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Congratulations to the Latest DVUSD Governing Board Honorees!
On March 19, DVUSD recognized athletes who left it all on the courts and mats this season, an extraordinary mandarin teacher, incredible fine arts students, and students that have climbed the ranks to be named finalists in a national scholarship opportunity. The evening began with a drumline performance by the Barry Goldwater High School Pride Regiment Band before turning our attention to DVUSD's six National Merit Scholarship finalists.
National Merit Scholars
Tonight we will begin with some truly #extraordinary students – and some familiar faces! Recently, we learned that all six DVUSD National Merit semi-finalists are now finalists for the prestigious National Merit scholarship!
Apramey Akkiraju
Joshua Cohon
Peyton Dennis
Sandra Day O'Connor High School
Braeden Baker
Nathan Lehman
Aiden Thatcher
Flinn Scholars
The next set of students are equally accomplished and have recently been named to the short list of 36 Flinn Scholarship finalists throughout the state of Arizona:
Barry Goldwater High School
Brendan Salisbury
Mountain Ridge High School
Yameen Sekandari
Zahrah Ralph
State champions and runners-up in winter sports
First up, we honor both Sandra Day O’Connor High School basketball teams in the 6A division, as both the girl's and boy's teams set their sites on and made strong runs toward the championship title this season.
Congratulations to the 6A state champion girl's basketball team, and the state champion runners-up boys's basketball team.
To round out an impressive basketball season by DVUSD teams, we honored the Deer Valley High School basketball team as they captured the 4A state championship after appearing in four state championships, five Final fours and winning three regional championships in the past eight years.
Wrestling state runners-up
Boulder Creek High School
Dax Monestime
Barry Goldwater High School
Syria Smith
Deer Valley High School
Tyler Metcalf
Santiago Reyes
Academic Decathlon
The Boulder Creek High School Academic Decathlon Team showcased their exceptional prowess in this year's United States Academic Decathlon theme of "Technology and Humanity". Each team member became experts in the subjects of math, economics, social science, language and literature, art, music, and science.
The team was evaluated both individually and overall, and it brings Boulder Creek High School and DVUSD great pleasure to announce the outstanding achievements in the regional competition. Each member of the team has earned $2000 renewable scholarships to our state universities for either participating for two years, or for being the highest scoring students. These achievements are a testament to their dedication, teamwork, and the pursuit of excellence in the field of Academics.
Boulder Creek just finished competing at State over Spring Break and finished in the top 10 for the entire state of Arizona. Congratulations to the Boulder Creek Regional Champion Academic Decathlon Team: Zach Allen, Madeleine Baird, Claudia Cacace, Jack Florez, Hannah Logan, Ella Maloney, Addison Mielke, Mason Pizarro, Hailey Pickner, Nicholas Solla, and Amilya Yirsa!
Girls STEM Night
Faith Pursley, a senior at Boulder Creek High School, is the recipient of the next award tonight! She had the idea of creating "Girls in STEM" while sitting in class and reflecting on the lack of female representation in her engineering, science and math classes. She decided to take this inspiration as the subject of her Certificate of Academic Distinction project. Upon further research, she discovered that girls between the ages of 13-17 lose an interest in STEM as they reach a transitional period and seek to fit in. After identifying this and other trends, she wanted to create an opportunity for middle school girls to explore what STEM has to offer in an exciting and supportive environment.
She collaborated with the engineering, anatomy, calculus and physics teachers at Boulder Creek High School in creating activities for students to explore. Overall, the Girls In STEM Night was a success with both middle school and high school students leaving more excited about STEM and creating diversity within the field. She hopes that "Girls in STEM" will be an annual event at Boulder Creek and more schools will recognize the importance of supporting female students to pursue their interests, despite stereotypes.
After graduation this year, Faith will be following her passion for a STEM career by attending Virginia Tech to study aerospace engineering and plans to continue to advocate for more female representation in STEM. Thank you, Faith Pursley, for organizing this first ever event for Boulder Creek High School!
Chinese Language Teachers Association Chinese Teacher Milestone Award
The Chinese Language Teachers Association Chinese Teacher Milestone Award spotlights the contributions of Chinese teachers throughout Arizona. The Chinese Teacher Milestone Award aims to recognize K-6 Chinese teachers who have dedicated five, ten, fifteen, and twenty years or more to the field of Chinese language education in public schools and colleges. Deer Valley Unified School District is proud to have one of the Chinese Teacher Milestone Award winners for 2024!
Mrs. Xiaoting Chen is in her sixth year of teaching Mandarin Immersion at Desert Sage Elementary. She explained that from the moment she stepped into her role as a Kindergarten teacher in the Mandarin immersion program, she knew she had found her calling. Working with these young, eager minds has been an absolute joy for her, and she considers herself fortunate to be part of their early education journey. The nickname "energetic bunny" bestowed upon me by my colleagues is a testament to my unwavering enthusiasm for teaching and my commitment to making learning a fun and memorable experience for my students.
Congratulations, Chinese Teacher Milestone Award teacher, Xiaoting Chen!
AMEA- Stetson Hills
For the final award, word has been spreading that the choral program at Stetson Hills School has been growing and rising as one of exceptional achievement and quality since the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year. The program, to date, has one of the highest performing junior high choirs in the district and the state, having now achieved two Superiors and one Superior with Distinction at district choral assessment since the Fall of 2022, with excellence and achievement happening for Stetson Hills elementary choirs as well.
In the Fall of 2023, the 5th and 6th grade choirs were encouraged to audition for the first ever elementary choral performance session at this year's 85th Annual Arizona Music Educators, or AZMEA Conference in Mesa. The choir submitted an audition in November 2023, and over fall break received word back that Stetson Hills School was one of two schools selected to perform at this historic event out of twelve schools that auditioned state-wide. The Stetson Hills 5th and 6th grade choirs had a successful performance at the conference on February 3, 2024, and made history as being the first choir to inaugurate the elementary choral session in the 85-year history of this particular conference.
The choir was present to accept their award and perform a French and English "J'entend le Moulin". Take it away, Stetson Hills Choir!
Following the awards and recognitions, the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council gave a brief presentation on their recent summit at Barry Goldwater High School.
Congratulations to all of our Governing Board award winners and honorees!