With tuition at what the experts say are record highs, scholarships can provide an important offset to the debt college-bound students face now and potentially for years to come.
That’s what makes especially good news the announcement that $58 million in recognition awards will be going to graduating seniors at seven Tempe Union high schools this year.
Scholarships will be officially presented at commencement ceremonies at Corona del Sol, Marcos de Niza, Tempe, McClintock and other Tempe Union high schools, all at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 24, at each of the schools.CompadreAcademy’s graduation will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 23.
Totals going to students, by school, include $19 million to Desert Vista; $15.8 million to Corona del Sol; $12.6 million to Mountain Pointe; $6.2 million to Marcos de Niza; $3.6 million to McClintock; $1.2 million to Tempe High; and $10,600 to Compadre.
In total number of graduates, Desert Vista High School leads, with 720 scheduled to receive diplomas. Others are Mountain Pointe, 590; Corona del Sol, 530; Marcos de Niza, 440; McClintock, 360; and Tempe High, 290.
Compadre will hand out diplomas to 252 graduating students.
Valedictorian at Tempe High will be Trevor Wood. Others include Isabelle Chea, Marcos de Niza; Lillian Giang, McClintock; Madison Armer, Peggy Payne Academy; Jean Juang, Cyndia Yu, Nitin Gupta, Thaminda Edirisooriya, Brianna Duong and Michael Kim, Corona del Sol; Ajay Karpur, Mountain Pointe; Brandon Djaja, Huangang “Kevin” Zheng, Anes Sung and Jennifer Wu, Desert Vista.
The district’s Outstanding Student Achievement recognition will go to Kalila Gourche at Compadre Academy.
Salutatorians include Lizette Garcia, Tempe High; Serena Kaplan, Kristopher Koller, McClintock; Anna Weiss, Peggy Payne Academy; Brittany Irwin, Marcos; Collin Xa, Simona Kovatchera, Andrea Carpenter, Corona; and Thomas Bello, Mountain Pointe.
Presidential Scholars include, by school: Brianna B. Duong, Jean M. Juang, Simona Kovatcheva and Cyndia B. Yu, Corona del Sol; Ajay R. Karpur, Yucheng Zhang, Mountain Pointe; Ankur M. Razdan and Jeeyung “Anes” Sung, Desert Vista.
Flinn Scholars are Thomas Bello and Ajay Karpur, Mountain Pointe; Andrea Weiss, McClintock/Peggy Payne Academy; and Cyndia Yu, Corona del Sol.
National Merit Scholarship finalists, by school, are Madison Armer and Anna Weiss,
McClintock; Brianna Duong, Thaminda Edirisooriya, Nitin Gupta, Jean Juang, Michael Kim, Simona Kovatcheva, Christian Normand, Helena Olmstead, Nicole Schwalbe, Collin Xa and Cyndia Yu, Corona del Sol; Joshua Anolick, Tommy Bello, Ryan Hofmann, Ajay Karpur, Alex (Alexandrea) Martinez, Sean Sannier and Frank Zhang, Mountain Pointe; Saumya Bollam, Brandon Djaja, Katie Giel, Brenna Goodwin, Ali Icenogle, Joseph Kim, Stephen Marcucci, Jay Min, Rohitha Moudgal, Anoosha Murella, Daniel Niv, Carolyn Rath, Seung Jae Son, Anes Sung, Susan Tu, Peter Tueller, Maggie Wong, Andrew Wu, Jennifer Wu, Kevin Zheng and Jenny Zou, Desert Vista.
As to the post-high school futures being reported by students, the majority will be college bound, based on these returns from questionnaires:
McClintock: 40 percent 4-year university; 32 percent community college; 2 percent vocational; 1 percent military.
Marcos de Niza – 45 percent university; 52 percent community college.
Compadre Academy – 85 percent college; 5 percent military; 5 percent careers; 5 percent undecided.
Corona del Sol – 95 percent university; 5 percent community college.
Mountain Pointe – 91 percent university/colleges; 9 percent military/vocational/careers.
Desert Vista – 68 percent four-year college/university; 27 percent two-year college; 2 percent technical/vocational school; 2 percent military; 1 percent careers.
Other recognition is scheduled for Robert Choueiri, Corona del Sol, and Julia Thatcher, Desert Vista, ASU Leadership Scholarship.
Jennifer Wu and Huangang “Kevin” Zheng will receive the Siemens Award for Advanced Placement.
Way to go Asian kids!
I find it rather interesting that the majority of students who won scholarships are of Asian decent. Why so few Anglo-Americans, African-Americans and Latin-Americans? Are Asians just smarter than the rest of us? Do their parents have stronger priorities and put more focus and emphasis on education than the rest of us? Are they more disciplined? What ever the reasons, it’s obvious that we have a great deal to learn from them, and we need to realize that that unless we start taking our education seriously, we’re going to find ourselves left too far behind.