Student Achievements: Three to Celebrate
1. Drum Line Triumphs
At the Lone Star Classic Drum Line Competition, the Highland Park High School Drum Line earned the Caldwell Cup for Best Percussion Performance by achieving the highest tabulated score from preliminary competition among all 49 competing drum lines. The drum line also won first place in its division and caption awards for best front ensemble and best tenor line. Solo awards: Zack Shawver, second place, tenor solo; Nicholas Chang, third place, snare solo; Reed Smoot, seventh place, keyboard solo.
2. Mathletes Excel
McCulloch Intermediate School won the Sweepstakes Champion Team Award this fall at the first fifth- and sixth-grade math league competition of the year. Sixth-grader Ryan Wright, who won first place in the sixth-grade individual competition and overall sweepstakes individual competition. Other team members included sixth-graders Ava Czarnecki, David Guo, Joben Singh, Laskhmi Vemula, Emma Wang, Max Yan, and Amie Zhang, as well as fifth-grader Grace Jiang.
3. New Eagle Scouts
These Boy Scouts from Troop 125 at Grace Bible Church have earned the Eagle Scout rank, Scouting’s highest. Samuel Becker Bentley, son of Jim and Anne Bentley of Dallas, graduated from Highland Park High School in 2018 and is taking honors classes at Richland Community College. Eagle project: working with Connecting Point of Park Cities to beautify the agency’s entrance by installing a screen to block the view of a dumpster nearby. Jonathan Trace Hamada, son of Sean and Gina Hamada of Dallas, is a senior at the School for the Talented and Gifted Magnet. Eagle project: rebuilding two benches and expanding the garden at The Village Church Dallas Northway. Cole Layton Smith, son of Mark and Jeanette Smith of University Park, is a freshman at Texas Christian University. Eagle project: refurbishing the prayer labyrinth at University Park United Methodist Church.
