Odalys Adame graduated from MPHS in 2022 where she won a National Hispanic Recognition Award, and many other medals in UIL, and FBLA, reaching the state level. She has maintained a formidable GPA at NTCC excelling both in humanities and upper-end STEM courses. She acted and supported the Caldwell-Award winning 2022 honors film project on the Texas suffragettes. This year, her poem, “Changes,” won fourth place and $100 at the reading of the Northeast Texas Poetry Contest. She will one of NTCC’s presenters at the fall meeting of the WPWS this October in Houston.
Michelle Calderon is the 2023-24 Russell Mowery Scholar of NTCC. She is president of the Honors Student Council. She is the fourth student in NTCC history to post the highest score on the state level for the summer STAR scholarships of Phi Theta Kappa in Texas. She has presented variations of her work on the Texas suffragettes at the Mount Pleasant Library, NTCC, the Fall meeting of the WPWS in Nacogdoches, and at the spring meeting of the TSHA in El Paso. In 2022, she served as the film scholar for NTCC’s Caldwell-Award winning film effort on the Texas suffragettes, and this past summer, she served as director of NTCC’s film effort on the traveling preachers of early Texas. Michelle was also recently the winner of the 2023 Northeast Texas Poetry Contest, for her poem, “Under the Texas Sky.” She will present her scholarly work on the Texas Suffragettes in annual meeting of the NCHC in Chicago in November.
Christian Gilbreath graduated fourth in his class at CPHS in 2023. He was a member of the NHS, the varsity baseball, football and track teams, and the Student Council. He made the all-state, academic football team. In biology at NTCC his sample of moss, along with that of Michelle Mejia, led to the first tardigrade discovery in Hopkins County.
J. Kaden Groda participated in FFA, and many service projects while a student at Chapel Hill High School (CHHS). He was active in church circles as a youth speaker and helper at Vacation Bible School. He plays the role of a major preacher, James Stevenson in the honors 2023 film, and is freshman representative on the Honors Student Council.
Adrilanie Gutierrez is a graduate of Pittsburg High School. While at PHS, she was active in the band and as a student manager for female athletes. At NTCC she has been active in helping the Eagle Food Pantry and other care functions on campus. In November, Gutierrez will present her work on child abuse and serial murderers at the meeting of the NCHC in Chicago.
Skylar Hodson entered Honors Northeast last year as the star of the film on the Texas suffragettes, playing the role of Minnie Fisher Cunningham. She had been homeschooled in Titus County. Interested in pursuing film, she plays the role of Emily Austin, an important matron of early Texas in the upcoming Webb/Honors film. She has won both poetry and image awards in the two annual Northeast Texas Poetry Readings of 2022 and 2023. She will help present the honors film project at the 2023 fall meeting of the WPWS of Texas in Houston.
John Jones attended Liberty Christian High School in Denton County, and was also homeschooled before coming to NTCC this fall. He lives in Scroggins. He has a distinguished ACT score, and is interested in foreign languages.
Raul Leija won a STAR scholarship of the Texas district of Phi Theta Kappa in the summer of 2022. He acted and served as a member of the crew in a record three NTCC films, on Carroll Hall Shelby, Minnie Fisher Cunningham, and the traveling preachers where he plays the role of Sam Houston. He presented his work on the “Sickness of the Sickness, Pandemics in Dallas” at the WPWS at the University of Texas at Austin in March of 2022. He helped perform research for the 2023 film at SMU. Leija is the first member of Honors Northeast who is simultaneously a member of NTCC’s Nursing Program.
Haley Lewis is the second Dr. and Mrs. Bradley Witt Scholar of NTCC, presenting a notable state-wide theme this November at the NCHC. Her work features Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe as the third best Southern governor of the 1970s. She was a 2022 graduate of Daingerfield High School (DHS) where she was a member of the NHS, varsity cheer, and the varsity softball team. At NTCC in her first year, she won an award for conceptualization.
Alison Majors graduated in 2023 from MPHS. She was a member of the Student Council, HOSA, the Lady Tiger volleyball and softball teams, and the NTHS. She is a talented debater and her image of an emergent “Carhenge” in Northeast Texas won third in the 2023 Image Contest.
Victoria Matz graduated from PHS in 2022 where she served on the student council, played in the band, and competed in UIL. she placed second in the Northeast Texas Poetry Contest in 2022 for her work, “Nuestro Paisaje,” and won $300. She subsequently recited the poem on K-Lake Radio, and also helped promote the suffragette film on the air. She has been an active member of the NTCC crew for the films of 2022 and 2023.
Luke McCraw entered honors in the Spring of 2023 as a homeschooled student from Mount Vernon. He won the Shambarger Leadership Scholarship from the First Baptist Church at Winnsboro, and has exhibited an in-depth knowledge of theology at the Monday Lutheran Bible Study at NTCC. He is a member of Phi Theta Kappa. He served as the main film scholar for this year’s film in honors, performing research at the DeGolyer archive at Southern Methodist University. He plays the role of antagonist, Stephen F. Austin, in the upcoming film. He will help present the honors film project at the 2023 Fall Meeting of the WPWS of Texas in Houston.
Zulma Mejia ran track, served as a Tiger Doll, and participated in many clubs at Mount Pleasant High School such as HOSA and FBLA. She aspires to become a nurse.
Fernanda Melendez Aleman is currently ranked second in her class at Harts Bluff High School. She is president of the 2024 graduating class. At Harts Bluff, she is a member of the NHS, the National Society of High School Scholars, FFA, and HOSA. She is active in UIL Math, and speaking. She is on the basketball team. At NTCC she participates in both Sigma Kappa Delta and Phi Theta Kappa.
Garrett Phillips came to honors in the spring of 2023 with extensive entrepreneurial and employment experience. His fall of 2022 essay in history was a premiere winner of an Emma Cunningham Award for his comparison of the Transcendentalist and Swedenborgian movements of the nineteenth century. He won one of the three starring roles this past summer in the honors film project on the traveling preachers, playing the role of the great Texas evangelist, Henry Stephenson.
Sam Pollan is a gifted improvisational pianist and organist from DHS. In August of 2022, Pollan gave an organ recital at the First Methodist Church in Pittsburg that was one of the best attended organ concerts in northeast Texas in recent years. He worked as the producer of the Caldwell-Award-winning 2022 film on Minnie Fisher Cunningham, presenting the trailer in Nacogdoches at the WPWS in October of 2022, at the TSHA in El Paso in March, the GPHC in Wichita Falls in March, and in Mount Pleasant in April of 2023. Pollan has also appeared twice on K-Lake Radio promoting NTCC film projects.
Monserrat Rivero-Sanchez is Dr. Jerry Wesson Scholar of NTCC, the District III vice president of the Texas region of Phi Theta Kappa, and the vice president of the Honors Student Council at NTCC. She co-directed the honors film last summer on the traveling preachers after acting last year in the film on the Texas suffragettes. She is the co-founder of the Texas Association of Future Educators (TAFE) at NTCC, and had a very distinguished record as a champion of pre-educator professionalization at MPHS. In her senior year, she completed a 200-hour stint with a community-service project and was cheered on the stage of the plenary meeting of the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals (TASSP). In TAFE, she served as the president of the association’s area six, and then, TAFE Student of the Year. Rivero won $70 and first in the Image Contest this fall, posting one of the most iconic images ever of the local scene, “Three Flags over NTCC.”
Morgan Thrapp is a 2023 graduate of CHHS. In high school, he participated very actively at school and at church, playing first-chair viola, power lifting, judging poultry, engaging in 3D printing, and baking experimental new breads. At NTCC he traveled to Nacogdoches with the film crew last summer and played the major role of Joseph Bays in the film story of the traveling preachers. He will also present work on this topic at the fall meeting of WPWS. He came in third in the 2023 Northeast Texas Poetry Contest for his poem, “Pines.”
Jose Trejo graduated twelfth in the 2022-2023 senior class of MPHS. He was a member of the NHS, and the NTHS. He ran cross country and track and participated in HOSA, UIL Math, and service projects. At the Ignite Youth Club, he tutored and counseled children.
