Good News

Good News for 2024-2025

Brianna Banuelas Ibarra of Highland School of Technology received an honorable mention in the Mount Holly Plein Air art contest.

Highland School of Technology was recognized by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association for outstanding sportsmanship during the 2023-2024 school year. The school did not have any athletes or coaches ejected from a game for the year.

Victoria Kiser of Highland School of Technology received a Glenn Sisters Legacy Fund Grant from the Gaston County Education Foundation.

Nii Abbey, Emmanuel Berry, Sha’Hirah Black, Jorel Breeden, Leah Brooks, Annette Carrillo, Grace Cera-Isbell, Chauncey Collins, Catherine Coronel-Nava, Ryan Cruz Trujillo, Ayden Dellinger, Saliou Diouf, Sofia Dorantes, Gabriela Gadani-Gutierrez, Jayden Hastings, Yuchieh Hung, Regis Lu, Alise Mayers, Kendall McPhatter, Claire Melton, Lynabel Mercado, Daniel Sanchez, Erica Tetteh-Ocloo, Kendall Tyler, Tatianna Villalobos, and Thien Vu earned academic honors from the College Board National Recognition Program.

Highland School of Technology teacher Victoria Kiser received a Ron L. Ensley grant from the Gaston County Education Foundation.

Joshua Mendoza Vargas and Julien Boyce of Highland School of Technology were named a QuestBridge Scholar to attend Amherst College.

The Highland School of Technology student council hosted a canned food and nonperishable food collection drive to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank, Crisis Assistance Ministry, and Cancer Services of Gaston County.

Nineteen Highland School of Technology HOSA members attended the Regional Learning Conference in Shelby. Menaal Shaikh placed first in Health Informatics; Zuha Shaikh placed first in Health Career Photography; Katie Fangman and Joshua Mendoza placed second in Dental Science; and Abigail Anderson placed third in Dental Terminology.

Madison Darnell of Highland School of Technology was named to the 2024 North Carolina High School Tennis Coaches Association’s all-state team.

Madison Thompson and Alise Mayers of Highland School of Technology were named to the North Carolina Volleyball Coaches Association’s all-state team.

Several Highland School of Technology Beta Club students received recognition at the 83rd Annual Senior Beta Convention in their respective competitions. Sydney Falls earned first place in Visual Arts Painting, Division I; Aruzhan Suleimenova placed third in Visual Arts Hand Drawn Anime, Division II; Sophia Dorantes took fourth place in Psychology for 12th grade; Noelle Martin secured fourth place in Spelling for 12th grade; and Skylar Oplinger received fifth place in Visual Arts Mixed Media.

Alex Cornwell, a student at Highland School of Technology, earned first chair in the all-state band for snare drum and general percussion.

Highland School of Technology students earned top placements at the state-level FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) competition. First place went to Khushi Patel and Madison Darnell in the Spirit Event-Cheer/Chant/Slogan as well as Noelle Martin in Journalism. Second place was awarded to Henry Davis, Zalak Mehta, and Karena Singh in the Spirit Event-Web Banner category. Third place went to Swara Patel in
Accounting 1. Fourth place finishers included Aruzhan Suleimenova in Computer Applications, Abigail Anderson in Introduction to Business Procedures, and the team of Davis, Mehta, and Singh in Public Service Announcement. Additionally, top-10 placements were earned by James Gutierrez in Accounting 1, Diksha Sharma in Introduction to Event Planning, Iris Zhang in Personal Finance, and the team of Nolan
Costanzo, Elijah Johnson, and Thien Vu in Network Design. Highland also received the FBLA Gold Seal Chapter Award of Merit.

The following Highland School of Technology students won honors at the annual TSA (Technology Student Association) state conference in Greensboro. The Animatronics team of Luke Falls, Lawson Houser, Ben Clements, and Austin Griffin earned first place while Luke Falls and Sydney Falls placed third in Digital Video Production. Both teams have qualified to compete at the TSA national conference in Nashville in June.
Several other teams and individuals placed in the top 12 at the state level, including the Architectural Design team of Luis Jaramillo-Maya, Khloye Jones, Ayden KisbyJones, Yash Patel, and Diksha Sharma; Board Game Design Team 1, consisting of Nii Abbey, Leah Brooks, Kerrington Deese, Ella Hope, Renzo Rodrigues and Madison Watson; the Chapter Team of Nii Abbey, Leah Brooks, Annette Carrillo, Ben Clements, Camille Green and Sydney Whitley; the Drone Challenge Team 4 made up of Elijah Daugherty, Saliou Diouf, Owen Honeycutt and Grayson Rose; and Jenna Washam in Photographic Technology.

The Highland School of Technology math team competed at the Gaston College Math Competition and earned first place overall. Katie Fangman, Carsyn Redmond, Hazel Ritter, and Jack Morris placed second in the team competition. In the individual events, Miles Davis won first place, and Jack Morris placed third in Math 1. Brady Hubers earned first place in Math 2, Ben Kelly took first place in Math 3, and Regis Lu finished third in Advanced Math.