By: Dr. Andrew Yox, NTCC Honors Director
Daniel Landaverde was recently named the winner of the 2019 Chitsey Award, granted each year to the student of Honors Northeast who most exceeded expectations. The award comes with a $200 check.
The 2018 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School impressed all of his professors in his first semester at NTCC as courteous, assiduous and attuned to class objectives. He and Presidential Scholar, Hannah Dickson recently presented their pioneering works on the Hispanic community of Mount Pleasant at the Mount Pleasant Library. Landaverde and Dickson have also had their proposals accepted for the upcoming meeting of the Great Plains Honors Council.
Honors Northeast has awarded the Chitsey Award annually since 2013. Previous winners: Stephen Milburn (2013), Kelli Knepp (2014), Morgan Capps (2015) William Jones (2016), Cassidy Watkins (2017) and Madison Blood (2018) have all moved on from the Chitsey to regional or national awards such as the Jack Kent Cooke, Leaders of Promise, and/or the Coca Cola Scholarships.
Honors Director, Dr. Andrew Yox notes: “Landaverde was our last selection for the 2018-19 entering cohort. But his overall place in Honors Biology was second! His essay on the Hispanics in Mount Pleasant, brilliantly charted in relation to other immigrant outcomes in America and Europe, is very promising. He was in our film, he was one of the winners of our first image contest, and a presenter in Nacogdoches last fall. His rise in our twelve years of experience with honors here, though reminiscent of Lisa Lageschaar in 2010-2011, is unprecedented!”
The award also honors a former patron of Honors Northeast, Elizabeth Chitsey (1918-2013). The Winnsboro-native had children and grandchildren who have served in the teaching profession in Northeast Texas, on every level, from pre-school, to college. Each year since 2012, her family, which includes daughter, Dr. Mary Hearron, as well as other donors such as Don and Kathy Berthiaume, has generously supported this award and other social functions of Honors Northeast.
Daniel Landaverde is the son of Javier and Virginia Landaverde of Mount Pleasant.
