Jordan Chapin is the 2022-23 Russell Mowery Scholar of Honors Northeast and the president of Phi Theta Kappa (PTK)’s Texas district. PTK is the foremost open-access collegiate honorary society in the Western Hemisphere. She presented her work on Legendary Housewives of Northeast Texas at the Mount Pleasant Library, the spring meeting of the Walter Prescott Webb Society (WPWS) at the University of Texas at Austin, and the spring meeting of the Great Plains Honors Council in Wichita. Her work has also gained a berth at the upcoming meeting of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC). Chapin was the 2021-22 Chitsey winner of Honors Northeast. Last summer she earned a special REU research opportunity in chemistry at Texas A&M at Commerce. She was recently named the 2022 Dr. Mary Hood Texas Region Scholar.
Sydney Carey: was the 2022 salutatorian of Hughes Springs High School. As a president of the DECA chapter at Hughes Springs, she competed on the state level three times. She helped spearhead the chapter’s community project which raised over $1,000.
Victor Diaz is the 2022-23 James and Elizabeth Whatley Scholar of Honors Northeast. He was the producer of the Caldwell-Award winning film, Pedal to the Metal: The Life of Carroll Hall Shelby. He presented the film trailer at the fall meeting of the Walter Prescott Webb Society in Nacogdoches in October of 2021, and will present other segments of the film as chair of a panel at the meeting of the NCHC this November. In May of 2022, he won $300 and 2nd place in the McGraw Hill poster contest for his work on the impact of social media on college students.
Skylar Fondren is the seventh Texas Heritage National Bank Scholar of Honors Northeast. In March of 2022, she became the eighth student in NTCC history to win a Britt Poster Award of the Great Plains Honors Council. Her work on the development of a news desert in Northeast Texas also won $400 and first prize in the McGraw Hill Poster Contest last May. She presented this work at the Mount Pleasant library, and the WPWS. She is scheduled to present this work as well in Dallas this November at the NCHC. She is subsequently NTCC’s candidate for Student Representative of the GPHC, and is also president of NTCC’s Honors Student Council. This past summer, she co-authored the NTCC film script on Minnie Fisher Cunningham, and served as the film’s director, filming scenes in Titus, Morris, and Gillespie counties.
Hope Kelly spent her sophomore year of high school in Europe, and her junior year aboard a sailboat along the Pacific Coast of Central America. She also was homeschooled in Mexico while her father served there as a missionary. In her first semester in honors last spring, she won the Eckman Award for having the top GPA in the Stat-Psych seminar. Passionate about costumes, she contributed to productions last year in NTCC’s theatre program, and also worked with honors alumna Ann Goodson to produce the costumes used in the honors film last summer.
Evan Sears placed in two successive years of the Northeast Texas Poetry Contest, coming in fourth in 2021 and first in 2022--with a versed critique of the rise of solar panel farms in Franklin County. He was film scholar of NTCC’s Carroll Shelby film, and presented this work last year at the Mount Pleasant library, and at the fall and spring meetings of the WPWS in Nacogdoches and Austin. He will present another version of this work at the East Texas Historical Association this October. He will be NTCC’s first “Dr. and Mrs. Bradley Witt Scholar,” receiving private support as an NCHC presenter, discussing a regional theme—Carroll Hall Shelby.
Aubrey Watkins : is a 2022 graduate of Paul Pewitt High School. During her senior year she served as a legal clerk for the Luckey Law Firm of Omaha. She also served as a member of Pewitt’s livestreaming broadcast team. Last summer she participated in the NTCC film project on Minnie Fisher Cunningham and will present her experiences at the state WPWS meeting in Nacogdoches this October.
