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The Prince George's County school board awarded teachers and students for academic and creative achievements Tuesday night at its semiannual awards program.

"This evening we are celebrating the fact that you stood and took action," Deputy Superintendent Bonita Coleman-Potter said at the awards event, held at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt.

Superintendent William Hite Jr. did not attend the event.

Award winners included Souley Dounda, the Maryland Foreign Language Teacher of the Year, and Donna Lauerhahs, the Maryland Council for Exceptional Children Teacher of the Year.

Dounda, a French and English teacher at John Hanson French Immersion in Oxon Hill, and a native of Niger, has been teaching for 22 years.

Lauerhahs, a teacher at H. Winship Wheatley Early Childhood Center in Capitol Heights, last year earned her national board certification, which is the highest level of certification a teacher can earn.

The board also honored Lake Arbor Elementary school teacher Lydia Grier of Lanham for her compassion and effort in the education of blind students.

Grier, who received Maryland's Distinguished Educator of Blind Children award from the National Federation of the Blind on Nov. 14, was presented with a certificate for her work.

Grier said the strides and achievements of her students are what keep her motivated to continue in education.

Twenty-three students from four county high schools were also presented with certificates. Of those students, 10 from Eleanor Roosevelt High School are National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, based on preliminary SAT scores.

The semifinalists are Alice Chang, Laura Jones, Andy Li, Marika Nell, Wesley Rian, Thomas Senecal, Blossom Tewelde, Ursula Tooley, Jeffrey Wang and Maia Werbos.

The students each will compete for one of 8,200 National Merit Scholarship awards, valued at more than $34 million combined, to be awarded in the spring.

Last year, seven students from Roosevelt and Bowie high schools were named as National Merit Scholarship semifinalists.

The remaining 13 students, from Roosevelt, Charles Flowers High School in Springdale and Oxon Hill High School, are National Achievement Scholarship Program semifinalists.

The scholarship program recognizes African-American high school students who excel academically and perform well on the SATs.

Oxon Hill High School senior Kelvin Jens Moncera of Fort Washington received three awards for his academic achievements, including the Young American Scholar of the Month from the Rotary Club of Upper Marlboro.

The board also highlighted two other recent awards Moncera has received, including the Harvard University Alumni Association Prize Book Award for his scholastic achievements and the 2009 HiGene, from Johns Hopkins University for his work in genetics, bioinformatics and molecular biology.

Moncera's father, Jensen Moncera, said his son has a 4.5 grade point average.