Cedar Hill H.S. Seniors Graduation Achievements

Cedar Hill, TX. - May 31, 2011 - Seniors at Cedar Hill High School are graduating with a spectrum of honors and scholarships.They will receive their diplomas during a graduation ceremony Friday June 3, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. at the Dallas Convention Center, 650 S. Griffin Street, Dallas, Texas.

Jaimie was involved in six organizations at school including the Business Professionals of America where she was vice president. Outside of school, Jaimie's finds time to volunteer for three non-profits including the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital.Jaimie still had time and energy to participate in competitive dance for a dozen years.  Jaimie plans to attend Texas Tech University to study a Pre-Medicine major with an emphasis in biochemistry.Jaimie wants to be a pediatrician.

Katia Haight is the salutatorian with a 3.94 GPA.Katia has been involved in theatre throughout high school where she received the best actress award in district competition.She also made All-Region band four years in a row.Katia wrote a play that was produced by the Cedar Hill High School Theatre department.She plans to seek a double major in college of Physics and Theatre.

To date Cedar Hill High School seniors have received almost $7.8 million dollars in scholarship awards and the total continues to grow.$4.3 million dollars of that amount is academic/non-athletic scholarship money."Once again the Cedar Hill High School Class of 2011 has raised the bar in the area of academics.  Longhorn Pride is strong as our students move forward with their educational careers and become productive citizens representing our community," said Tammy Mariani, Cedar Hill High School Principal.

31 athletes in the CHISD sports department are receiving almost $3.5 million dollars in scholarships.Football player Jude Akpunku is receiving a $500-thousand dollar scholarship package from the U.S. Air Force Academy.Teammates Lovett Gibson and Driphus Jackson both received $225-thousand dollar athletic scholarships from Rice University.

According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, 5.8% of high school football players go on to compete in college.This year, out of the 54 seniors on the CHISD football team, 20 of them have signed scholarships to play in college.

"That's an impressive 37 percent.The fact that we have so many young people leave our Cedar Hill Athletic programs and go on to compete at the collegiate level is a reflection of the hard work and countless hours our student athletes put into practicing and training for their sport," said Gina Farmer, CHISD Athletic Director."In addition to the time commitment required to become a college scholarship caliber athlete, we know that our athletes are spending an equal amount of time and energy working on becoming academic stars.We stress a commitment to academics at every level of our athletic programs."

Meanwhile 23 Cedar Hill High School students received the "Texas Student Achievement Award" from the Texas ACT Council for their performance on the PLAN (the Pre-ACT) Assessment. These students are on target to meet or exceed ACT's College Readiness Benchmarks by graduation. ACT's College Readiness Benchmarks are empirically­ based and identify the level of achievement necessary in English, mathematics, reading and science to have a successful college freshman experience.

The students receiving the recognition from the Texas ACT Council are Victoria Adesanya, Christian Amador, Ryan William Autrey, British Beyer, Hannah Clark, Crystal Contreras, James Embree, Sabrina Encarnacion, Ravyn Goss, Courtney Kelly, Joshua Luebke, Madalyn Marshall, Andrew Montequin, Morgan Monzingo, John Moore, Ian Riggs, Nicole Roblin, Torin Rose, William Sanders, Hunter Schwedler, Matthew Teferra and Danielle Williams.

About Cedar Hill ISD:The Cedar Hill Independent School District has 8200 students.The Texas State Comptrollers Office recognized Cedar Hill Independent School District as one of four percent of schools districts in the state with a 5 star rating in its Financial Allocation Study for Texas.FAST tracks school districts that use best practices to operate efficiently, while achieving strong academic performance.CHISD has three Exemplary schools, seven Recognized schools and four Academically Acceptable schools. It has an AA- financial bond rating from Standard and Poor's.