Top Asian Students Include 5 From Valley

Five San Fernando Valley high school students are among 10 students who have been named as the outstanding Asian American students in Los Angeles for 1994.

The Los Angeles Asian Pacific American Heritage Committee and the LAUSD’s Asian Pacific American Education Commission sponsor the recognition program to celebrate May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

The students will be honored for their multicultural involvement, community service and academic achievement at an awards ceremony May 11 at the Downtown Los Angeles Unified School District office.

The 10 were selected from 130 nominated students.

Valley students to be honored include: Won Kyung Cho and Catherine Nghiem, Birmingham High School in Van Nuys; Diana Kim, Polytechnic High School; David La, Burbank High School; and Quyen Thi Vo, Cleveland High School in Reseda.

Each will receive a prize of about $170, as well as certificates for restaurants, books and sports gear.

Eleven Valley students were among 24 winners of the committee’s poster and essay contest, including four first-place winners.

They will be honored just before the ceremony for the outstanding students.

The theme of the contest was “Celebrating the Family: Foundation of Our Future,” inspired by the United Nations’ declaration of 1994 as Year of the Family.

The competition attracted 385 essay entries and 338 poster entries from students in grades kindergarten through 12, said commission director Carmencita Davino.

It was the largest number of entries to date for the competition, Davino said.

Valley winners in the essay contest included: Sabrina Beaver, Gledhill Street Elementary School in North Hills; Lavanya Mahendran (first place), Alfred Bernhard Nobel Middle School in Northridge; Brendan Wolfe and Alexis Sherman, Francisco Sepulveda Middle School in North Hills; Myosun Julie Kim (first place), Van Nuys High School; and Nguyen Nam Tran, Granada Hills High School.

Local students who created winning posters were: Pawina Jiramongkolchai and Kim Jiramongkolchai (first place), Welby Way Elementary School in Canoga Park; Linda Petchmesrisai, Canterbury Avenue Elementary School in Pacoima; Daniel Chang, San Jose Street Elementary School in Mission Hills; and Janet Yuchung Yoo (first place), Francisco Sepulveda Middle School in North Hills.