Seven Place For SMA At State Academic, Art Contest

Seven San Marcos Academy students and the school yearbook staff received medals at the TAPPS state academic and art championship event at the Waco Convention Center April 1-3.

Taking first place and receiving state 4-A champion honors in Spanish was David Shui. Caleb Strube earned second place in the Current Events and Issues category, while Chistine Lui took second place in advanced math. Lukas Chen came in third in the regular mathematics category.

The Academy’s 2018 yearbook, The Crest, took fifth place. Staff member Faith White picked up the ribbon on behalf of the yearbook staff.

Evelena Luo received fifth place honors for her entry in the Pottery, Ceramics and Plastic Arts category, and Wallis Wen earned sixth place in On-Site Drawing.

In the highly competitive social studies category, Doyce Gore finished in seventh place.

Qaiynat Jassani advanced to the semi-finals in poetry, but did not place in the medal round.

Other Academy students who competed in the state contest were Daniel Abu Jaber, Frankie Blair, Pedro Bribiesca, Terry Cai, Chun Sen E, Abby Funderburk, Mac Daniel Howard, Kayla King, Kayla Livingtston, Andrew Longoria, Cale Martin, Isaac Ramirez, Evan Schawe, Jine Uzor, Catarina Vazquez, Max Watson, Lily Xu and Kai Yang.

The Academy’s TAPPS academic coordinator is Mrs. Karen Bird and the art coordinator is Mrs. Ruth Schwartz. Other academic sponsors are Janet Barrientos, Lynn Wyman, Nathan Gaskey, Christa Strauss, Karen Wyatt and Vickie Boyer. Chaperones for the trip to Waco were Karen Bird, Stephanie Ramirez, Lenny Cianciotto, Lee Bird and Lynn Wyman. Jason Zhao was the student assistant.

“Eighty percent of both our volunteers and students were new to the Upper School TAPPS state academic contest this year,” Mrs. Bird said. “We are so pleased with the competitors’ scores and hope to recruit a bigger group of students next year, including some solo and duet acting entries. We are very appreciative of our school administrators and department chairs for all their support.”