Northeast Texas Community College and Honors Northeast†recently†announced a call for original poems to enter the annual Northeast Texas Poetry Contest.The judges will be looking for poems that can accent or enliven our sense of the surroundings, people, the culture, and/or the history of Northeast Texas. Adult winners will take home $200 and $50 for first and second place.

Two Northeast Texas Community College graduates, Ryan-Rose Mendoza and Melody Mott, were named 2017 Terry Scholars and received the prestigious Terry Transfer Scholarship. Selection is based on academic achievement, demonstrated leadership, and financial need. Recipients also must have applied and been accepted to a Terry Affiliated University within the state of Texas.

The Terry Scholarship Program was born of Howard and Nancy Terry?s desire to help young people help themselves. The Terrys believed, in the long term, that a university ? like the state it represents ?

Two Northeast Texas Community College Presidential Scholars recently won $100 for their performance in challenging honors seminars. Presley McClendon, who graduated this past May, was the sophomore who took all three honors seminars at NTCC, and ended with the highest GPA.† Chesney Davis won his award as an honors freshman, ranking number one in the Stat-Psych Honors Seminar taught this past spring by Dr. Karyn Skaar and Dr. Paula Wilhite.

Northeast Texas Community College recently awarded the second annual Bonnie Spencer Awards for excellence in historical research. The prize is awarded to students who write the top United States History papers for the school year. First place ($100) went to Alondra Ferretiz of Mount Pleasant and second place ($50) went to Sarah Craig of Hughes Springs.

NTCC is somewhat unique in that is requires all students to complete a research paper during their United States History course.

Honors Northeast hosted the ninth annual McGraw-Hill Poster Contest April 28 in the Whatley Center for the Performing Arts. Nearly 20 students competed in the event, where they presented posters summarizing their research on a wide variety of academic topics. William Jones, a sophomore Presidential Scholar from Mount Pleasant, won first place.

Texas Heritage National Bank recently presented the Northeast Texas Community College Foundation with $4,000 to sponsor a Presidential Scholar in Honors Northeast. The NTCC honors program was founded in 2007 and has attracted top high school graduates from around the region. Dr. Jonathan McCullough, NTCC Vice President for Advancement, (center) is pictured receiving the gift from John Bryan (left), Chairman of Texas Heritage National Bank and Dwyatt Bell (right), CEO of Texas Heritage National Bank. To learn more about this and other scholarships at NTCC, contact McCullough at 903-434-8115.

Submitted by Honors Northeast:

Lone Star College in the greater Houston has over 90,000 students, and may be the eighth-largest institution of higher learning in the United States.† It has won three of the 105 prestigious Guistwhite Scholarships of Phi Theta Kappa that have been bestowed since the award?s website began recording this information in 2011.† Mesa Community College, a bellwether two-year institution in Arizona, has less students, but has gained four winners.

Thanks to a generous grant, creative conceptualizing, and a good amount of student-to-faculty interfacing, 12 members of Honors Northeast at Northeast Texas Community College won invitations to present work at the recent meeting of the Great Plains Honors Council (GPHC) at Lamar University in Beaumont.†The GPHC has functioned since 1975 as the regional arm of the National Collegiate Honors Council, joining university and college honors programs from Nebraska and Missouri to Texas.

Three NTCC scholars gave formal oral reports.†Cassidy Watkins, from Daingerfield, featured segments of th

Northeast Texas Community College student, Cassidy Watkins, was recently named the winner of the 2016-2017 Chitsey Award, granted annually to the student of Honors Northeast who most exceeded expectations. Dr. Mary Hearron (right) recently presented Watkins with this $200 award.

Watkinswas the 2016 Salutatorian of Daingerfield High School.† She has excelled in her two honors seminars, and in her other NTCC classes to date.† She is also the producer of the 2017 Honors film on Sam Houston, and the exodus of the Texas Cherokee.