Desert Mountain's 'Fab Five' lead graduation week

Tom Scanlon, East Valley Tribune (Mesa, Ariz.)
·3 min read

May 19—One of the first things high school students learn: Nobody's perfect.

That is about the only lesson the "Flawless Five" of Desert Mountain High School failed to learn.

"We have five kids with a perfect 5.0 GPA," boasted Linda Hirsch, principal of the North Scottsdale school.

While "straight A's" normally translates to a 4.0 grade point average at Desert Mountain and other schools, Advanced Placement classes allow for the potential of scoring even higher, for those willing to put in college-level work.

DM's Perfect Pentagram: Kayla Amkraut, Keey Koc, Dorsa Ghazanfari, Quentin Etebari and Victoria Leung.

"They take extremely challenging course loads," Hirsch noted.

But wait, she added, there's more: "They are also really wonderful students and humans."

The Flawless Five leads Scottsdale Unified School District's Class of 2024.

Some reluctantly, most joyously, seniors around Scottsdale leave their high school nests behind this week, sailing their caps in the air, then flying off to fledgling adulthood.

Scottsdale Unified School District's graduation night is scheduled for Thursday, May 23.

Horizon High School, a Scottsdale school in the Paradise Valley School District, has its graduation ceremony Thursday, May 23.

Chaparral High School salutes Anthony Nagle, off to ASU's Fulton School of Engineering, Riley Cass, getting set for NAU's Honors College, Acclai Ruess, who will study molecular biology at the UofA, and Scarlett Campbell, also heading to UofA, where she will use her Charros' Future Teacher Scholarship as she studies education.

Also from the Chaparral Class of '24, Vivian Saavedra was awarded a Rotary science and technology scholarship.

At Coronado High, 39 seniors were awarded $5,000 scholarships which will fund two years at a Maricopa Community College.

Schools salute seniors

Other schools around Scottsdale salute students who — even with a rocky start during chaotic pandemic lockdowns — made the most of the last four years.

At Cactus Shadows High School in far North Scottsdale, the lobby is lined with posters of seniors showing pictures of them as babies through their years in the Cave Creek Unified District.

Graduation at Cactus Shadows is Wednesday, May 22.

One of the Cactus Shadows grads is Samantha Stifel. "We are so proud of Sam and her four years here at Cactus Shadows!" the school posted last week.

She is a four year varsity lacrosse player who "excelled in academics all four years."

The hard work paid off, as the Scottsdale resident scored the University of Missouri's Mark Twain Scholarship.

A bit south of Cactus Shadows, Hirsch is just about bursting with pride, not just about the flawless five, but many more from an exemplary Desert Mountain graduating class.

Thirty-one DM athletes have signed agreements with college programs — including an Olympic archer at ASU.

"We have 39 IB (International Baccalaureate) student candidates, we have one ROTC full ride Air Force student to Tufts University and another playing football for Navy."

The IB students and others who took Career and Technical Education courses as dual enrollments at East Valley Institute of Technology have a racing start to their post-secondary careers after earning college credits while in high school.

"We have 131 CTE completers and several who are finishing at DMHS and at EVIT with welding, medical assisting, interior design and more," Hirsch noted.

Nearly three dozen Desert Mountain grads will continue their studies at Arizona State University's Barrett, The Honors College.