Superintendent HD Chambers was selected as the Region 4 Superintendent of the Year. Region 4 serves seven counties and is composed of 50 school districts and 50 charter schools, representing more than 1.1 million students, 84,000 educators, and 1,600 campuses.

Kerr High School students Hong Nguyen, Brandon Vu and Masaki Isago received national recognition at the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Awards of Excellence.Vu and Isago brought home a third place finish in Computer Gaming and Simulation. Nguyen finished fourth place in FBLA Principles and Procedures.

Elsik High School librarian Marco Zannier will serve on the Laura Bush Foundation Advisory Board. Only 10 librarians in the United States are selected to serve on this committee. This board oversees the application process and awarding of over $1 million in foundation grants to disadvantaged school libraries to improve their collections.

Cummings Elementary student Rayne Donahue was crowned Miss Texas Princess Cover Girl this summer. She also donated backpacks and school supplies to students at her campus.

Thirty Hastings High School choir students participated in the Virtual Youth Choir, a performance group in association with UNICEF. The group, which consists of 2,292 singers from 80 different countries, performed at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Scotland. Their performance was shown in front of 40,000 people and was also broadcast on TV and webcast to over 1 billion people worldwide.

Alief ISD Horticulture students Perla Zavala (Hastings), Karen Romero (Hastings), Jennifer Cisneros (Elsik), Leticia Villalobos (Hastings), Kendra Cordova (Hastings) and Marissa Lyles (Elsik) were recognized for obtaining the Level 1 High School Floral Certification at the Texas State Floral Association’s 100th Anniversary Convention. The Level 1 High School Floral Certification allows students to move forward in the floral industry and acquire floral jobs.

Taylor High School student Gabriela Escobar was crowned Miss Teen Alief 2014 by the Alief Community Association. Taylor student Teju Adeniji was named the runner-up while Alyssa Martinez from Alief Early College High School placed third in the contest.

More than 30 Alief ISD graduates returned to serve as new teachers this year.

Six members from the Class of 2014 were recognized at the 18th Annual Youth Excellence Recognition Luncheon hosted by the Vietnamese Culture and Science Association. Whitney Berry (AECHS), Vy Nguyen (AECHS), Huynh Nguyen (Elsik), Jennifer Huynh (Elsik) and Sao Bac (Taylor) were recognized for their outstanding academic achievements. Tam Tran (Kerr) was honored as the recipient of the Anthony Nguyen Thanh Toan Memorial Scholarship.