A strong contingent of local nominees for the Austin-area Optimist Club Youth Appreciation Awards represented Hays High School at the State Capitol awards ceremony recently. The nominees competed against students from a wide spectrum of Central Texas schools. Five local students received top area honors. (Photo by Jim Cullen)
by JIM CULLEN
Five Hays High School seniors won top honors in the annual Optimist Club Youth Appreciation Awards ceremony at the State Capitol recently. The recognition signified the best profiles in the Austin area for the students’ nominated fields. Thirty-four Hays High students were nominated in 22 categories, most of the nominees attending the Capitol awards ceremony.
Hays High winners included seniors Patricia Swanson (Art), Emily Ybarbo (Dance), Brooke Noble (Speech), Stephen Wenzel (Speech), and Hope Hoffmeyer (Foreign Language). The students were overall Capital Area winners in their respective categories, selected from nominees from 16 participating capital-area schools.
Caleb Ruckel and Chaney Turney represented Hays High School as the campus nominees for Teenager of the Year, Turney having an additional nomination for Mathematics. All participants were nominated by their teachers, the overall process coordinated by College and Career Counselor and Lead Counselor Kathy Arendt.
Hays High nominees include Luke Leamons and Ava L’Amoreaux (Drama), Yoselyn New (Sports), Rayce Arredondo and Alex Crouch (Agriculture), Theodore Paraskeva and Amanda Pettit (Community Service), Ian Allison and Taylor Kornfurer (Science), Bianca Nieto (Journalism), Dylan Sullivan and Virginia Williams (Computer Science), and John Effiom and Shelby Nelson (Business).
Seniors Clay Cooper and Alaina McFadden (Vocal Music), Zackary Garcia (Art), Victor Rubio (Vocational Education), Mario Austin Reyes (Sports), Aaron Rivera (Industrial Arts), Ryan Petrie and Christina Heinich (Government), Eric Leija (Mathematics), Will Poeppelmeyer and Cassandra Lomeli (Instrumental Music), and Michael Ebbinghaus and Helene Thompson (English/Writing) were nominated as well.
