10 Capo Students Earn National Recognition

Ten Capistrano Unified School District seniors have been named Scholars in the National Hispanic Recognition Program (NHRP), which identifies about 5,000 academically outstanding Hispanic/Latino high school students in the country.

Julienne Bernal from Aliso Niguel High School; Paulina Ordaz, Hayleigh Shobar, and Daniel Styrpejko from Dana Hills High School; Austin Mendoza and Cory Wolf from Capistrano Valley High School; Isabella Medrano and Emma Quintana from San Clemente High School; Kayvon Mahmoodzadeh from San Juan Hills High School; and Brandon Bannigan from Tesoro High School were all named National Hispanic Scholars. Courtney Vega of Tesoro High School was an honorable mention recipient.

Each year, the NHRP honors about 5,000 — or 2 percent — of the highest-scoring students from more than 250,000 Hispanic/Latino juniors who take the PSAT/NMSQT. NHRP notifies students of the recognition during their senior year.Scholars must meet the cut off score and also have a grade point average of 3.5 or higher.

Although the NHRP does not provide a financial reward, being named is an important academic recognition, and should be indicated on the student’s college applications. The NHRP was initiated in 1983 by the College Board to identify outstanding Hispanic/Latino high school students and to share information about these students with colleges and universities.

• Submitted by the Capistrano Unified School District.