Photo courtesy of Sherea Harris-Turner
Phanuelle Manuel is the 2024 Hoover High School senior winner of the Finley Award for outstanding character.
Phanuelle Manuel, a senior at Hoover High School, was named the school’s 2024 winner of the Finley Award for outstanding character, given each year to one member of the senior class.
Manuel was chosen from among 647 seniors at Hoover High and was among 39 Hoover High seniors nominated for the Finley Award this year.
Adults who nominated her for the award described her as an honest person of deep faith with a deep-rooted love for family, strong sense of loyalty and caring heart for others in the community.
She is a 2022 graduate of the Youth Leadership Forum of Birmingham and has been involved with the Birmingham area YouthServe nonprofit since 2020, currently serving as president of the Youth Philanthropy Council.
In her work with YouthServe, she helped direct the investment of $60,000 to a variety of initiatives, including bringing mental health coaching to public school educators, helping a foster care center provide transitional living to children aging out of state care, supplying reading help for struggling second graders in poverty, and helping first-generation and second-generation immigrants gain access to secondary education.
Manuel also has served as a Hoover Ambassador and Peer Helper, helped tutor her young brother and other students, and co-founded an initiative called Matronize to provide resources for women after the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Photo courtesy of Sherea Harris-Turner
Phanuelle Manuel is the 2024 Hoover High School senior winner of the Finley Award for outstanding character. Pictured from left are Hoover schools Superintendent Kevin Maddox, Finley Committee Chairwoman Aimee George, Manuel and Hoover High Principal Jennifer Hogan.
She also is known for a strong work ethic and high academic achievement, ranking in the top 10 of her class, taking 14 Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes, being inducted into several honor societies and participating in the Engineering Academy, Science Olympiad, Scholars Bowl and Girls Who Code organizations.
“She is self-sufficient and responsible and has good time management skills,” wrote Youth Leadership Forum Executive Director Susie Abbott. “In addition, she is confident and has exceptional communication skills. She knows when to be serious and focus on a task, but she also knows how to have fun!”
Sydney White, the Advanced Placement coordinator at Hoover High, wrote in a nomination letter that Manuel is one of the most deserving students she has taught in 16 years.
“She’s nuanced and authentic in ways that human beings typically aren’t,” White wrote. “Character traits that can be learned behavior for someone with enough self-reflection to achieve over a studied period of time are simply innate for her. In short, I think I would recommend her for just about anything from babysitting my child to running a small country. She is diplomatic, caring and objective.”
Spain Park High School’s senior winner of the Finley Award is scheduled to be announced Tuesday, as is the Finley Award winner from among faculty members throughout the school system.
The top three winners, as well as character recognition award winners from other grade levels, are to be honored at a banquet at the Finley Center on March 21.
