Student Achievements: Music, Scholarship, Philanthropy
1. All Region Orchestra
See 23 Highland Strings students perform during the Region 20 Concert at 4 p.m. Dec. 3 at Berkner High School in Richardson. Five Highland Park High orchestra students also advanced to All-Area competition: Neelan Krishna, Iris Song, Linda Chen, Tommy Zhang, and Timmy Zhang.
2. Walking for water
McCulloch Intermediate School sixth graders walked around the campus on Oct. 21 carrying gallon jugs of water. The annual Water Walk mimics the experience of children in less developed countries who may have to walk for miles to bring water home. The campus also collected sealed water jugs to donate to the North Texas Food Bank. “My biggest takeaway was to be thankful for what we have,” student Saylor Stalk said. “Something as simple as having easy access to water allows us to focus on school.”
3. Big band wins
The Highlander Band swept all class B titles, taking first place in preliminaries at the Mansfield Preview of Champions competition in September while earning caption awards for Drumline, Color Guard, Music, and Visuals. Highland Park placed fourth overall against larger bands in the finals and was awarded the Visual caption. The band also made a debut performance at the Bands of America North Texas Regional Competition in October, finishing in third place. The Highland Park drumline placed third in the 6A Advanced division at the HEB Drumline clinic in Bedford.
4. Ruby’s Runway
Highland Park High School seniors Campbell Nelson, Ella Scott Singleton, Reese Singleton, and Tatum Thomason created Ruby’s Runway, a dress resale fundraising event, and raised $21,816 for Williams Syndrome research. Williams Syndrome is a rare genetic condition that causes mild to moderate delays in cognitive development and learning difficulties.
5. Commended Students
In November issues, we reported on National Merit Semifinalists. Highland Park High School also had 35 seniors selected as Commended Students after taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test: Emily Adams, Zeynep Akdora, Sean Ashton, Truman Barden, Michelle Bi, Francesca Carrillo, Justine Choi, Judge Ellis, Caoilinn Grove-Collins, Vincenzo Guandolo, Chloe Haag, Paige Hogan, Margaret Hopper, Grayson Houghton, Joyce Jiang, Justin Johns, Margaret Jordan, Zaina Khan, Hayes Kraus, Adam Leybovich-Glikin, Katherine Mader, Cole Margolin, Kael McLendon, Henry McPherson, Raina Pietrzak, Eli Raphael, Joshua Rubin, Ethan Scott, Zayan Shah, Iris Song, Benjamin Sumner, Shreya Vishwanath, Elizabeth Yang, Tommy Zhang, and Alison Zou.
