Student
Awards
Hundreds of Plano ISD students captured awards and honors during the 2010-11 school year. Following are some of their achievements. Find full articles about each of these honors in the news archive section of this website.
Trustee Awards of Excellence
 Hundreds of students were presented with medallions by the Plano ISD School Board during a May, 2011, Trustee Awards of Excellence ceremony. Students were awarded for achievements garnered during the 2010-11 school year at qualifying academic and extracurricular events. Watch event video (Length: 00:08:43) . Read the award winners' list  .
Pictured (above) at the Trustee Awards event are Plano Senior High School students , who, along with teammates Julian Michael and Lewis Warne, set a new record for their school's speech/debate program by capturing the world title in the 10th Annual Bickel & Brewer / New York University International Public Policy Forum.
Plano West Senior High School has been selected as a 2011 GRAMMY® Signature School and one of only seven "Gold" level award recipients. The award recognizes top U.S. public high schools making an outstanding commitment to music education.
, Plano East Senior High School junior, traveled to Washington, D.C., twice during the 2010-11 school year as the guest of . Amy was among eight students who were invited to present their science research at the White House in October, 2010. She captured "Best in Fair" in the International Science & Engineering Fair for her science research on an emerging cancer treatment. She was later invitation to be the guest of First Lady Michelle Obama during President Obama's State of the Union Address broadcast nationwide on January 25, 2011.
Six Plano ISD middle school students and one elementary school student qualified to advance to the state level contest through the National Geographic Bee. After winning first place at their schools in the competition, the students advanced to the state bee.
For the eighth consecutive year, Plano Senior High School Academic Decathlon teammates dominated their regional competition. Plano East Senior High School teammates won first place in the SuperQuiz event and SuperQuiz Relay and placed third overall. All three senior high schools, including Plano West, competed at the regional meet. Plano and Plano East teams advanced to the state contest where Plano claimed 13th place and Plano East won 21st place. Congratulations to all teammates and coaches.
 Rice Middle School student captured the Dallas Morning News Regional Spelling Bee championship in March 26, 2011, besting 24 spellers who represented schools from across North and East Texas. The event was held at the WFAA-TV studios in Dallas. As regional winner, Chetan participated in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in June, 2011. The victory marked his second consecutive regional championship and bid for the national title.
Tess Michaels, a senior at Plano West Senior High School, out shined competitors from across the nation to win first prize in the Executive Women's International (EWI) scholarship competition. The first Dallas-area nominee to win the national contest in 15 years, Tess was awarded with a $10,000 scholarship. She was nominated for the national contest in 2010 by the EWI Dallas Chapter, which presented her with $5,000 and a full scholarship to the University of Texas at Dallas.
More Student Awards & Honors
Top Graduates ~ Class of 2011
Congratulations, 2011 valedictorians and salutatorians: PESH-- Teddy Xiong, valedictorian, and Nicole Shu, salutatorian; PSHS -- Bhasi Nair, valedictorian, and Jessica Chao, salutatorian; and PWSH -- Derek Ou, valedictorian, and Vybhavi Bharadwaj, salutatorian.
Read these impressive College Readiness Indicators of Plano ISD students as reported in 2010.
Science & Engineering Fairs
 , Plano West Senior High School, was among 40 students from across the country selected as Finalists in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search sponsored by Intel and the Society for Science and the Public. Finalists traveled to Washington, D.C., in March, 2011, for final judging, to display their work to the public, meet with notable scientists and compete for the top award of $100,000.
Nearly 7,500 students in grades K-6 participated in Plano ISD's elementary science fairs at their schools. Hundreds of individual and school-level trophies were awarded at the fairs, including school high point and participation honors. The district elementary science fair was held in mid-February with 329 students and their 288 projects competing for top prizes. More than 100 projects advanced to the Regional Elementary Science Fair which is underway this week.
Plano ISD students earned six special awards and scholarships, a third place and three fourth place awards at the International Science and Engineering Fair held in Los Angeles last week. " Competing with more than 1,500 students from 64 nations, students who qualified to enter their projects at this fair are among the best in the world.
Many Plano ISD high school and senior high students earned awards at the Texas Junior Academy of Sciences. Grand prize and first place winners qualify to present their research at the American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences annual meeting to be held February, 2012, in Canada.
Plano ISD students captured all but one of the top awards at the Texas Junior Science Humanities Symposium, which was held January 27-29 at College Station. Students made oral presentations on their research to a panel of university judges. This was the largest group of winners from Plano ISD in history to advance to the national event.
Four Plano ISD seniors earned Semifinalist standing and one earned Finalist standing in the prestigious Siemens Foundation's National Competition in Math, Science & Technology. The event reveals the brightest high school minds in contention for the nation’s most coveted teen science prize.
Fire Prevention Poster State Qualifiers
 Several Plano ISD students' were awarded by judges at the district meeting of the North Texas Firemen's and Fire Marshals' Association in March. Posters that won at the district level will now advance to the state competition. Winners will be announced at a state conference in June.
History Day Competition
Several Plano ISD students competed and won awards in the annual Dallas Area Regional History Day Competition, with eight individuals and groups advancing to the state event to be held in May in Austin. The regional event was held in February, 2011, at Fair Park. The theme was "Debate and Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures and Compromises."
More than 200 students participated in the 2010 Plano ISD Elementary History Fair. Last year, 1,527 participants from across the district competed in campus fairs, with 204 advancing to district event.
Theatre Arts
 The Plano East Theatre Department, under the direction of Lisa Hale and Zach Elms, hosted the annual Plano ISD High School One-Act Play Competition. Each Plano ISD 9th and 10th grade school performed a play and produced a show.
Armstrong Middle School and Haggard Middle School captured top honors at the Plano ISD Middle School One Act Play Competition. Carpenter Middle School earned the Alternate Winning Play. Six Plano ISD middle schools competed in the annual competition.
Several high school theatre students participated recently in Plano ISD's Theatrical Design Contest. The students chose a play and designed either costumes, publicity or a set for the show.
Visual Arts
Fifty of the 88 artworks (or 56%) that advanced to the Texas Art Education Association Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE) from the Region 10 area were created by Plano ISD students. A total of 1,679 entries were submitted from Region 10 in the regional VASE contest which was held in February. Some 88 percent of Plano ISD student artworks competing in the Texas State VASE (Visual Arts Scholastic Event) competition received an exemplary rating and were awarded a gold medal. Ten artworks from Plano ISD received a gold seal out of the 150 works at State VASE that received a gold seal.
 Five Plano ISD student artworks were selected to be in the 2011 Youth Art Month Capitol Exhibit, sponsored by the Texas Art Education Association. The exhibit was displayed in the north extension of the capitol building February 26 through March 6, 2011.
The ArtCentre of Plano showcased original artwork created by several Plano ISD seniors enrolled in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate studio art. The Plano Art Association selected the winners of the 2011 AP/IB Senior Art Exhibition from artwork by students attending Plano ISD's three senior high schools.
Grace Park, a senior in the Plano West Senior High School Advanced Placement (AP) 3-D art program, had her portfolio featured as a national guideline example of a perfect 6 score on the College Board's official AP course web page.
Six-Time State Honor Orchestra
 For the sixth time in the school's history, the , under the direction of Betsy Thomas, has earned the distinction of Texas Honor String Orchestra, the best string orchestra in the state, after being selected by Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) judges. This 2011 honor extends the Plano ISD streak of honor orchestras to 14 consecutive years. The first runner up in the high school string orchestra category was the Jasper High School Legacy Orchestra, directed by Julianne Booth.
UIL Area Band Contest
The UIL Area B Marching Band Contest for Class 5A was held in October, 2010, at Standridge Stadium in Farmers Branch. The Plano East Senior High School Marching Band was one of three bands from Region 25 to advance to the Area level.
All-State Musicians
The Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) announced the selection of 72 Plano ISD students representing all high school campuses for positions in coveted all-state music groups for 2011. More than 60,000 Texas music students began the all-state audition process in the fall. Orchestra students were notified of their selection in late November, 2010, and band and choir students completed auditions in January, 2011. These students spent three days of intensive rehearsals with outstanding guest conductors and a concert before the TMEA membership in February in San Antonio.
MathCounts
Thirteen students and four coaches from Plano ISD traveled to Austin to compete at the state level MathCounts competition. Of the nearly 300 students competing from across the state, the Rice Middle School team captured fourth place, and the Frankford Middle School team won thirteenth place.
 Career & Technical Education
Nearly 100 Plano ISD Career and Technical Education students advanced to national / international level competitions in various co-curricular organizations. , is among the top awardees. Congratulations to all students, staff and organizations for their success at state level events. List of student achievements .
Essay Winners
Rice Middle School student Hanna Lee's entry in the 2011 National Letters about Literature (LAL) competition, hosted by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, was among the top 14 entries that advanced to level two for national judging.
Plano Senior High School students Amy Wu, Ilya Polkovnichenko and Jessica Chao were selected as outstanding writers through the 2010 National Council of Teachers of English writing competition.
Likhita Nandigam of Andrews Elementary School was recognized at a dinner held on the 48th floor of the Tower Club in Dallas by The Texas Council on Economic Education for submitting the winning essay in the InvestWrite Essay contest (grades 4 & 5 division).
UTD Summer Science Scholars
The Plano ISD Board of Trustees recognized several student scholars who participated in the Plano ISD / University of Texas at Dallas Summer Science Research Program. Six of the eight scholars attended the April, 2011, school board meeting where they shared their areas of science interest.
2010 Holiday Greeting Card Art Contest
"Illuminating the Season" was the theme for Plano ISD's 2010 Holiday Art Contest. The contest attracted more than 1,000 entries from students in grades PreK-12. Judges' top 40 picks included the artwork of winner Joycelyn Yiu, Schimelpfenig Middle School and three finalists: Tzitlalic Campos, Meadows Elementary School; Shreya Ghoshal, Shepton High School; and Viridiana Jimenez, Plano West Senior High School.
State Geography Poster Contest
Brinker Elementary School student Justin Hall brought home a first place award from Austin where he was recognized for his entry in the K-2 grade division of the Texas Alliance statewide poster contest. Three additional students from Plano ISD placed in the competition.
'Super' Drill Team
The national champion Plano Senior High School Planoettes drill team helped light up the half time performance at Super Bowl XLV on February 6, during the biggest game in sports held in one of the biggest stadiums in the world, Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.
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Amy Chyao