2024-2025 Golden Lion Award winners honored at MSSU
JOPLIN, Mo. — This year's Golden Lion Award winners are honored at a special ceremony.
The annual awards banquet took place Tuesday night (6/10) inside Missouri Southern State University's Ron Richard Athletic Center.
It was emceed by KODE's Gretchen Bolander and recognized the eight finalists from this past academic year, whose stories we've brought you since September.
Each one was nominated and chosen for their commitment to community service and academic achievement. Each one also received a $1,000 dollar scholarship to MSSU.
During the banquet, one of the eight finalists received an additional $5,000 scholarship. This year's overall winner was Camden Steadman from Seneca.
'I was shocked. I was very happy, though. It was like a really good, happy shock because during my first interview, I actually said, 'like' a lot of times and I thought, 'I botched that interview or I hope that doesn't mess me up,' and I'm glad that it didn't mess it up. And then getting this scholarship is huge, I mean, $5,000 is a lot of money. That will cover an entire semester at the very least,' said Steadman.
'The Golden Lion Award is an amazing recognition of students who provided a truly unique service in their high school. We're so happy to have those students coming to the Missouri Southern campus. Over the years, I've seen them come here succeed, continue to serve, and make a difference,' said MSSU President, Dr. Dean Van Galen.
The Golden Lion Award is sponsored by our parent company, Nexstar Broadcasting and H.E. Williams.
To date, more than 30 MSSU graduates began their collegiate careers as Golden Lion Award finalists.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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