The students, educators and administrators of Metro Nashville Public Schools bring home awards, trophies and honors on a regular basis. Here is just a sampling of the regional, state and even national honors bestowed our system.

• Teachers of the Year have been announced! Click here to see the full list of winners.

• Middle College High School senior Julianne Ventress earned a unique distinction by the time graduation rolled around in May, 2009: she had already received her college degree before graduating from high school! Click here to read more about this amazing accomplishment.



• The boys track team at Martin Luther King, Jr. Magnet High won 1st place in the 2009 TSSAA Division I A-AA state track championship. The meet, held May 18 - 22, at Middle Tennessee State University, hosted the state's top track teams. Scored in 19 different events, MLK outranked their opponents with a total of 50 points. Helping the team take first were:
• Ben Tankard, who placed 2nd in Boys Long Jump (6.68m), 1st in Boys 110 Meter Hurdles and 1st in Boys 300 Meter Hurdles;
• Micah Wasserman, who placed 3rd in Boys 1600 Meter Run and 3rd in Boys 800 Meter run;
• Cody Simons, who placed 6th in Boys Shot Put;
• the 4X100 Meter relay team who placed 8th;
• the 4X400 Meter Relay team who placed 7th; and
• the 4X800 Meter relay team who placed 5th.  

            Congratulations, MLK Boys Track Team!

• Three graduating seniors have been selected to receive $2,000 in MNPS sponsored scholarships. The students were selected based on an application and interview process. Congratulations to our scholarship winners!
  1. Abbie Alexander, McGavock HS - Charlotte and Elbert Brooks Scholarship $1000 - She will be attending Smith College in the fall.
  2. Michael Meador, Glencliff HS - J Harper Harris Scholarship $500 - He will be attending David Lipscomb University in the fall.
  3. Halin Haji, Overton HS = G Hugh Waters Scholarship $500 – She will be attending TSU in the fall.



• Sixty-three MNPS 7th graders were selected by Duke University to take the ACT and SAT college entrance exams as part of their Talent Identification Program. Of these, 29 were honored for their high scores on the state level and three more will soon receive national recognition. Click here to learn more.



• The 6th Grade Math Team from Head Middle Magnet has had a phenomenal year filled with major accomplishments and awards. Throughout the school year, the team has been competing in a national math league competition group. The team finished 1st in the state and 2nd in the nation! For the full story on their fantastic year, click here.



• Students from Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet School won several awards at the 53rd Annual Convention of the Tennessee Junior Classical League. For more information on all awards given, click here.



• For the fourth year in a row, Jere Baxter Middle School has won two New Vision Awards in the National Panasonic Kid Witness News Video Contest. Their Public Service Announcement (PSA) video “Change” won the PSA Category, as well as the Technical Award for Editing. There were 10 schools recognized this year with 14 awards. Four schools of the ten were honored with multiple awards, Jere Baxter included. There are over 200 schools around the country that compete in this contest. For winning, the school will receive a congratulatory banner, trophies and an equipment package. The students in the 7th and 8th grade AVID classes worked on the videos under the direction of KWN Sponsor Sam Frey and with help from Ms. Lyn Thiessen, their AVID teacher. In the process of video creation, students do all filming, lighting, voice-over work, editing and work in every aspect of the production. We are very proud of them.



• The senior class of the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt attended the annual TN Junior Academy of Sciences symposium held at Belmont University on April 17, 2009. Following a competitive statewide application process, five School seniors were among twenty-four from across Middle Tennessee who invited to present the findings of the research projects they completed during internships with Vanderbilt University Medical Center faculty scientists. All five seniors were rewarded for their research presentations:
  • Hala Zein-Sabatto was awarded one of the two top monetary prizes of $500 and her paper will be published in the conference proceedings
  • Susan Li and Hana Erkou won two of five $200 prizes and their papers will also be published in the conference proceedings
  • Janet Hana and Elizabeth Wei will have the abstracts of their research papers published in the conference proceedings.
  The School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt is a joint venture between Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) and offers high school students an interdisciplinary, research-centered learning experience.



• Three students at Nashville School of the Arts were honored at the Midsouth Region Student Award Ceremony, sponsored by the Midsouth Chapter of the National Academy of Arts and Science (NATAS). Ryman Lloyd received two separate Honorable Mentions for his work on two films -- an Honorable Mention in Arts & Entertainment for Procrastination and an Honorable Mention in Long Form for Battle of Stones. Zachary Lovejoy also received an Honorable Mention in Long Form for his work on Battle of Stones. Jake Beitter won the Long Form Emmy for Black Friday. All students worked under the supervision of NSA mass media teacher John Newsom. Over the past three years, NSA students have won three student Emmys and been awarded seven Honorable Mentions. NSA students have also won two awards for Best Use of Original Music. Nashville School of the Arts is a unique learning environment. NSA is a public magnet school, offering grades 9-12 for students living within Metro Nashville. Major arts areas include: dance, mass media, music, theatre and visual art. Students are expected to study in their respective arts and complete the same academic curriculum as other MNPS students. For more information regarding NSA visit www.nashvilleschoolofthearts.com