Tenorio leads GCA Class ’16 awardees

Grace Christian Academy Eagle Award recipient Joy Kimiko Tenorio, right, and honor roll awardee Mark Daniel Versoza. (Contributed Photo)

Joy Kimiko Tenorio led the list of awardees of Grace Christian’s Academy Class of 2016. Students were honored last Friday in GCA’s commencement exercises held at the school’s chapel in Navy Hill.

Tenorio was the recipient of the coveted Eagle Award with class valedictorian Camille Joy Masilungan as the runner-up.

The Eagle Award, according to GCA guidelines, is given to the student who shows academic excellence and citizenship as well as Christian values. It’s GCA’s most prestigious honor as it encompasses all character awards.

Nominees for the award must have attended GCA for two consecutive years—including the year of the award—need to be consistent with their academic honors, display character excellence and leadership skills in class, and must be actively involved in school and church activities.

Tenorio was also part of the high school girls volleyball team that graduated along with Mulan Ta, Danica Lei Canedo, and Allexa Murielle Go. She was the MVP and was consistent on the honor roll list together with nine of her classmates. Ta received the inspirational player award.

Canedo, Go, Masilunga, salutatorian Ellie Grace Eichenberger, Jasmine Michelle Gortayo, Jonathan Clyde Libut, Kason Steven Pixley, Kaylene Reyes Camacho, and Mark Daniel Versoza were also on the honor roll list that must have no numeric grade below 83 per quarter, per school year.

Tenorio was also among a group of seven students that had maintained their grade point average of 3.5 since the 10th grade. Go, Versoza, Libut, Pixley, Kazuma Matsumura, and Beom Keun Park were the others honored with the consistent high GPA.

She also received the Association of Christian Schools International-Distinguished High School Student Award for leadership together with Francis Joseph Dalusung, Loyalty awardee, and was a secretary of the school’s Student Council.

Eichenberger, aside from being the class salutatorian, participated in various academic and sport competitions where she topped the art contest, while Pixley, Masilungan, and Jin Hui Deng were GCA’s representatives in the Mock Trial.

Libut (most valuable player), Deng, Ryu Tanzawa, Renmar Daproza (most improved player), Josiah Given Trinidad (most inspirational player), and Josiah Philip Hinson II were the sports awardees in high school boys’ basketball.

Hinzon (inspirational player), Deng, Tanzawa, Trinidad, Libut (MVP), Daproza, Versoza (improved player), and Shun Umezawa were the members of the boys volleyball team. Hinson, Trinidad, Tanzawa, Versoza, and Canedo were the first GCA team that joined an outrigger competition.

Eichenberger and Jasmine Michelle Gortayo joined the local of Americorps as volunteers, while a certificate of special recognition was presented to Camacho for the Northern Mariana Islands Council for the Humanities, and Hinson as GCA’s Youth Congress representative.

Other ACSI student award recipients were Libut and Jillian Cyril Salcedo (athletics); Eichenberger and Yujin Lee (fine arts); Park, Dianne Arnold, and Alyssa Jade Nunez (Christian Service).

Hinson, Gortayo, Versoza, Daproza, Canedo, Deng, Go, Masilungan, Matsumura, Pixley, Ta, Trinidad, Umezawa, Jodi Ji Young Kim, and Jennifer Yokoyama received the loyalty award.

Character award recipients were Versoza (Diligence); Hinson (Joseph-Servant); Park (Barnabas-Encourager); Eichenberger (Christian disciple); Jin Young Yoo (Citizenship); Masilungan along with sophomore Grant Eichenberger and junior Minna Natsuko Ito, who were the distinguished Christian students for academics.

Libut (president), Masilungan (vice president), Reyes (secretary), and Vesoza (treasurer) were the class officers; Canedo (president), Pixley (vice president), Gortayo (treasurer), and Eichenberger (historian) were the National Honor Society members; Hinson (president), Trinidad (vice president), Tenorio (secretary), and Go (treasurer) made up the Student Council.