High school scholars saluted for academic performance

The Cy-Fair Independent School District school board recently recognized the district's outstanding scholars, including 34 semifinalists in the elite National Merit Scholarship Program.

At a special Jan. 24 meeting at the Berry Center, Superintendent David Anthony described the group as future leaders.

"My hope is one day I'll get to see the results of all your abilities and what you bring to bear in our state, our country and our world," he told students and their families.

Cy-Fair's National Merit semifinalists are among 15,000 U.S. students eligible to win one of the program's 8,200 merit scholarships.

Semifinalists placed among the top 1 percent, and commended students placed among the top 3 percent of about 1.4 million students who entered the program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test during their junior year. CFISD had 90 commended students.

In addition, 60 CFISD students were recognized through the National Hispanic Recognition Program and the National Achievement Scholarship Program.

National Merit semifinalists are:

Cy-Fair High School — Thomas Cleeland, Jay Drummond II, Elizabeth Knipp, Nitish Kulkarni, Fernanda Lavalle, Angela Liao, Brittany Norwood, Ellen Sebastian, Gregory Slatton, Cody Westgard and Ellen Yeung

Cypress Creek High School - Pierce Franklin, Cymone Grimes, Alexander Horst, Christine Nguyen, Tess Ortega and Bradford Stricklin

Cypress Lakes High School - Christine Johnson and Monica Zemel

Cypress Ranch High School - Drew Nunn

Cypress Woods High School - Christopher Ayoub, Evan Bao, Matthew Fischer, Kyle Hilberg, Charles Jester and Kathryn Kostecka

Jersey Village High School - Khmemrak Chhin, Alexandra Doyle, David Quiroz and Michelle Vuong

Langham Creek High School - Emily Gruener, Daniel Nguyen, Arianna Perkins and Jenna Tiffin.

Commended students are:

Cy-Fair High School - George Adams, Andrew Atencio, Shannon Banner, Matthew Bui, Anna Carter, Morgan Concialdi, Stephen Davis, Andrew Dieu, Raven-Deneice Grant, Josette Jellison, Marcus Johnson, Simi Kavthekar, Patrick Kelley, Raina Mathur, Rebecca Norcini, Blake O'Hara, Gary Qu, Madison Stacy and Samantha Ward

Cypress Creek High School - Amanda Barreto, Nicholas Burrin, Jonathan Edwards, Kevin Gravesmill, Anita Hoang, Madison McGlamery, Nicholas Mumme, Audrey Renfro, Kristin Robinson, Amethyst Southern and Monica Yalamanchili

Cypress Falls High School - Timothy Arbeiter, Preeya Bhavsar, David King and Dimple Swali

Cypress Lakes High School - Sarah Collignon and Lauren Muñoz

Cypress Ranch High School - Kendall Ahrendsen, Christina Aldrich, Logan Hardy, Nicholas Kalogeras, Jacob Osborne, Katie Park, Chloe Potemans, Ashleigh Smith, Sierra Smith and James Walraven

Cypress Ridge High School - Andres Cedeño, Lindsey Dantzler, Gina Duong and Kush Muzumdar.

Cypress Springs High School - Jessica Abbey, Hassan Daramsis and Drake Narendorf.

Cypress Woods High School - Arshiya Baig, Amanda Cedeño, Thomas DiBenedetto, Jessica Gan, Andrew Huang, Alyxandria Moose, Emily Newstrom, Lindsay Oncken, Leanna Pancoast, Sajani Patel, Jonathan Pittman, Emily Schwans, Catherine Silverman, Conner Stafford, Kevin Vo, Katherine Wengler and Savannah Wingo

Jersey Village High School - Zachary Abeyta, Sarah Adolph, Nicole Ancell, Jennie Do, April Holland, Sidtany Meun and Christopher Thai

Langham Creek High School - Whitney Chan, Sungsuk Cho, Michael Gin, Michael Gyarmathy, John Hoehner, San-Pei Lee, David Lumb, Jaime Martinez, Jonathan Rivera, Jesal Shah, Christina Stewart, Kevin Wade and Taylor Womack.

Selected in the National Hispanic Recognition Program are:

Cy-Fair High School - Andrew Atencio, Fernanda Lavalle and James Sparks were named Hispanic Scholars and Erica Perez received honorable mention.

Cypress Creek High School - Amanda Barreto, Julie Delapaz, Kevin Gravesmill, Cesilia Mejia, Tess Ortega, Juan Salas and Gonzalo Sequeira were named Hispanic Scholars and Marissa Cabrera, Kali Eiskant and Taylor Gamez received honorable mention.

Cypress Falls High School - David King and Javier Laredo were named Hispanic Scholars.

Cypress Lakes High School - Anthony Diaz, Lauren Muñoz, Christina Tudela and Monica Zemel were named Hispanic Scholars and Hector Castillo received honorable mention.

Cypress Ranch High School - Michael Brady, Aaron Gordon, Sarah Guhl, Paige Krippner and Michael Maduzia were named Hispanic Scholars.

Cypress Ridge High School - Andres Cedeño was named a Hispanic Scholar

Cypress Springs High School - Jessica Abbey was named a Hispanic Scholar

Cypress Woods High School - Amanda Cedeño, Allison Henry, Meghan Rodriguez, Rafael Rodriguez and Juan Varon were named Hispanic Scholars. German Guzman received honorable mention.

Jersey Village High School - Zachary Abeyta, Samantha Aguilar, Carolina Baumanis, David Quiroz and Richard Rodriguez were named Hispanic Scholars.

Langham Creek High School - Alexandra Devine, Jaime Martinez, Dylan Muñoz, Evan Peraza, Jonathan Rivera, Robert Tellez and James Treviño were named Hispanic Scholars.

Selected for the National Achievement Scholarship Program, an academic competition for outstanding black high school students, are:

Cy-Fair High School - semifinalists Jay Drummond II, Raven-Deneice Grant, Marcus Johnson, Samantha Mott and Taiwo Ogunseye and honoree Omare Okotie-Eboh

Cypress Creek High School - semifinalist Cymone Grimes and honoree Dominic Odom

Cypress Ranch High School - semifinalist Benjamin Walker and honoree Ahalee Cathey

Cypress Ridge High School - honoree Raven Brooks

Cypress Woods High School - honoree Phillip Thomas

Langham Creek High School - honorees Thomas McNulty and Oluwademilad Shoyombo