The Mississippi Board of Education (SBE) named its 10 semifinalists to serve as the next SBE junior student representative and an Oxford High School student is among them.

Oxford’s Keerthin Karthikeyan was one of the 10 who made it to the semifinal round of the process to select the next SBE junior student representative for the upcoming 2021-2022 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.

Amy Zhang from the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science is the current junior SBE representative and will serve as the senior representative in 2021-22.

Along with Karthikeyan, the other nine semifinalists are from the Rankin County, DeSoto County, Houston, Laurel, Pascagoula-Gautier and Columbia School Districts. Rankin and DeSoto school districts have multiple students selected among the 10 semifinalists.

The eligible applicant pool for the rising junior representative include 73 students, which was an increase of 50 students from last year’s applicant pool.

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.

All semifinalists will be interviewed in June and up to four finalists will be named. The SBE will interview the finalists and appoint one rising junior.