalf of the Shawnee Mission Education Foundation.