SBISD Valedictorians & Salutatorians Announced

SBISD’s five high schools have announced valedictorians and salutatorians to represent their Class of 2014 graduates.

Four SBISD campuses will host their graduation ceremonies on Saturday, May 31, and one campus will conduct its program for graduates on the evening of Monday, June 2.

Memorial High names 22 co-valedictorians and 6 co-salutatorians 

Memorial High School has named 22 co-valedictorians and six co-salutatorians to represent the Class of 2014. Graduating seniors at this SBISD campus will receive their diplomas at 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 31, at Don Coleman Coliseum.

The Class of 2014’s co-valedictorians are Kendra Andersen, Brenna Black, George Chen, Ryan Cowell, David Cremins, Katherine Duncan, Emmalie Ferazzi, Daniel Gawerc, Benjamin Graber, Yae Jee Hong, Grant Kirchhofer, Anna Lai, Justin Lee, Rajat Mehndiratta, Vitoria Moreno-Costa, Matthew Nguyen, Erin Pisters, Mary Rotan, Margaret Sherwood, Stephen Snow, Allison Strealy and Tiffany Wu.

This year’s co-salutatorians at Memorial High are Callie Beard, Haley Dickinson, Mary Kvinta, Nam Lee, Darya Molavi and Byoung Ryu. 

Northbrook High School names valedictorian and 2 co-salutatorians 

Northbrook High School has named a valedictorian and two co-salutatorians to represent the Class of 2014. Graduating seniors at this SBISD campus will receive their diplomas at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 31, at Don Coleman Coliseum.

The Class of 2014’s valedictorian is Isaiah Rodriguez. Co-salutatorians this year at Northbrook High School are Mayen Aguilera and Lauren Iozzio. 

Spring Woods High names 7 co-valedictorians and 3 co-salutatorians 

Spring Woods High School has named seven co-valedictorians and three co-salutatorians to represent the Class of 2014. Seniors enrolled at this SBISD campus will receive their diplomas at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 31, at Don Coleman Coliseum. The Class of 2014’s co-valedictorians are David Castilla, Marissa Clark, Alexander King, Bao Ma, Lilly Mendoza, Christian Rice and Nicholas Zander.

Co-salutatorians this year at Spring Woods High School are Veronica Rae Gonzalez, Jim Im and Erika Villafana.

Stratford High names 30 co-valedictorians and 4 co-salutatorians 

Stratford High School has named 30 co-valedictorians and four co-salutatorians to represent the Class of 2014. Graduating seniors at this SBISD high school will receive their diplomas at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 31, at Don Coleman Coliseum.

The Class of 2014’s co-valedictorians are Nathaniel Barbour, Anna Bergersen, Abigail Brown, Ahmed Butt, Hernan Cepeda, Philip Chen, Weijie Cheng, Emily Crawford, Sarah Davis, Sarah Finkelstein, Elizabeth Gahn, Mary Goss, Zeriba Jahangir, Caroline Kelly, Katherine Kennedy, Joseph Kwak, Hannah Lindsey, Margaret Mathias, Katherine Mavergeorge, Eila Motley, Annie O’Keefe, Elaine Parizot, Brian Quinlan, Justin Raine, Benjamin Riedel, Taylor Troutman, Alison Utz, Anya Jordan Vaporciyan, Anye Ye and Christy Zhang.

This year’s co-salutatorians at Stratford High are Fariha Jawed, Stephen Krueger, Allyson Levine and Diana Ruiz. 

Westchester Academy for International Studies names 5 co-valedictorians and 3 co-salutatorians

Westchester Academy for International Studies has named five co-valedictorians and three co-salutatorians to represent the Class of 2014. Graduating seniors at this SBISD secondary campus will receive their diplomas at 7 p.m. on Monday, June 2, at Don Coleman Coliseum.

The Class of 2014’s co-valedictorians are Adam Kassir, Rachel Loving, Alyssa-uyen Nguyen, David Pham and Helen Scott. Co-salutatorians this year at Westchester Academy are Mario Gutierrez, Saul Lopez and Niall Miner.

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Houston Endowment 2014 Jones Scholars named

Twelve Spring Branch ISD students have been named 2014 Jones Scholars by the Houston Endowment and now qualify for annual scholarships during their college years ahead. As Jones Scholars award winners, these high school seniors are eligible to receive up to $16,000 in scholarship funds toward a bachelor’s degree.

Jones Scholars are nominated by their high schools, and a Rotary Club of Houston committee then makes the final student selections based on academic achievement, economic need, leadership skills, community service and personal character.

Houston Endowment is the philanthropic foundation established by Jesse H. and Mary Gibbs Jones to improve the lives of all greater Houston residents through endowment contributions to local charitable groups and educational institutions. Since the Jones Scholars Program began in 1958, Houston Endowment has given almost $97 million to help send more than 11,000 area students to college.

2014 Jones Scholars in Spring Branch ISD

Memorial High School

Runhan Mao

Angel Su

Xinyl Zhang

Northbrook High School

Lauren N. Iozzio

My T. Pham

Spring Woods High School

Nicole D. Jackson

Anjanee R. Munidasa

Maximiliano Rombado

Stratford High School

Hernan A. Cepeda

Joseph B. Kwak

Debra S. Yang

Westchester Academy for International Studies

Paola Gutierrez

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MediaFest Awards

A Spring Woods High School senior who created a stunningly detailed digital video cartoon, titled “Captain Zodiak and the Planet of Ice,” won Best in Show honors during the recently held SBISD Digital MediaFest Awards Ceremony.


The May 1 awards ceremony followed months of effort by SBISD Educational Technology to publicize its awards event and seek student submissions in these areas: photography, graphics, publications, live action video or animated video. Held in the auditorium at Westchester Academy for International Studies, the second annual awards event attracted about 200 students and family members.

On the same evening that Lorelei Shannon won the Best of Show award for video animation, the young artist was awarded a $5,000 scholarship during the separate live auction event sponsored by the NewSpring art and business organization.

The Spring Woods High senior will attend the Savannah College of Art and Design this fall. Lorelei quips that she plans to pursue a major in “comics and cartoons” in Savannah. She reportedly spent half a year working on the award winning MediaFest video, a remarkable creation for a high school student.

Lorelei combined her art talents with several complicated digital video software programs to create a stylish, space-age themed video. Opening remarks at the MediaFest Awards Ceremony were delivered by Michelle Voss, who is executive director of Moving Image Arts and Education.

She told all young learners to find a place to “tinker” and to “find a place for yourself.” In addition to acquiring digital skills and technology expertise, she urged students to follow their passion in education and in later career choices. “If you could find something that you really want to do every day, that is great,” she said.

The award ceremony was organized by Educational Technology Facilitator Carrie Foster. The department is led by Sheri Alford. Among other award ceremony highlights, many students in the district’s first-year School for Highly Gifted Students program at Valley Oaks Elementary won first-place awards in several categories.

To view all award categories, student winners and works, please visit MediaFest’s awards site: http://cms.springbranchisd.com/mediafest/Home/Showcase/tabid/29722/Default.aspx

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NewSpring Art Auction

A Spring Woods High senior who dreams of a career drawing comics and using computers to create vivid animated, digital cartoons was awarded a new, $5,000 scholarship during the recent NewSpring Art Auction. The May 1 auction held in the lobby of the Forney Construction Building on Long Point was packed with Spring Branch ISD art students standing near their works in various media, which hung on the lobby walls windows. SBISD parents and staff and NewSpring supporters bid on the art.

Students kept all auction proceeds. NewSpring founder and chairman Robert Westheimer praised new scholarship recipient Lorelei Shannon as a national talent. Only an hour before the auction, Lorelei was named as the Best in Show winner at SBISD’s separate MediaFest awards presentation. She created a stunning and meticulously drawn animated cartoon titled “Captain Zodiak and the Planet of Ice” to win that top MediaFest honor.

 “Lorelei will be famous artist one day,” Westheimer told the NewSpring crowd. The Spring Woods High senior plans to attend the Savannah College of Art and Design, one of the nation’s top fine arts colleges. “I discovered what the computer can do for art, but computers still can’t do what an artist does. I’m excited about heading to Savannah College of Art and Design,” she said. Lorelei quipped that she hopes to major in “comics and cartoons.”

Other former SBISD students receiving $5,000 NewSpring Art scholarships were University of Texas at Austin freshman Chinh Pham, a 2013 Spring Woods High graduate, and Adrianna Guillen, a sophomore at Texas A&M University-Kingsville who is also a SBISD graduate. Pham received the First Baptist Church Spring Branch Scholarship and Guillen is a three-time recipient of the Linda Buchman Scholarship.

One of the evening’s standout art pieces was a “guicello,” or a cello body matched to a guitar neck, and a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar with body and neck parts designed and fabricated by Northbrook High sophomore Marcos Gonzalez. “It’s really a combination of both art and music, and we have found a way here to combine the two,” said his instructor, Northbrook High art teacher Scott Keairnes.

Keairnes collects broken musical instruments across SBISD and then finds ways to put them to good use again. He calls Marcos his “Leonardo Da Vinci” for his great ability to reuse objects and for his many talents in art, design and woodworking. “He sculpts. He draws. He paints, and he plays music,” the art instructor said. Marcos, who is 15, came to America from Cuba just two years ago. He saw no path forward in art as a career until he came to Houston and to SBISD schools.

“When I came here, I saw 1,000 doors open for me in art. If you can make a living here in art, then I will do it,” the young man said. In recent years, art students have earned thousands of dollars through NewSpring’s annual live auction and scholarship event. NewSpring’s art and business programs were created to help at-risk students learn how to achieve and attain a better future.

To learn more about NewSpring, please visit www.newspringcenter.org.

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Houston Rockets Read

Students at Hollibrook Elementary School have won first place in the Houston Rockets Read to Achieve Program. Students and staff will be honored Friday, May 23, for their pursuit of the reading prize when a delegation from the Houston Rockets visits the Spring Branch ISD campus.

A school rally and celebration is being planned. Hollibrook students enrolled in grades one through five read for a total of 746,975 minutes, and prekindergarten and kindergarten students read an additional 20,000 minutes to help place first in the monthlong competition with other schools across Houston.

The Houston Rockets “Read to Achieve” program is designed to promote both the value and sheer fun of reading for elementary students. The reading contest among schools was held in March. School Librarian Kari Heitman captured contest interest among students and staff in several ways, including cafeteria signage; weekly updates on minutes read on a grade level basis; a March 8 Read-a-thon; Book Fair; library activities coordinated with Read Across America Week and Hat Day.

In addition, the librarian and school Principal Elsa Delgado presented two separate book readings using a digital-based broadcasting system.

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Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Scholarships

Thirteen Spring Branch ISD students were awarded scholarships by the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo recently. Each student scholarship is valued at $18,000 over four years for college or university tuition or other needs.

Students at Memorial, Northbrook, Spring Woods and Stratford high schools, as well as Westchester Academy for International Studies, earned Rodeo awards. In all, district seniors were awarded more than $230,000 in Rodeo scholarships.

All Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo scholarship recipients must demonstrate academic potential, citizenship and leadership, and be in financial need. Students must also attend a Texas college or university. Scholarship awards are presented this month at the annual Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Scholarship Banquet.

 Metropolitan Scholarships 

These scholarships, valued at $18,000 over four years, are awarded to students in the top quarter of their graduating class who scored 1350 or more on SATs, or 19 or higher on the ACT.

Scholarship winners include: Allison Strealy – Memorial High Lauren Iozzio – Northbrook High BaoTran Ma – Spring Woods High Maximiliano Rombado – Spring Woods High Fariha Jawed – Stratford High Alyssa-uyen Nguyen – Westchester Academy David Pham – Westchester Academy

Opportunity Scholarships 

These scholarships, valued at $18,000 over four years, are awarded to students in the top half of their graduating class who scored 1300 or more on SATs, or 18 or higher on the ACT.

These scholarship winners include: Abigail Lagunas – Spring Woods High Anjanee Munidasa – Spring Woods High Maria Palomares Carranco – Spring Woods High Samantha Boncyk – Spring Woods High Saul Lopez – Spring Woods High

Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Scholarship 

This Spring Branch ISD scholarship winner is: Michelle Deveau – Spring Woods High Since the Rodeo Show began in 1932, more than $350 million has been dedicated to Texas youth. The Rodeo has issued almost 15,000 scholarships since 1957, the program’s first year.

More than 2,000 students are current scholarship recipients. They attend more than 100 separate Texas colleges and universities. In all, about $30 million in scholarships have currently been awarded.

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