Rupinder (Rupi) Kaur Chatha graduated from Hawkins High School in Hawkins, Texas with highest honors as the Valedictorian of her class with a grade point average of 96.99. As a high school students, she has been maintaining an A average in every subject while being actively engaged in various cocurricular and extracurricular activities.

Some of Rupinder’s major accomplishments include being elected president of the National Honor Society, president of the junior class, vice president of the Student Council, and treasurer of the Spanish Club. As vice president of the Student Council, Rupinder was selected to represent her school in six state level, seven regional level and numerous local Student Council conventions. The Hawkins’ Rotary Club also honored Rupinder as ‘Student of the Month” for September 1984 and honored her and her parents at a luncheon. For five consecutive years her peers elected her as “Most Likely to Succeed.”

Rupinder has been honored at the state level for winning first place in a local Spanish contest from which her paper was advanced to the Lone Star Chapter competition. In this competition her paper won fourth place. In a separate Spanish contest held in San Antonio, her paper in a grammar contest was selected as eleventh in the entire state of Texas.

Her national recognitions include listing in Who’s Who among American High School Students and winning of National Merit Awards in Science, Leadership, Foreign Language, Student Council, and Academics. On the basis of her academic excellence and leadership ability, the University of Tampa in Florida and the Dallas Baptist University in Texas have offered Rupinder Presidential Scholarships. She has decided to enroll as a premedical student at the Dallas Baptist University. Rupinder plans to pursue a career as a surgeon.

This accomplished young lady is the daughter of Sardar Pritpal Singh Chatha, Professor of Business and Economics; and Dr. Diljit Kaur Chatha, Professor of Composition, Rhetoric, and English Literature.

Article extracted from this publication >>  August 16, 1985