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Polk County High School junior Banks Barber took top honors on the end-of-session exam held during the recent Resource Conservation Workshop sponsored by the North Carolina Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts in Raleigh.

Barber attended the workshop as a representative of the Polk County Soil and Water District. The week-long event was held at North Carolina State University and co-sponsored by N.C. State University Crop and Soil Science Department and the Soil and Water Conservation Society Hugh Hammond Bennett Chapter.

Barber won first place by scoring the highest on the exam at the end of the week. He received a total of $800 in scholarship money from N.C. State and the Division of Soil and Water. Barber is the first student from Polk County to win this award since current Pamlico County Schools Superintendent Jeremy Johnson did so in 1993.

The Resource Conservation Workshop is a week-long workshop for rising juniors and seniors and involves study and hands-on participation in a wide range of conservation topics. Students are housed in campus dormitories under the guidance of live-in counselors.

In order to achieve success, students come prepared to meet the primary objective of the workshop — learning about natural resources and their management in today’s global environment.