Remington Covey was homeschooled. Last fall he presented a poster at the meeting of the NCHC in Kansas City on “Agitators of Divergence,” which evaluated the polarizing tendencies of Donald Trump in comparison with three other Presidents. Interested in international affairs, Covey participated last fall in a “Knowledge Café” organized by a Dutch Professor that included discussions between fifty students from three continents. Covey has acted in both of the program’s recent feature-length films, appearing both as Ralph Yarborough, the Texas Senator, and Henry Cisneros, the celebrity San Antonio Mayor.
Xenia Esparza began at Tyler Junior College before transferring to NTCC. She has worked for some time as a veterinarian’s assistant, and has even journeyed on a missionary trip in which she performed veterinarian service. She impressed English professor, Many Smith by compiling an excellent business plan for becoming a veterinarian herself. This semester she won a special spot to carry on parasitological research with the biology department.
Bree Fite was the 2025 valedictorian of Union Hill High School. She was a member of Future Business Leaders of America, Future Farmers of America, One-Act Play, the National Honor Society and 4-H. Last summer she participated with the NTCC team that went to San Antonio for film research. Her math teacher noted that Fite “demonstrates a remarkable work ethic and commitment to excellence.”
José Fuentes is a 2024 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School (MPHS), and during his first year at NTCC he was a member of both Psi Beta, and Phi Theta Kappa. He is now a regional vice president of PTK in Texas. Last summer, he won a Texas Star Award of PTK. He also took the lead protagonist’s role in the honors’ film project, playing the role of Mel Casas, a San Antonio artist. He has reported on this experience, presenting at the fall meeting of the WPWS in Georgetown. This fall semester, he has been a founding member of a new NTCC club, Raíces and Alas, and is vice-president of NTCC’s honors student council.
Yahir Garcia is the Russell Mowery Scholar of Honors Northeast for his contributions to regional culture. He is the associate producer of Crude Conquest: The Triumph of Big Oil in Texas 1930-1980, which won a Webb Chapter Award at the Spring Meeting of the Texas State Historical Association in Houston. He has won two poetry awards, both for the Northeast Texas Poetry Contest of 2024, and for 2025. He was the winner last summer of a Texas Star Award of PTK. He also won a Portia Gordon Award at the ETHA for his article on toxicity and taxation in Texas—and student films. Garcia has presented segments of Crude Conquest at several venues including the Meeting of the WPWS in San Antonio in 2024, and the 2025 Meeting of the GPHC in Kansas City. He will be the student chair of the NTCC film panel in a General Session at the NCHC this November.
Karen Hernandez is secretary/treasurer of the Honors Student Council, a rare attainment for a first-year student. She is a 2025 graduate of MPHS. At Mount Pleasant she was a member of NHS, NTHS, the student council, and served as an officer for HOSA. She was a valuable member of the Mount Pleasant Cross-Country team, and a three-time regional qualifier for power lifting. Her high school chemistry teacher wrote that she was impressed by Hernandez’s “grit, academic achievements, and wide-range of interests.”
Araceli Landaverde is the 2025-26 co-president of NTCC’s honors student council. In her first semester after graduating from MPHS, she won an image award with a depiction of her family’s Ford hay baler against a beckoning twilight. In the spring of 2025, she won a state of Texas Caldwell Award for her essay on Mexican-American Catholicism in Mount Pleasant at the meeting of the Texas State Historical Association in Houston. She has made four presentations of this work, including one at the Mount Pleasant Library. Recently she was the state winner of the Walter B. Cooper Award of Phi Theta Kappa.
Jasmine Landaverde is the 2025-26 Cypress Bank Scholar of Honors Northeast. She is also a 2025 graduate of MPHS. There, she participated in the student council all four years, and was a member of NHS, NTHS, the Texas Association of Future Educators, Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, and the FCA, of which she was the student leader. She won an academic blanket for instructional practices, and lettered all four years in power lifting. Her math teacher noted that Landaverde has impressed him for her “passion, kindness, gentleness, and dedication to her teammates and to academics.”
Rebeca Martinez was a 2024 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School. She was a member of the soccer team and NHS. She is a very talented artist. In the summer of 2024, she accepted an invitation to perform research at the Dolph Briscoe Center in Austin on Texas political leader, Lena Guerrero. She subsequently presented work relating to this, twice, at the fall meeting of the WPWS in San Antonio, and at the spring meeting of the same association in Houston in the spring of 2025.
Emma Mendoza is the Gladys Winkle Scholar of Honors Northeast, the honors student with the best credentials as a Humanities major. Last spring, she won first-place in the McGraw Hill Poster Award for her sewing machine research and a Bonnie Spencer Award given to the three top essays in at NTCC in non-honors history classes. Last summer, she won a Texas Star Award of PTK. She also became the director of the upcoming feature-length film on the dueling Mexican-American art associations of San Antonio. She participated in the research effort and will be part of our panel on films in San Diego at the NCHC. Mendoza is also the local chapter president of Phi Theta Kappa. She presented the film work this past month in Georgetown, Texas at the meeting of the WPWS. She is the 2025-2026 co-president of NTCC’s honors student council.
Andrew Perez was a 2024 graduate of MPHS. In his first summer at NTCC, he acted the part of Governor James Allred in the Webb-Award winning film on oil and politics. This past summer, he took part in another honors film as the premier San Antonio painter, Jesse Treviño. Perez has presented twice at the meetings of the WPWS of Texas, first in the San Antonio meeting of 2024, and then at the Houston meeting of 2025. His image of a Lake Bob Sandlin sunset won first place in the image award competition of the Northeast Texas Poetry Reading earlier this fall.
Manuel Ramirez is a 2025 graduate of MPHS. He was a member of the NHS, the NTHS, and the Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering. His math teacher described him as a “very self-motivated person.” His punctuality, willingness to learn from his mistakes, readiness to contribute, and quiet humility makes him a fine “role model” for his peers.
Araceli Solis is a 2025 graduate of MPHS. She was a member of the NHS, thee NTHS, and Health Occupations Student of America (HOSA). A high school instructor described her as an enthusiastic learner who supports others, and “brings positive energy into the classroom, daily.”
Levi Teague is a 2025 graduate of Como Pickton High School. Already in his freshman year, Teague became the drum major of his school’s band, and the band went on attain high ratings. He performed a major project on the Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War, and his history professor noted that he combines a remarkable self-motivation with an ability to articulate abstruse concepts.
Johnathan Ventura is a 2025 graduate of MPHS. He was a member of the NHS, and for an engineering class built a custom electric guitar. His teacher noted that at one point he made a decision that threw out months of work, but that the end product was still the most notable work of the class. Ventura served as a most reliable cinematographer for the honors film last summer, and currently is the associate producer, editing the film. He presented his trailer of the film at the fall WPWS at Georgetown. He won second-place and $300 in the 2025 Northeast Texas poetry contest for his poem, “Community Park.”
