Ohio State Young Scholars Program of Toledo celebrated 12 years of young scholars by recognizing students and past Toledo Public Schools’ superintendents at an awards banquet Friday night.Scholars not only received awards but they also performed musical selections and presented awards to educators instrumental in implementing the Young Scholars Program.The banquet honored former Toledo Public Schools’ superintendents Crystal Ellis and Emory Leverette who died in 1996. Both men were important to the development of the Young Scholars Program.One highlight of the evening was a candle lighting ceremony in honor of Ellis. All the scholars who attended the event helped light the candles. Lorraine Foster, a parent of a Young Scholar, led the candle-lighting ceremony. “Young Scholars has done a lot to keep my son focused on his future,” Foster said.Although Ellis was honored at the banquet, he said, “This is not my evening. This evening belongs to the Young Scholars.” He gave full support to the program in 1997 when he was told by Dr. Bishop, former Young Scholars director, that they were going to treat the students so well that the students wouldn’t want to go to any other college but OSU, Ellis said.Throughout the night, speakers talked about the deep-rooted history of the program as well as the accomplishments of the students in the program.Stanley Calhoun, interim program manager of OSU’s Toleedo-based Young Scholars program, said, “We wanted to honor the scholars and the men who brought the program here.”The host and hostess, Wakaso Peterson and Tanesha Smith Peterson, are past scholars who married after graduating from OSU. The couple also received an award at the banquet. “I am honored to be host and blessed that I was chosen to be a Young Scholar, from that I got to meet my wife,” Peterson said.In the spirit of the celebratory atmosphere of the banquet Paula H. Smith, Young Scholars Program interim director, spoke about the success of the Young Scholars Program. “Yes, the program is working. We are working with urban young people and getting them through the system at the same rate as students who came form suburban high schools,” Smith said.Smith stated that $3 million is spent on the program annually and 2,800 students have come through the Young Scholars Program.While OSU is leaning towards selective admissions, they should provide elite students from urban schools with resources such as tutorial programs, Smith said.Along with celebrating, Calhoun said the Young Scholars Program is going to keep in line with its mission to attract students to OSU.An annual awards event is held in Columbus, and this was the first banquet done by a local Young Scholars Program office. Smith said his office is planning for other local programs to arrange banquets.