Tag Archives: carnegie vanguard

Odyssey of the Mind teams from 6 schools earn trip to world finals

Six Houston ISD schools have Odyssey of the Mind teams that advanced to the world finals after the state competition on Saturday.

Odyssey of the Mind teaches students how to solve problems creatively as a group with up to seven members.

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7 HISD Odyssey of the Mind teams earn trip to world finals

Seven Houston ISD Odyssey of the Mind teams advanced to the world finals after the state competition on Saturday.

Odyssey of the Mind teaches students how to solve problems creatively as a group with up to seven members.

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Six HISD students earn national Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

HSPVA student Patrick Zapien celebrates with sponsoring art teacher Eileen Montgomery after being named as a Scholastic Art & Writing Gold Medal portfolio winner.

Six Houston ISD students have won national awards for their entries in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

High School for the Performing and Visual Arts student Patrick Zapien is a gold medal art portfolio winner, which earned him a $10,000 scholarship.

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Nine HISD Schools Win at State Odyssey of the Mind Competition

Students from Horn Academy pose as pirates for part of their Odyssey of the Mind competition.

Students from Horn Academy pose as pirates for part of their Odyssey of the Mind competition.

Fourteen schools participated in the state Odyssey of the Mind competition on Saturday, April 13, 2013 and students from nine of those schools will advance to the World Finals in May.

Odyssey of the Mind has become the largest international creative problem-solving competition worldwide, and HISD teams have been working hard to on their projects and presentations since October.
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New Aviation Club to Help Kids from Two Campuses Soar

Students at Sterling High School and Carnegie Vanguard High School will soon be the beneficiaries of a new partnership with the Houston Airport System.

Mayor Annise Parker, along with Sterling HS students Jesse Soto, Javonte Woodson, and Abril De La Cruz, announced the new initiative, dubbed the Aviation Club, during a press conference held Oct. 25 at City Hall.

The club will allow teenagers from both campuses with an interest in aviation or aerospace to explore those subjects through a series of monthly meetings held during the school year. It is designed to increase the number of young people pursuing careers in those fields.

To participate, students must attend either Carnegie or Sterling, maintain a GPA of at least 2.5, and meet various other criteria.

 To learn more, please visit the Houston Airport System’s website.

HISD Students among Semifinalists for National Merit Scholarship

Fifty-six seniors from six different HISD high schools are among the semifinalists for the National Merit Scholarship program.  These students will have the opportunity to compete for more than 8,300 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million that will be offered next spring.

“The National Merit Scholarship Program has a long tradition of excellence,” said HISD Superintendent Terry Grier. “We are extremely proud of these students being recognized nationally for their academic achievements.  Their accomplishments are a testament to their dedication and hard work.”

To be considered for this scholarship program, about 1.5 million high school juniors took the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship qualifying test. The nationwide pool of semifinalists, about 16,000 students, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

To become a finalist, the semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test. 

The selected semifinalist students are from the following HISD high schools: Bellaire High School, Carnegie Vanguard High School, DeBakey High School for Health Professions, the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Lamar High School, and Westside High School.

 The 2013 National Merit Scholarship Winners will be announced starting in April 2013. 

National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists

Bellaire High School                                

  • Andrew M. Alter                                                         
  • Zara Khan       
  • Lindsey D. Alter                                                         
  • Joseph C. Lau
  • Halla Bearden                                                             
  • Kirby J. Ledvina
  • Christina M. Breitbeil  
  • Benjamin Liu
  • Kevin Chen                                                              
  •  Jacqueline H. Luo                                                             
  • Blaine A. Cole                                                           
  • Aaron J. Mao
  • Andrei V. Didenko                                                     
  • Helen S. Mazella
  • Xinghua Dou                                                              
  • Alexander L. Mo          
  • Molly G. Dyer                                                           
  • Adarsh Nednur
  • Peter O. Elmers                                                          
  • Willis Nguy
  • Katherine Fang                                                            
  • Amanda K. Pevehouse
  • Alexander Franshaw                                                   
  • Holly S. Reichert                                                                
  • Garland R. Gay                                                           
  • Diana T. Ruan
  • Anneliese M. Gest                                                       
  • Yulan L. Shih
  • Sarah K. Godwin                                                        
  • Jun Ling Tao                   
  • Carrie X. Jiang                                                              
  • Edward D. Yun
  • Vivek Kantamani                                                                                                                                 

                           Carnegie Vanguard High School

  •  Kiera M. Brown
  • William J. Larsen
  • Sam M. Dietrich
  • Jonathan E. Vincent
  • Daniel Dreyfuss

                                    

                       DeBakey High School for Health Professions

  • Shannon E. Ahmed
  •  Tariq A. Patanam
  • Mohammad F. Bilal                                                  
  • Tiffany Pham
  • Anchit R. Khanna                                                  
  • Smruti Rath
  • Jeremiah M. Lee                                                     
  • Kristen L. Thompson
  • Nathalie C. Meremikwu                                 
  • Serene R. Yu

                    High School for the Performing and Visual Arts

  • Josef M. Lamel                     
  • Palmer L. Mills
  • Auburn H. Lee                                              
  • Jyron Walls
  • Amy Mattox

Lamar High School

  • Ashley Alcantara                                                        
  • Angela Chang                    

Westside High School

  • Konstantinos K. Varvarezos   

 

 

HISD Students Selected as National Merit Scholarship Winners

Six Houston Independent School District students have been selected among the final group of National Merit Scholarship winners announced for 2012.  A total of 26 HISD students were awarded National Merit Scholarships this year for undergraduate studies.  Each student will receive a $2,500 award.  Here are the recent winners.

  •  Jonas A. Actor – Carnegie Vanguard High School
  • Hader Ali – Lamar High School
  • Victor S. Prieto – Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions
  • Mitchell A. Sawyer – Bellaire High School
  • Frederick D. Vu – Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions
  • Lawrence Y. Zhu – Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions

 Here are the previously announced winners for 2012:

  • Olivia Arena – Bellaire High School
  • Dana Felberg – Bellaire High School
  • Meghana Golla – Bellaire High School
  • Weiting Ji – Bellaire High School
  • Amy Jiang – Bellaire High School
  • Joseph Lewis – Bellaire High School
  • Carrie Li – Bellaire High School
  • Natalia Majewska – Bellaire High School
  • Denes Marton – Bellaire High School
  • Ankeet Mutha – Bellaire High School 
  • Adriana Pantazis – Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions
  • Spencer Shen –  High School for the Performing and Visual Arts
  • Lavanya Sunder – Lamar High School
  • Jincy Varughese – Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions
  • David Williams – Bellaire High School
  • John Williams – Bellaire High School
  • Yihui Yang – Carnegie Vanguard High School 
  • Daniel Yun – Bellaire High School
  • Ni Zhan – Bellaire High School
  • Zhongmin Zhang –  Bellaire High School 

The winners were juniors when they received the highest scores on the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying test.  The students also had to demonstrate an outstanding academic record; had to be actively involved in their school and the community and had to be recommended by a high school official. This year approximately 8,100 students nationwide will receive National Merit Scholarships totaling more than $35 million.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a not-for-profit corporation that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program.  Over the past 57 years, more than 292,000 students have won National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $1 billion.  

The majority of awards offered each year are underwritten by approximately 440 independent corporate and college sponsors that support NMSC’s efforts to recognize scholastically talented youth and to encourage the pursuit of academic excellence.

HISD Board President Television Show Takes an Up Close Look at Carnegie Vanguard HS Construction

Who: The June 2012 edition of HISD Up Close hosted by HISD Board of Education President Michael Lunceford takes viewers on a hard-hat tour of the new Carnegie Vanguard High School campus. This summer, HISD Construction and Facility crews are finishing up the state-of-the art facility so students and staff can move in for the start of 2012-2013 school year. The show also features interviews with Carnegie Principal Ramos Moss and the HISD 2011-2012 Principals and Teachers of the Year.

What: Monthly HISD UP Close television show hosted by Board President Michael Lunceford.

When: Throughout the month of June at www.houstonisd.org and on HISD-TV (Comcast channel 18 and AT&T U-verse channel 99) on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sunday at 8:30 p.m.

Why: HISD Board President Michael Lunceford is committed to showcasing some of the amazing things happening at HISD schools across the district, in addition to highlighting district initiatives and accomplishments. His monthly show features a tour of an HISD school or project, and segments showcasing the academic accomplishments of HISD students and the dedication of HISD staff.

HISD High Schools Win More National Accolades

Houston ISD high schools are well represented on two national lists issued today that seek to identify the top high schools in America.

The strong showing on the Washington Post High School Challenge rankings and Newsweek’s America’s Best High Schools of 2012 are the result of HISD’s Advanced Placement initiative that began with the 2009-2010 school year.  That was the year Superintendent Terry Grier called on all high schools to expand student access to college-level AP courses and the district agreed to pay the exam fees for all students in those classes.

“This is great recognition of the hard work being done by teachers and students at high schools across the Houston Independent School District,” said Superintendent Terry Grier.

Today, all HISD high schools offer a minimum of 10-15 AP classes, and the number of exams earning a score of 3 or higher, which is the score most colleges require for course credit, is up 35 percent.

HISD’s strong AP progress is one reason the district is among four finalists for the Broad Prize for Urban Education, which recognizes the top urban school district in America. This week, a Broad Prize panel of experts is touring HISD schools as part of the evaluation process.

Washington Post High School Challenge

Twenty-one HISD high schools earned recognition in the Washington Post High School Challenge, a list of 1,800 schools representing the top 9 percent in the nation when it comes to preparing graduates for college. Only 125 Texas high schools made the list, and HISD campuses – Carnegie Vanguard, Eastwood Academy, and DeBakey High School for Health Professions – represent three of the national top 100.

HISD high schools that made the Washington Post list include:

2012 Rank      School Name

10                         Carnegie Vanguard

23                         Eastwood Academy

96                         Challenge Early HS

114                       DeBakey HS for Health Professions

153                       Bellaire

161                       High School for the Performing and Visual Arts

168                       East Early College

194                       Furr

228                      High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice

267                      Lamar

275                      Westside

548                      Westbury

553                      Lee

833                      Chavez

1,001                  Milby

1,062                  Reagan

1,121                   Scarborough

1,158                  Washington

1,205                  Davis

1,377                  Waltrip

1,571                   Austin

Newsweek’s list of America’s Best High Schools 

HISD high schools also occupy 9 out of 1,000 positions on Newsweek’s list of America’s Best High Schools.  Only 86 Texas high schools made the Newsweek list. HISD schools on the list are:

2012 Rank       School Name

13                           Carnegie Vanguard

72                          Eastwood Academy

75                          DeBakey HS for Health Professions

162                        High School for the Performing and Visual Arts

439                        Bellaire

446                        Challenge Early College

685                        High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice

883                        Lamar

957                        Mount Carmel Academy