Class of 2020: Madera South High School

Madera High School 2020 Graduation Speech

Principal’s Note

Madera South High School’s teachers, counselors, support staff and administrators join the broader community of Madera in sending the collective message to the class of 2020 that we are proud of all of your accomplishments. We know when this current crisis is over, it will be the class of 2020 that will rise up and carry our community with innovative thought and creative solutions to help us all recover.

There is so much that Madera South High School’s class of 2020 has helped to accomplish over this shortened school year: our academic decathlon team won the county wide competition for the first time in our school’s history, Madera South High School’s POM/Dance Team won the Division 3 Central Section Championship, Jatzelle Salazar was voted CMAC MVP for Water Polo – a first in Madera South’s history, boys wrestling won the CMAC Championship. Dariana Miramontes broke a school record running a 5k in 18.10 and placing 21st in the State at Division 1. Arthur Cuevas was the FFA San Joaquin Regional President and was a finalist for FFA President at the state level, Brian Montano-Pinuelas, Manuel Chaidez, and Armando Fernandez-Zamora won the Directing Change Anti-Suicide competition at Fresno City College. Our Stallion drama students earned many awards at the Fresno City College Theatre Festival. Rachel Diaz won best actress in a play and was offered a theatre scholarship to Fresno State. And Dylan Gibson who won a superior performance award will be attending fresno city college on a theatre scholarship, Noel Williams accepted to Central Ca Regional Honor Choir. Madera South High School students were also successful in achieving at the state level: Merary Hernandez was a FFA state proficiency winner in the area of Agricultural Communications. Madera South High School’s cotton judging team won 2nd in the state, Deyvet Carbajal-Beltran was a state proficiency winner in Equine Science Placement, Ivan Venegas and Gabriel Hernandez are the first Stallions to receive the Golden State Level Degree for FCCLA. Ivan and Gabriel along with Andrea Jimenez entered a National Program Focus competition, placing 1st at the CA State competition, Berenice Cruz competed in FCCLA Teach and Train placing first in state and will be competing at nationals in July, Gabriella Herrera, Ambar Guerrero, Angeles Camarillo, and Rachel Gutierrez are senior members of HOSA that have earned the prestigious Barbara James Service Community Service Award.

Madera South High School has students that have been accepted to UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Cal State Monterey Bay, UC Irvine, CSU Stanislaus, UC Merced, CSU Fullerton, UC Santa Barbara, San Francisco State, UCLA, Fresno Pacific University, Fresno State, Cal Poly, Madera Center and other campuses in the state center for community college district. There are stallions who plan to proudly serve our country in the army, navy, marines and national guard.

Congratulations Madera South High School’s class of 2020. This achievement is but the first in many achievements to come.

Aimee S. Anderson

This story was originally published June 17, 2020 at 12:00 AM.