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A Night to Remember: Higher Achievement’s Green Apple Awards Honors Graduating Scholars and Major Supporters

Higher Achievement families, staff and community partners came together yesterday in honor of the 8^th Annual Green Apple Awards Ceremony at the Lincoln Theatre, sponsored by the Freddie Mac Foundation. This celebration recognized scholar commencement and accomplishment, and honored three major supporters.

This year, 63 graduating Higher Achievement scholars stood with pride on the Lincoln Theatre stage representing Wards 1, 4, 6, and 7 of the District, as well as Alexandria, VA. 83% of these scholars are advancing to their top choice high school, including Banneker, School Without Walls, McKinley Tech, Gonzaga, Madeira School, and Edmund Burke. Overall, the Class of 2007 has increased their 2.3 GPA to an astounding 3.8!

Jordan Prevost, a Ward 4 graduate, and this year’s graduation speaker, wowed the audience. He revealed that Higher Achievement taught him the difference between dreaming about success and working hard to actually achieve that success.

This year’s Green Apple Award recipients were Kira Gutter, a Ward 1 mentor extraordinaire, the Bates White Consulting Firm, who provided 23 volunteer mentors and financial support, and Albert Herring, US Attorney’s Office for External Affairs and champion for Higher Achievement East of the River. During his acceptance speech, Herring gave thanks to Higher Achievement. “What you all are doing is nothing short of remarkable. You are more than a tutoring program and more than a mentoring program…This is a problem preventing, mind-shaping program that has really made a difference in the communities that you serve.”

Executive Director Richard Tagle brought the ceremony to a close, with remarks that encouraged Higher Achievement scholars to be the authors of their own destinies. At night’s end, there was thunderous applause, proud graduates, and an organization even prouder of another successful year.