For Immediate Release: June 23, 2014
Contact: Selina Ayala-Patlan, Valerie Martinez (909) 445-1001

Nearly 2,000 MUSD Graduates Received their High School Diploma

MONTEBELLO – After a year of classes, exams, college applications, afterschool commitments and senior festivities, 1,972 graduates from Montebello Unified’s three comprehensive high schools bid their final farewell to high school days. Graduates from Bell Gardens, Montebello and Schurr high schools lined up on Thursday, June 19 to celebrate commencement in front of parents, friends, family, teachers and school officials.

“Our students have worked so hard to get to where they are today: Poised and ready to enter the next chapter of their young adult lives. We congratulate them,” said MUSD Board President David Vela. “We are confident that they will lead productive and successful lives and we wish them the best today and beyond.”

Holding its ceremony at the East Los Angeles College-Weingard Stadium, Bell Gardens High School graduated 643 students. Noel Esparza Duran, the class valedictorian, who graduated with a 4.37 GPA is attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the fall. He is planning to major in aerospace engineering.

Elena Chavez, salutatorian at Bell Gardens High with a graduating GPA of 4.33, is attending University of Colorado at Boulder, and will be majoring in environmental engineering. She is a scholarship recipient in the amount of $180,000, awarded from the Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps program.

Montebello High School graduated 672 seniors at Heaman Field. Valedictorian Taylor Marie Chavez, who graduated with a 4.46 GPA, is attending Stanford in the fall. Salutatorian Harutan Davtyan will be attending the University of California, Los Angeles in the fall and graduated with a 4.29 GPA.

This year’s commencement at Schurr High School included 663 graduates. Wendy Trieu, valedictorian, is graduating with a 4.41 GPA and will be attending MIT. Jimmy Chen, attending Yale University, is this year’s salutatorian. He graduated with a 4.43 GPA.

“Commencement is such a milestone and we are so proud of the accomplishments our students have achieved to get here,” said MUSD Superintendent of Schools Cleve Pell. “We are committed to ensuring our students are college and career-ready. I trust that each graduate will make Montebello Unified proud.”

Photo Captions:

MHS Grad1: Montebello High School seniors line up as commencement begins on June 19, 2014.

MHS Grad2: Montebello High seniors smile and prepare to take diplomas in front of a stadium filled with family and friends.