Communications Arts Newsletter Blog

It’s not every day an NFL star visits CommArts, but on Thursday, May 7, we received a visit from Priest Holmes when he came to award Senior Amanda Espinoza a scholarship for $1,000. She will be attending Texas A&M University this fall,  joining her brother Albert Espinoza, who also attended CAHS (Class of 2007). Amanda won this scholarship by maintaining a rigorous routine throughout high school: swimming practice each morning, then a full day of academics at Communications Arts, followed by more pool time in the evening, not to mention Amanda’s nightly dedication to her homework– which has earned her a slot in the “Top Ten” of her graduating class.

The Priest Holmes Foundation is an organization committed to encouraging education and enhancing the lives of children in his community.

Videos created by two groups of CommArts students won top prizes in the Teens in the Driver Seat PSA contest. “Another Saturday Night” (directed by Rolando Rodriguez Ruiz-Healy, featuring Ben Baxley, Johnny Coppins, Danielle Garcia, Anthony Peterson, Emily Tam and Anastasia Holl) won the First Place award of $1000 for our school. Second place winner ($500 prize) was “Reasons Not to Wear a Seatbelt,” an animated film created by Matt Hallstein, JM Berlet, Kelsey Peña and Crystal Clark.

You can find out more about the Teens in the Driver Seat campaign at their website, http://www.t-driver.com. Scroll to the bottom of the homepage and watch “TDS TV” to see the winners from our school.

Sophomore Erica Hylemon recently won third place in the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum Essay Contest, sponsored by Allegiance Credit Union.

The prompt for this essay contest was to write about a time you made an important decision. Erika wrote about when she was in middle school (living in Germany) and she turned down a cigarette that someone offered her. She found out about the contest through fastweb.com, a website where you create an account, then input your likes and dislikes. It finds essay contests that are specifically suited to your talents and characteristics.

Erika discovered that she won when the Dean of the Museum called her mom to tell her a diploma was being mailed to her English teacher, Mr. Scott.