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IB Programme continues to break records

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Kathy Goeke, HCN

Last January, Hill Country News reported that Leander ISD's International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme had awarded a record seven diplomas, more than in any previous year since the district began the program in 1999. This year, the internationally-recognized organization awarded 12 diplomas to Leander graduates, breaking the district record yet again.

Fifteen students also received certificates in individual subjects, compared to nine certificates awarded last year.

Leander High School 2007 graduates who received the IB Diploma are Caitlyn Richter, Forrest Blackwelder, Sean Beherec, Nia Crosley, Joshua Bauer, Sarah Wojciechowski, Nichole Michaeli, Albert Cisneros, Travis Turner, Kevin Davis, Michelle Manley and Jenny Yin.

Graduates receiving IB certificates in individual subjects were Ben Wermund, Alina Bushong, Tyler Bowman, Megan Brannen, Brandon Powell, Phillip Diaz, Derek Mimbela, Grace Lowry, Alexa Parcell, Nathan Wolfe, Trey Young, Brandon Brown, Elizabeth Harp, Jeremy Henschen and Ashley Lanham.

The rigorous IB Diploma Programme helped the graduates gain acceptance to prestigious colleges and universities across the country, earned many of them college credit hours and ensured some were awarded significant scholarship monies at schools such as Baylor, University of Dallas, New York University and Harvard, to name a few.

Students expected to graduate in June 2008 have already received acceptance letters to schools including Southern Methodist University and the University of Notre Dame. One LHS senior was even interviewed for a place at the University of Oxford in England.

International Baccalaureate is only offered at Leander High School (students from all LISD high schools may transfer to LHS for the program) and has grown to the point of necessitating waiting lists for classes like Latin and a push for the district to send more teachers for the special training needed to teach the IB classes.

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