WVUSD: 2019/2020 Year-End Results
● Diamond Bar High School engineering students took 1 st and 4 th Place in the 2020
SourceAmerica Design Challenge. Finalists work in partnership with professionals with
disabilities to co-design and develop devices for the workplace.
● PBS (i.e., educational television) is featuring Chaparral Middle School in an upcoming
episode of the Emmy award-winning series, “Artbound.” The program will spotlight
how Chaparral exemplifies arts education and how it is integrated on campus. Crews
filmed in arts and Design-Based Learning classrooms, and interviewed 19 “expert”
teachers, students, parents, and administrators on March 11.
● Walnut High’s Diana De La Cruz (Spanish teacher) and Nick Madrid (economics and
psychology teacher) have earned the profession’s highest mark of achievement as
National Board Certified Teachers (NBCT). Only 3% of the nation’s teachers
successfully pass the rigorous, performance-based, peer-review program, demonstrating
their proven impact on student learning and achievement. Walnut Valley USD now has
a total of nine NBCT teachers, including Jennifer Chalew, Jeanette Koh, Dena Lordi,
Kellee Lyons, Jennifer Maletz, Jennifer Nicolls, and Helen Papadopoulos. A total of 3,681
new NBCTs were named this year joining more than 7,000 educators in California and
125,000 across the nation.
● Diamond Bar High School senior Sean Chang was named a 2020 Edison Scholar. The
prestigious award comes with a $40,000 college scholarship from Edison International.
Sean is among an elite group of 30 seniors in Southern California Edison’s service
territory to receive a total of $1.2 million through the Edison Scholars program. Each
Edison Scholar will receive a scholarship, paid over four years, to further their academic
pursuit of STEM fields at a four-year accredited U.S. college or university. Sean will be
studying mechanical engineering at Caltech in the fall.
● Walnut High senior Ken Cheng has been named a Top 300 Scholar in the Regeneron
Science Talent Search. Teacher Garrett Lim (science) nominated his student in the
prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. Each scholar was
selected based on their exceptional research skills, commitment to academics, innovative
thinking, and promise as scientists. Cheng, 17, was recognized for his work in the area
of Quantum Chemical Study of Molecular Structures and Stabilities of Iron Complexes
Containing Nitric Oxide and Imidazole-Based Ligands. Each student selected earned a
$2,000 scholarship with an additional $2,000 award for their respective high school. Over
1,900 students entered this year’s competition.
● Diamond Bar High School senior Keshav Sriram has been named a semifinalist in the
2020 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. The winners were selected from nearly
5,600 candidates expected to graduate from U.S. high schools in the year 2020. Inclusion
in the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, now in its 56 th year, is one of the highest
honors bestowed upon graduating high school seniors. Scholars are selected on the
basis of superior academic and artistic achievements, leadership qualities, strong
character, and involvement in community and school activities.
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