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By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director

Honors Northeast, the 91�ֿ� Honors Program, is pleased to announce its Honors Students for the 2024-2025 school year. This includes five Presidential Scholars and twenty-three Honors Scholars.

The NTCC Board of Trustees established Honors Northeast in the spring of 2007. Geared to attract top high school graduates and college students, the program has received generous support from both outside donors, and a team of NTCC administrators and professors. Each year, NTCC honors students have presented research at the Walter Prescott Webb Society of Texas (WPWS), the Great Plains Honors Council (GPHC) and the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC).  As listed on the Wall of Honor Page of the NTCC honors website of <;, NTCC honors students have won thirty-seven State of Texas Caldwell Awards, ten  Boe Awards of the Great Plains Honors Council, eight Britt Poster Awards of the GPHC, and on the national level, twenty-three Leaders of Promise, twenty-two Coca Cola Awards, three Hites Awards, two Pearsons, eight Guistwhite Awards, and eleven exclusive Jack Kent Cooke scholarships.  NTCC Scholars also have published twenty-seven essays in refereed scholarly journals since 2009.  They have presented their film work at ten General Panel Sessions of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC), the only honors program in the nation to feature a collaborative, creative project of this magnitude so continuously in the last fifteen years.

Presidential Scholars are the top scholarship winners. They usually receive enough to cover tuition, books and fees, with a stipend left to spare. Several receive both foundation and institutional scholarships. Honors Scholars receive lesser amounts, but rank can be misleading. The rise to distinction among members of the Honors Scholar group can be both recent and rapid. As the Honors Committee has limited numbers of Presidential Scholarships to award, the timing of a student’s application makes a difference. But all scholars participate in all NTCC Honors activities and seminars. The NTCC Honors Committee selects students based on academic performance, a personal essay and letters of recommendation. The program has averaged nine student trips a year. Since its beginning, community benefactors have financed free trips in the spring and fall, amenities, and special award opportunities.

“Our student body at NTCC is diverse, and the range of talents, impressive,” notes Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director.  “The twenty-eight scholars of Honors Northeast are not necessarily the smartest students, or the fastest learners at the college.  But they are the creative vanguard of the college--publishing essays, dominating all college-wide poetry and poster contests, featuring their own feature-length films, appearing on the radio, and making honors and professional presentations each year. Because of the support they receive from donors, faculty and administration, our honors students are very competitive on the national level in terms of awards and scholarships.”

Aside from receiving a scholarship to attend NTCC, Honors and Presidential Scholars enroll in three, six-to-seven-hour seminars during their two-year stay at NTCC.  All honors students participate in the fall Northeast Texas Poetry contest, the spring McGraw Hill Poster contest, and submit abstracts, and papers for major state, regional and national presentations, awards and publications.

The list of 2024-25 NTCC Scholars are as follows:

Presidential Scholars:

Vanessajane Bayna is the 2024-25 Texas Heritage National Bank Scholar of Honors Northeast and the student representative of the Great Plains Honors Council. This past summer she won the prestigious $1,000 Yolando Romero Award of Phi Theta Kappa in Texas. In March of 2024 at College Station, she won a third-in-the-state Caldwell Award for her essay on this topic.  Recently she has won, in addition, a Portia Gordon Award of the East Texas Historical Association (ETHA) for this work. She was a spring of 2024 winner of the Eckman Award for her outstanding erudition in honors course work.  Bayna was a top 2023 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School (MPHS).

Stephanie Hernandez was a top graduate of Mount Pleasant High School in 2024.  For three years in a row, she went to state for art competitions. She was a member of the National Honor Society, the National Technical Honor Society, and the Texas Public Safety Association. She participated in UIL journalism and social studies. Recently, at NTCC, she presented he work on Tejano murals at the meeting of the Walter Prescott Webb Association in San Antonio.  She is a 2024 winner of the Cunningham Conceptualization Contest.

Skylar Hodson is the Russell Mowery Scholar of NTCC and the Dr. Mary Hood Scholar of Texas. She is the Director of the program’s current film, and has presented work relating to her role both in Kansas City at the NCHC and in Mount Pleasant.  She was the star of the program’s film on Minnie Fisher Cunningham and the Texas Suffragettes.  Hodson won a second-in-the-state Caldwell Award in the upper division last year in College Station for her work on the history of Texas Cinema. She also came in first at the Red River Symposium for this work, and second in the McGraw Hill Poster Contest. Her work most recently won a Portia Gordon Award of the East Texas Historical Association.  

Alison Majors is the James and Elizabeth Whatley Scholar of Honors Northeast and a recent, Leaders of Promise winner.  Majors’ work, “¡Vete de Tejas!”—recently won a Portia Gordon Award of the ETHA. She has featured this work in College Station, Stillwater, and the Mount Pleasant Library. Along with Skylar Hodson, Alison is the co-president of the Honors Student Council.  She acts in the current film project of Honors Northeast as Lady Bird Johnson. Majors is a graduate of MPHS.

Isabel Tresidder was homeschooled, and her family is from South Africa.  She accepted an invitation last summer to work at the LBJ presidential library in Austin, and then wrote much of the script of the current film on oil and politics.  She placed second in the 2024 Northeast Texas Poetry Contest with a work about feral hogs. She presented work which she has performed on Lyndon Johnson at the fall 2024 meeting of the Walter Prescott Webb Society in San Antonio, and recently won the Cunningham Conceptualization Contest for her facility with scholarly poetry. She is engaged this semester in an independent study course with Dr. McAllister on parasites in rodents.

Mary-Faith Wilson is the Gladys Winkle Scholar of Honors Northeast. In the spring of 2024 she won a first-place award in the Red River Symposium for her work on Alzheimer’s patients and music.  In September, she chaired the NTCC panel on entrenched problems in modern Texas history at the ETHS which won the Portia Gordon Award. She is known as a preeminent writing tutor on campus, and has participated broadly in the English Club, Sigma Kappa Delta, and NTCC’s literary magazine, Lagniappe. Wilson has won both a Texas Star Award and a Leader of Promise.  She was homeschooled and is from Gilmer.

Honors Scholars

Kara Bailey is a graduate of Paul Pewitt High School. She made varsity band for five years, theatre troupes for two years, and was an active member of the student council.

Remington Covey: developed the work, “Agitators of Divergence,” a study of polarization in American politics at NTCC in 2023, and presented this study for a luncheon of administrators and NTCC patrons this fall. He also gained entry for this work at the NCHC, and presented his poster on this topic in Kansas City this past 1 November.  He also participated in the NTCC film last summer and plays the role of Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough in the upcoming film.

Sarah Dierflinger placed fourth in the 2024 McGraw Hill Poster Contest for her work on how students at college choose what classes to take.  She served as unit production director of the 2024 film on oil and politics. Last summer, she won a Texas Star Award from the Texas Phi Theta Kappa for her accolades, and work with PTK and other organizations on campus.  She is a mother of three, an experienced chicken farmer, and an expert of the Hebrew backdrop to the New Testament.

Estefani Garcia is a 2024 graduate of Mount Pleasant Highschool. At Mount Pleasant, she was a vice president of the student council and a member of Future Business Leaders of America, the NHS, the NTHS, and HOSA. She participated in Upward Bound, NTCC’s Phi Theta Kappa, and played on the soccer team.  She won the 2024 Northeast Texas Image contest with her photograph of a rural field of bluebonnets.

Yahir Garcia is a 2024 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School, and the Cypress Bank Scholar of Honors Northeast 2024-25.  At Mount Pleasant he participated in UIL Social Studies. A computer major who received a new laptop from Cypress Bank, he is the current producer of the Honors Northeast film on oil and politics.  He placed fourth and earned $100 in the 2024 Northeast Texas Poetry Contest for his poem on the “Wild Wind.”

Kaden Groda has been a very active participant of NTCC honors films, playing important roles, such as that of James Stevenson, the traveling preacher in 2023, and Clint Murchison, the Texas oil man in 2024. He also placed third in the 2024 Northeast Texas Poetry competition with his poem, “Whispers of East Texas.” He was a 2023 graduate of Chapel Hill High School.

Emily Hamlin was homeschooled.  In her first year at NTCC she was a member of Phi Theta Kappa, a secretary of the NTCC business club, an Eagle newspaper photographer, and a CYRA rodeo photographer.  This year, elected to honors, she won first place in the 2024 Northeast Texas Poetry Contest, and placed second in the Image Contest.  An entrepreneurial photographer, she served last summer as one of the best cinematographers in the history of the honors film series at NTCC.

Andrew Higgins is a 2024 graduate of Mount Vernon High School. He was a top scorer in UIL math and science competitions, and the vice president of NHS.  He has been a member of the Civil Air Patrol for four years and has attained the rank of captain. He has won several awards in agricultural mechanics as a member of Future Farmers of America.  In 2023, though still in high school, he came in first in NTCC’s Bonnie Spencer competition for his essay on America in world affairs after the Spanish-American War.

Araceli Landaverde: is a 2024 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School. She won an honors blanket in education, and was the president of the Texas Association of Future Educators at MPHS. She was a member of the NHS, and the NTHS. She qualified for the regional powerlifting meet in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and the state meet in 2023 and 2024. She won a Texas High School Women’s Powerlifting Association Scholarship, and recently an award in the Northeast Texas Image Contest.

Hailey Maiville: is a 2024 graduate of Paul Pewitt High School. She was an officer in the NHS, a member of the student council, and she chaired the flute section of the band.

Natalie Morrison is a 2024 graduate of Vidor High School, six miles east of Beaumont, Texas.  She is a starting pitcher of the Lady Eagles softball team.  She was a member of the NHS, and a captain of Vidor’s women basketball, and volleyball teams.  Though a pitcher, she was also the top hitter of the softball team.

Rebeca Martinez is a 2024 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School. She was a member of the soccer team and NHS. She is a very talented artist. Last summer she accepted an invitation to perform research at the Dolph Briscoe Center in Austin on Texas political leader, Lena Guerrero.

Michelle Mejia: was the 2023 salutatorian of Como-Pickton High School. She was a junior-class officer, a member of the NHS, a member of the track team, and a participant in UIL. At NTCC she made the first certified sighting of tardigrades in Hopkins County.

Jeisy Munoz is a 2024 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School. She was a member of the National Honors Society (NHS), and UIL math and social science teams. She played four years of soccer at MPHS, and received the highest academic achievement award for Spanish in 2021.

Andrew Perez is a 2024 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School. He was a member of NHS, NTHS, the MPHS band, and the MPHS track team. He acts the part of Governor James Allred in the upcoming honors film, and helped present the trailer of the film at the recent meeting of the Walter Prescott Webb Society in San Antonio.

Andrianna Price is a 2024 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School. She was an officer both of the National Technical Honor Society and Future Health Professionals (HOSA). She was also a Tiger Doll manager for two years, and a member of the Student Council.

Monserrat Rivero-Sanchez is the Dr. Jerry Wesson Scholar of Honors Northeast. Last spring, she won an international office, the Division II Vice Presidency of Phi Theta Kappa, after serving as the Vice President of the Texas branch of Phi Theta Kappa. As a PTK leader Rivero has traveled extensively through the United States and addressed thousands of students.  Rivero has also played major roles in the programs’ films, on the Texas suffragettes, and traveling preachers of early Texas. She presented work on this subject at the recent meeting of the National Collegiate Honors Council in Kansas City. She was a graduate of MPHS.

Madeline Simmons is a talented actor and singer from Mount Pleasant High School.  She played the role of Opal Yarborough in the honors film this past summer.  She sings at local venues and has gained a local following demonstrating outstanding breath control, pitch, and range.

Ariana Tagg was homeschooled. She has extensive experience teaching Tae Kwon Do, and Jiu Jitsu after having attained advanced belts in both. Last summer she accepted an invitation to perform research at the Dolph Briscoe Center in Austin on Rita Clements, the wife of Texas Governor Bill Clements in the 1980s. She both plays the role of Rita Clements in the upcoming honors film, and has advanced her research on this figure, winning a 2024 Cunningham Conceptualization award. She presented her work on Rita Clements at the 2024 meeting of the Walter Prescott Webb Association at San Antonio.

Amy Vazquez was a top 2023 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School.  She was a member of the National Hispanic Recognition Program, and the National Rural Area Recognition Program.  She hopes to be a registered nurse.

Avery Woods was homeschooled.  Last year at NTCC she developed a project on revolutionary negativity in the triggering images of revolutionary images which won acceptance into the meeting of the NCHC. She presented that work in the form of a poster this November in Kansas City.  For her excellent work on this topic and inclusion of the Texas Revolution into her study, she became the third Dr. Bradley Witt Scholar of Honors Northeast. Last summer, she participated in the program’s film research at the Dolph Briscoe Center in Austin.  She also participates in the Civil Air Patrol.

Shpat Zeqaj: is a 2024 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School. At MPHS, he was a member of the marching band, NHS, the National Technical Honor Society FBLA and HOSA.