By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
Perla Guzman of Mount Pleasant has become the 2023-24 Texas Heritage National Bank (THNB) Scholar of NTCC. The $3,000 scholarship provided by the bank goes this year to the top-rated incoming Presidential Scholar of the NTCC Honors Program. Guzman will inherit this prestigious designation from other previous vanguard students of NTCC. The scholarship has been a connecting bridge to other impressive transfer scholarships down the line, to the University of Texas at Austin, Texas State, North Texas State, Rice University and other major institutions of higher learning.
Guzman was the 2023 salutatorian of Mount Pleasant High School. At MPHS she was active in UIL mathematics, and calculator applications for three years, where she helped her team to place first at several invitational meetings. Osias Hernandez, a math teacher at MPHS, noted that he was especially impressed by the mentoring Guzman provided entering teammates in math.
Already at NTCC, Guzman has made a mark. She excelled in General Chemistry courses this past summer, and contributed as a film scholar this summer to the research effort on traveling preachers initiated by students at Honors Northeast at Southern Methodist University.
Texas Heritage National Bank traces a lineage back to 1889 when it was called the Bank of Daingerfield. THNB has expanded rapidly in recent years and now has a presence in sixlocations—Dallas, Daingerfield, Gilmer, Omaha, Ore City, and Sulphur Springs.
NTCC Honors Director, Dr. Andrew Yox notes “The Texas Heritage National Bank scholarship remains our most prestigious Presidential Scholarship at NTCC, and it has been a treasure for the whole program, encouraging honors students like Guzman to raise the level of scholarship and academic attainment at the college.”
Perla resides in Titus County, and is the daughter of Santos, and Claudia Guzman.
