Seventeen Tappan Zee High School students were selected to receive 2023 Rockland Community College Black & Latinx Student Achievement Awards at an on-campus ceremony in late April! The awards serve to recognize and reinforce the academic, artistic, athletic, leadership and cultural accomplishments of Rockland County students from the Black/African and Latinx diasporas.
Congratulations to: Emily Acosta, Jacqueline Acosta, Michael Appiah, Ryan Ayala, Isabella Crespo, Erick Cruz, Justin Martinez, Vivian Rodriguez, Christopher Rubio Navaez, Olivia Ryan, Jordyn Santana, Analia Santiago, George Tejeda III, Oscar Umana Garcia, Christopher Vanderhoef and Robert Vanderhoef. (Most, but not all, recipients are named and pictured.)
“Congratulations to all of our students who received this honor,” said Principal Rudy Arietta. “We are so proud of everything they have accomplished in and out of the classroom. This honor is a reflection of the hard work and focus they have put on excelling in multiple aspects of their education.”
Eligibility criteria for the awards, which were presented to students in tenth and twelfth grades, include a minimum grade point average of 92%, as well as outstanding participation and achievement in at least two of the following five categories: community service, artistic expression, athletic ability and accomplishment, leadership activity and personal triumph and success.
Certificates of Recognition were mailed to eligible sixth and eighth graders. South Orangetown Middle School will host a ceremony on May 23 to celebrate its recipients.
Rockland Community College’s 2023 Student Achievement Awards program represents a collaboration between the school’s Achievement Awards, launched in 1988 to honor the academic and personal accomplishments of students from the Black/African diaspora, and its Hispanic Heritage Awards, founded in 2014 to honor high-performing Rockland County students of Hispanic descent. The purpose and focus of the awards is to continue to promote, encourage, motivate and advocate excellence.