By Deanna Proctor —
CCAISD held its 19th annual Awards of Excellence banquet Monday evening. The awards were presented to students that made a meaningful impression during the 2012-2013 school year.
The event started with an invocation by Superintendent Marc A. Puig after which he described the recipients of the awards as “stars of the school,†and called for all to “celebrate their excellence and celebrate their future.â€
A dinner was prepared and served by the cafeteria staff. The awards ceremony followed afterward.
Erica Urias presented the English Language Arts award to Steven Chalambaga. The award for Mathematics went to Savannah Corralez and was presented by Marcia Crowley. The Science award was presented to Steven Chalambaga by Brock Tyrrell.
Anna Luna delivered the award to Imisha Bhakta for Social Studies. Priscilla Urias presented the awards for both Technology and Business. The Technology award was won by Savanah Carrillo who was not able to attend.
The Business award was presented to Savannah Corralez. The award for Spanish was given to Matthew Velez by Luis Garcia. Winning the award for Band was Imisha Bhakta and was presented by Matthew Short. Joy Scott presented the Agriculture award to Ralph Alvarado.
Several students also received the Distinguished Graduate award. To receive this recognition, a student must have taken higher level mathematics as well as higher level science classes.
The student must also have completed Spanish 3 and achieved at least a 3.0 in four dual-credit classes. Sondra McCoy, student counselor, presented this award to Matthew Badillo, Imisha Bhakta, Steven Chalambaga, Alexandria Quintana, Julio Quintana and Trevor Rivera.
The final awards given were in recognition of class standing. These were presented by High School Principal, Debbie Engle. Ranking number five out of the entire graduating class was Steven Chalambaga. The fourth highest ranking senior was Savannah Corralez. Alexandria Quintana received the distinction of being ranked third. The award for salutatorian was presented to Trevor Rivera and the student with the highest grade-point average and therefore valedictorian was Imisha Bhakta.
Mr. Puig concluded the ceremony with a word of encouragement and a quote from Ghandi. “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.†He advised the students to not try to figure out what they want to be, but rather to find what makes them come alive.
