The National Merit Scholarship Program has selected 51 Houston Independent School District seniors as semifinalists for the 2022-2023 scholarship competition year.
The scholarship program gives seniors the opportunity to compete for about 7,250 monetary scholarships to help jumpstart their college careers.
Fourteen HISD students were named to Mayor Sylvester Turner’s 2021-2022 Mayor’s Youth Council (MYC).
In total, 17 students from the Houston area were selected out of more than 100 applicants after an application and interview process conducted by a selection committee. Students will learn about city government, share issues of concern with city officials, and gain civic leadership skills through community service activities.
The National Merit Scholarship Program has named 47 HISD seniors from seven schools as 2021 semifinalists.
The seniors have an opportunity to compete for approximately 7,600 scholarships worth more than $30 million that will be offered next spring. Nationwide there are approximately 16,000 semifinalists in the 66th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
The familiar hoots and hollers of classmates returning to campus on the first day of school were replaced by “oohs” and “aahs” as students entered the new Bellaire High School for the first time on Monday.
Eleventh-grader Carter Sasser said everyone gathered at school early to meet up with friends and get their first glimpse of the new building.
“This place is impressive, especially the new pool and gym and the new lockers,” Sasser said. “The stairs are commons areas we didn’t have in the old building.”
As the sun set over Delmar Stadium, 10 graduating seniors clad in bright red caps and gowns took the stage to introduce a special video making its debut at Bellaire High School’s graduation.
The seven-minute video introduced the school’s record-breaking nine valedictorians and salutatorian to the hundreds gathered for the ceremony and recapped key moments over the past four years.
“I think we can all agree it’s been one hell of a year,” said Valedictorian Wenson Tang, who opened the video from a table at The Teahouse Tapioca and Tea near the cardinal campus. “From COVID-19 and online school to snow and the Texas freeze, from political drama to social reform, 2021 is not a year to forget.”
Bellaire High School brimmed with excitement on Saturday as alumni — some of whom hadn’t walked the halls in more than 60 years — joined with current students to say goodbye to their beloved campus.
With the school set for demolition this summer, Cardinals flocked from far and wide for the Final Building Walk Through, co-hosted by the Bellaire Parent-Teacher Organization and the Alumni and Friends of Bellaire High School.
A record nine Houston Independent School District students from six campuses won prestigious national gold medals in the 2020 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.
This is the first time HISD has had nine national gold medal winners in a single year. The winners competed against more than 80,000 students who submitted nearly 230,000 works of art and writing to the Scholastic Awards. Only 2,000 entries received national medals.