This is the 23rd school year for Hilton Head Island High School Seahawk students doing the Kurtzberg photograph contest. Mrs. Schoelkopf class has been doing the contest for a long time. Mrs. Schoelkopf said “As far as competitions go, my students entered four competitions this year.” Several students in Mrs. Schoelkopf class won some money. Sophia Weismantel ended up in first place and won $150, Delany Volz placed second and won $125, and Maya Gozlan placed 3rd place with winning $100. Three students had Honorable Mention: They are Maya Gozlan, Parker Hill and Maren McInnes and they each won $50. Mrs. Schoelkopf said “ Photographic Society of America (international Competition) results will be out later this week as well.” Mrs. Schoelkopf also stated that “ “Scholastic Art & Writing Awards results were out in January & March for Nationals.” The class of photography in Hilton Head Island High School Seahawk competitions nationally receive 350,000 submission on an average every year.

The Newspaper Production Class is a new class at Hilton Head Island High School. They “interview sources, who are students and staff at Hilton Head Island High School, in order to write news articles. The news articles are about all the different events and achievements in the school. Students also write staff and student features. While waiting for interviews, students read news articles from the Hilton Head Island Sun, and read resources/articles about different newspapers, journalism, publishers, and historical events connected to newspapers,” said by Ms. Spisz, the Newspaper Production teacher.

The goals for the newspaper class are

1. Inform the community about all the great things that happen at HHIHS.

2. To have students grow as writers.

3. Connect students and staff. Connect HHIHS to the community.

4. To have students improve their written and verbal skills.

This class was made back in June of the year 2020.

The Memory Project “is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting intercultural understanding and kindness between children around the world through school-based art programs. We have been fortunate to have 280,000 youth involved in 55 countries since 2004” according to the organization's website.

Hilton Head Island High School had its annual art exchange. Ms. Dobbelaere coordinates the event. For the Art Exchange, “students from Port Royal Elementary, Robert Smalls International Academy, and Hilton Head Island High school who collectively created 258 works of art for a school in Cameroon, Africa" said by Ms. Dobbelaere.

Also, “HHIHS Art students have been participating in the Memory Project Portrait program for 16 years and the Art Exchange is a new addition to the Memory Project.”

Ms. Dobbelaere said “students from Beaufort High School, Bluffton High School, Hilton Head High School, and May River advanced art classes created 98 portraits for the 2020-2021 Memory Project Portrait Program. They have been sent to young adults in Afghanistan and Cameroon . A portrait delivery video will be sent to the students who participated, expected to arrive at the end of this school year.”

The video did arrive on May 11, 2021 and it can be viewed on HHIHS's Facebook page.

Hilton Head Island High School seniors are now eligible to get senior scholarships. There are currently over 15 scholarships available to high school seniors in the Lowcountry. There is no limit to the number of scholarships each senior can receive. A few scholarships can be as little as $2,800, and the highest being up to $20,000. Ms. Diamond, a counselor at Hilton Head High School says, “we offer 2 in house scholarships, The Seahawk Career Incentive and The Local 3 – sponsored by our math department.”

A lot of the scholarships provided at HHIHS, require high school seniors to have a minimum of a 3.0 GPA. The Building a Better Lowcountry Scholarship, is a scholarship which covers tuition costs at Technical College of the Lowcountry. This scholarship is a great way for high school seniors to be out of debt for their first two years of college. The Heritage Foundation Classic Scholarship is one of the higher value scholarships, ranging from $16,000 to $20,000 within a four year period. Each senior has the opportunity to receive a scholarship, the senior Google Classroom has many posts about the scholarship they could be eligible for.

Some of the scholarships provided at HHIHS include, The Hope, The Life, The Palmetto Fellows, and many more. Among many scholarships you will find some requirements, which you must have in order to qualify for the scholarship. Each one of these scholarships is a great opportunity for all seniors. You can get more information by visiting

cf-lowcountry.org/.

There you will find each scholarship, the requirements, and more information about these great opportunities.

Another senior celebration is Military and College Decision Day, which is celebrated in May. Mrs. Dopson, a counselor at HHIHS says "the event in general is an opportunity to celebrate the academic accomplishments of graduating high school and give the underclassmen a chance to see the excitement of making decisions in your senior year of high school. The celebration of college and military decisions is sponsored by the S.C Commission on Higher Education. The celebration helps reinforce the importance of pursuing your education, and studies, as well as commit to a career and technical college."

Approximately 56% of seniors attend college, and 5% attend the military. The top three colleges that HHIHS seniors attend are University of South Carolina, College of Charleston, and Technical College of the Lowcountry. The top branches of the military HHIHS students serve in are Marines and Army.