This program is brought to you in part by the Erika Lewis Endowment Fund.

♪♪♪ CCSD is the fifth-largest school district in the nation, with student success as its number-one goal.

Join us as we meet student go-getters and goal-setters and discover their skills, talents and drive.

Plus meet the incredible staff who are helping students shine.

It's all here in Student Spotlight.

♪♪♪ Hi, everyone, welcome to Student Spotlight.

I'm Melinda Malone.

We've got a lot to share with you during the next half hour.

Meet Officer Oreo.

This CCSD Police canine is popular with students and on social media.

"therealofficeroreo" has more than 5,000 followers on Instagram.

Then we'll introduce you to the first-ever Vegas PBS media crew.

These high school students are capturing young opinions as part of a new hands-on internship.

How you can watch their work.

And super-spellers at Booker Elementary School.

We catch up with two winners from this year's Native Son Spelling Bee.

But first we want to shine the spotlight on some of our graduating seniors, starting with a CSN high school student who battled childhood cancer.

She survived and has thrived, graduating this month with both a high school and associate's degree.

♪♪♪ CSN High School student Jonnie Gledhill is about to graduate near the top of her class.

I'm super-excited to graduate.

It's a day her mom worried may never happen.

(Corinna Gledhill) I just remember the-- I'm going to cry-- the emergency room doctor saying a pediatric surgeon and a pediatric oncologist will be with you shortly.

We've found a three-inch mass on your daughter's adrenal gland above her left kidney.

So we're like what?

Like cancer?

When Jonnie was just 3-1/2, she was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma cancer.

Intensive treatments followed.

Jonnie went through-- I think it was like nine rounds of chemo and 12 radiation treatments and seven surgeries and a stem cell transplant.

Treatments that did save her life but impacted her hearing significantly.

(Jonnie Gledhill) I have lost 80% of my hearing, but I can fix that by, you know, using closed captioning and asking the teachers to sit me up front so I can hear better.

It hasn't slowed her down; in fact, Jonnie transferred to CSN High School so she could earn a high school diploma and an associate's degree at the same time.

So now I can keep moving forward and get to my bachelor's and master's and keep going.

I want to continue my schooling so I can become a counseling psychologist.

A desire to give back that she had her entire life.

So like you said, I've been through so much and I just want to help others get the help they need and feel hope like my family did.

-She has just always been so driven.

It's amazing, you know, just to have this where not only is she graduated from high school but she's graduating with an associate degree and she's going to go on and help other people and that's just really awesome.

-Congratulations, Jonnie, and good luck next year at UNLV.

Our next star graduate is from Durango High School.

He's a perfect example of what it means to be an involved student.

From sports to theater and academics, he literally does it all and does it well.

(Robert Gibson V) When I was first in elementary school, my mom told me there's some people that are good in one or two things, but if you really want to make it somewhere, if you really want to be someone, you're going to have to be multifaceted and be able to work in a lot of different areas.

And I also just love being involved in basketball, theater and track.

It's just been really amazing, and I like it a lot.

(Nathan Miller) All of our freshmen that come in, we ask them to get involved with something maybe a little bit beyond academics.

Well, Robert didn't just get involved with one thing, he got involved with everything, right?

So he's one of our star athletes on campus and star theater performers on campus.

He's the president of the Honor Society.

He's one of our head anchors on video production for our ZTV.

So Robert just exemplifies everything it would be to be an involved student kind of inside the classroom and within the school community.

-I'm proud of myself in the fact that I stayed the course, because there was a lot of times where I'm doing schoolwork and I didn't want to do it.

And when the pandemic happened and I didn't want to look on my computer, I woke up every day and my mom was definitely helpful and, you know, turn your camera on.

Just that alone helped me to continue to be engaged.

-Robert is so humble I would say, right?

I mean, he's everything that any student would want to be when it comes to academics and get involved with programs on campus.

He's comfortable being himself.

He knows his core values.

He knows what he believes in, what he's been taught at home, and he exemplifies that on campus with humility, grace and kindness.

He's just one of the most kind and pleasant people on campus.

He's really a star for us here at Durango.

-You know, I've done all these things but getting recognized for it just really meant a lot to me, and it really made me feel like okay, you know, someone sees I've really been doing all this.

-We can't wait to see what is next for you, Robert.

Congratulations.

So you've probably heard of graduating high school with a 4.0.

How about a grade point average that tops 6.0?

That's the GPA for two seniors at Basic Academy.

"It doesn't really define me."

Eighteen-year-old Emma Foster... (Emma Foster) I didn't think it was that big of an achievement.

It just kind of happened just because as you take the advanced classes, it goes higher and higher.

...and 18-year-old Ashley Vasquez Romo have accomplished a lot in their high school careers.

(Ashley Romo) Even though GPA doesn't measure success, GPA does play a factor in getting scholarships and things of that nature.

So I started taking a lot of classes and as I saw my GPA build up it was more motivating, because I just liked watching the numbers climb.

Now it's very high.

Over the past four years, they've taken advanced classes, added online courses, summer school too, and they've got all A's.

-I just love learning, and it's like-- I don't even know.

I just wanted to take the hardest courses, as many as I could.

-It's definitely challenging, but I kind of am here for the challenge, and I know my end goal is to just be successful and achieve excellence, kind of.

High school counselor Darcie Yakubik.

Once the Clark County School District did away with the GPA cap which capped it at-- if you took 12 honors classes and two AP or IB courses, you got a .8 added to your GPA.

That cap is gone so you can take as many as you want, and now they get-- the opportunities are endless.

Which means both Emma and Ashley will graduate with GPAs over 6.0.

Which is the first time that's occurred here at Basic.

Strong academics mean both seniors were accepted into the colleges of their dreams.

I'm so excited to announce that I have accepted and received an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, majoring in mechanical engineering and minoring in a language of some sort.

-Okay, so I'm going to go to Harvard.

I'm going to go to Harvard University, and I'm going to do a major in neuroscience and sociology.

Then I'm still deciding on pre-med or pre-law, but if I do choose pre-med, then eventually I'll become a neurosurgeon.

And if I choose pre-law, then I'll be a judge.

We can't wait to see what they will accomplish in the future.

They're going to do amazing, both of them.

Yes.

-Amazing work, both of you.

Now I'm joined by three additional star graduates.

Thank you guys for being here.

Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself, tell me something that's been really impactful about your high school experience and what you're going to do next.

-My name is Nigel Sherfield.

I've attended all four years of my high school career at Chaparral High School.

And the biggest thing I'd say I take away from high school is staying true to yourself outside of anybody else's expectations or anything they want you to do.

And I plan on going to Morehouse College and attending there.

-What about you, Maya?

Hi, I'm Maya.

I attend Cimarron Memorial High School.

I am going to be attending Johns Hopkins University and majoring in biomedical engineering.

The biggest thing I have to take is the experience and opportunities that I received from our world-known robotics team and just the inspirations that we have from our mentors and our coaches and just the opportunities that we've been given to be good leaders in the STEM community.

-Awesome.

Go ahead.

-My name is Matthew Pama.

I come from West Prep Academy.

I think what I would like to say is to learn from your mistakes, because you can use those mistakes as experience for things that you have to do in the future.

After high school and graduation I plan to go to CSN to study computer engineering in order to be a bench technician and fix computers.

-Awesome.

Thank you and congratulations, you guys.

Maya, is there one piece of advice you would give to someone who's going into their senior year?

-One piece of advice I would give to somebody going into their senior year would be to just be prepared to take it all in and enjoy the last moments of being in grade school.

-Awesome.

And what do you hope to get out of your first year of college?

-Just some good experience in the field that I want to go in, take some work study so I can have some experience.

-Awesome.

Nigel, what do you hope to get out of your first year of college?

-First year of college?

In general, you know, live the life of an actual college student.

Pledge hopefully, get to do all the experiences.

-And Nigel, tell us a little bit about your experience playing basketball.

-Well, it's challenging but everything was nice when you get to be with your teammates in the locker room or in games.

There's no challenge too great when you have your teammates and your brothers standing next to you.

-That is true.

That's very true.

And Maya, you had some challenges to overcome.

Do want to tell us a little bit about that.

-So my sophomore year of high school, I was diagnosed with a form of rare cancer.

And it impacted me but I made sure that didn't stop me from my education.

I let that push me and give me motivation to be a greater example for the other kids at my school.

-I'm happy to hear you did really well.

Matthew, tell us a little about your help with technology.

You like to help people out?

-I love technology; I love it a lot.

See, I would go around and, you know, whenever teachers would put in tickets, IT tickets for technology, I would always try to help them out, you know, get it done as soon as possible.

Try to reassure them, try to teach them how to get better at technology in the future so that, you know, you don't have to help them out every single time.

-Awesome, thank you.

Is there one teacher that you want to thank or say something nice to?

-Mr. Polito.

He's not exactly a teacher, more of our own school technician, but he's helped me out a lot, get more confident in fixing computers.

-Awesome.

Maya, one teacher or someone that you want to say thank you to.

-I'd like to thank just my mentors in general, my coaches, my robotics coaches, for just leading me by example and pushing me to work harder no matter what we're working on.

-Awesome.

And Nigel.

-I want to do the same.

To all my mentors, coaches, teachers I've been through with, shared a lot of time with.

They allowed me to grow as a person, putting me in different leadership positions and just allowing me to learn from them.

-Awesome.

Congratulations, you guys, and best of luck.

(all) Thank you.

Now to Las Vegas Academy of the Performing Arts for our first newsbreak.

-Hi.

My name is Sophia, coming to you from the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts.

-And I'm Marcy.

We're here in the lobby of the Louden Theater where students have their musicals, plays and musical performances.

We're here with your first Student Spotlight Newsbreak.

-The school year is officially over, which means it's time for graduating seniors to don a cap and gown and claim their diplomas.

Graduation ceremonies are scheduled at various locations including Dollar Loan Center Arena, MGM Grand Garden Arena and the Orleans Arena.

Congratulations to all the 2022 graduates.

-And speaking of congratulations, one of CCSD's career and technical academies was named the top magnet school in the country.

The Magnet Schools of America honored Southeast Career and Technical Academy, also known as SECTA, with its most prestigious award for magnet schools, the Dr. Ronald P. Simpson Magnet School of Merit Award of Excellence.

Well done!

-And here's another national recognition, this one for the campus we're standing on.

Las Vegas Academy of the Arts is located at the old Las Vegas High School, and the Las Vegas High School campus is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The listing recognizes the school's architectural significance and its importance to the history of education in Las Vegas.

The first buildings on our campus were constructed in 1930, with the last major building campaign ending in 1971.

-We've got a lot more to tell you about our school, but for now we'll send it back to the Vegas PBS studio.

-Thank you, Las Vegas Academy.

The application process was intensive and the competition is fierce, but seven high school students now make up the first-ever Vegas PBS media crew.

Their mission?

To bring you, the viewers, a young perspective.

We caught up with the crew as they were filming at Silverado High School.

-I'm E.J.

I go to Silverado High School.

I'm a junior, and I'm a part of Vegas PBS media crew.

This media crew is essentially just a group of us teenagers just learning more about filming, and it's just a more hands-on learning experience for all of us.

(Monique Gaudin) We're one of the 12 recipients of the Joan Cooney Gants Foundation grants for next-gen media.

The students have to create four on-air segments.

They have specific topics that are inclusive of the teen and tween voice.

-My name is King David.

I'm a sophomore at Advanced Technologies Academy.

I like to see Vegas PBS as kind of a way to empower young adults, teenagers, right?

To empower teenagers by giving them the power of media so we can use that and help reach and connect with other teenagers our age and help talk to them.

You know, I feel like this is a chance for us to give back.

-My name is Lahana.

I'm a senior at Arbor View High School.

So every one of us, we all do a role.

We all switch off roles, so it's not like we're all stuck on one thing.

We all get experienced on every single role.

It shows what we can do.

Like I said a lot of student work or just student opinions aren't shown, so with this being all student-led and it's going to be on Vegas PBS, it shows that we can do and that we know what we're doing for the most part.

-My name is Joseph.

I'm a senior at A-Tech.

We had to pick people to be on the show, and we ended up gathering a lot of data and statistics for the things that we were going to be talking about on our episode of the show.

It's all honest, nothing is scripted.

I want it to feel like sort of representation, like relatable, definitely relatable, because that's kind of what we're supposed to do.

-It's unchartered territory because the students themselves are controlling the ship.

-We're doing pretty good.

We've only filmed two episodes so far, but we're doing pretty good and I think it's going to turn out really well.

We'll show what we can do for sure.

-It's really cool.

It's a really a nice learning experience just to be outside of my bubble.

-It's really going to help all of us when it comes to new opportunities and new jobs.

-I kind of hope Netflix sees this.

And why do I say Netflix?

I've never been in a shooting setting of any kind; it's my first time.

I just really hope with this experience, it can start pushing me forward more into the right direction so I can really jumpstart my career.

-You can catch the segment "In Your Opinion" starting next month on vegaspbs.org.

He loves hugs and finding drugs.

That's how the CCSD Police Department describes Officer Oreo, one of their canine officers.

Officer Oreo is popular on campuses and on Instagram.

-Hi.

I'm Officer Cooke.

Everybody calls me Officer Cookie.

It's because my last name is Cook with an "e," so Cook-e, and this is my brand new partner, Officer Oreo.

(Lt. Bryan Zink) Oreo is one of our two drug-detecting dogs.

He finds meth, heroin and cocaine.

But we quickly learned because of the dog's personality and the personality of his handler, he quickly became one of our goodwill ambassadors for our department.

(dogs barking) ♪♪♪ (dogs howling) ♪♪♪ Now, at an elementary school, the kids rub him, love him and hug him.

At a middle school, the kids love him, rub him and hug him.

At a high school, they love him, rub him and hug him.

They take lots of pictures and they post them on Instagram, which has kind of led into why Oreo has his own Instagram.

So Officer Oreo's Instagram is "therealofficeroreo."

-Officer Cooke approached us and said hey, can I run with this?

And we're like sure, why not?

Let's see what happens.

And everywhere he goes, he picks up followers.

He has more followers than our actual department does on Instagram.

-And I never would have had an Instagram if it wasn't for him, but I had a lot of kids that said well, what does his car look like and where does he live, and does he live in your house?

Officer Oreo is not my pet, he's my partner.

So in my effort to explain that to kids, I was like okay, let me create him an Instagram, and then it just kind of grew and grew.

So everywhere we go, everyone knows Oreo.

-We've easily found that with that and canine over the past few years, it makes our officers 100% more approachable, and in today's world where social media is how most people get their information or they look for things, having Oreo on Instagram has just been a huge success.

-Kids nowadays are very social media driven, and I'm amazed that when I go to an elementary school and I walk in, kids are going Officer Oreo, Officer Oreo, and I'm like you guys are too young to have Instagram.

No, my mom follows you or my uncle follows you or my big sister who goes to high school follows you.

It kind of gave me a way to be able to connect throughout the valley.

-Again, you can find Officer Oreo on Instagram at "therealofficeroreo."

Clark County School District's 18,000 teachers do so much for students all year long.

During the first week of May, we had the chance to celebrate them during Teacher Appreciation Week.

Check out some of the big ways the community rallied around our educators.

♪♪♪ (Mia Greenely) We're visiting a bunch of different schools around CCSD celebrating our teachers, showing how much we appreciate them.

(Angela Pajak) It's so key to make sure that we highlight the work they do day in and day out with our students.

♪♪♪ (Tara Doetch) Our educators are the backbone.

They are going to produce great people that come out to our community that are going to be the opportunity for our kids to thrive.

(Elizabeth Bybee) They just need to be recognized, and I think it's good for our community to grow.

♪♪♪ On behalf of the Henderson Silver Knights, you have been nominated as Teacher of the Week.

(Becky Fullington) It's the teachers, it's the staff of schools that really put in the work in communities to bring up future generations.

So it's so important for us with our platform, with our pedestal as sporting teams to go out and show our support.

-I come here for these kids every single day, and I'm so grateful to come here.

(Todd Petersen) Any opportunity that we get to say thank you and congratulations to our teachers is something that we're going to absolutely do every single time.

-I think we know why, because so many students in this class entered the contest.

I think that might be why.

♪♪♪ (Maria Deweerdt) We really give our hearts and souls to our children every single day, and to get a little recognition goes a long way.

♪♪♪ Thank you to every single educator.

We appreciate you.

Now it's time to head back to Las Vegas Academy for our second newsbreak.

-Hey, I'm Carson.

We are currently in Las Vegas Academy of the Arts' Black Box Theater where students perform shows, showcases and musical performances throughout the year.

-And I'm Cebu here in our vocational building at the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts.

We're here with your second newsbreak.

-Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, or LVA, is one of the premiere arts magnet schools in the nation serving just over 1,700 students from all over the Las Vegas Valley.

LVA students can pursue a conservatory major in the areas of dance, music, theater or visual arts.

-LVA is a 12-time Grammy in the Schools recipient, and you may recognize the names of some of our famous alumni like...

But we're not just a school for the arts.

We have many clubs and activities as well; for example, we have a robotics team and a student council, which recently just earned the 2022 National Gold Council of Excellence.

And one thing you may not know about our school is that we have a 99-plus percent graduation rate every year for the past six years and some of the highest AP scores in the country.

-Thank you for visiting Las Vegas Academy of the Arts.

I've had a wonderful four years here, and you don't want to miss out on any of the performances we're doing next year.

I'm going to send it back to Vegas PBS studios.

-Thank you, Las Vegas Academy, for helping us with this month's newsbreaks.

Now to Booker Elementary School where we find two champions from last month's Native Son Spelling Bee, held annually in West Las Vegas.

Eight elementary schools in the 89106 zip code compete.

Meet the third and fifth grade winners.

(Leonardo Ortega) The reason why I wanted to get involved is because it was just for fun at first, but then when they told me they were having a big one, I got really nervous.

So I practiced, and that's it.

I practiced.

I did it good, and that's it.

I just kept on practicing every day until it came.

(Britany Murillo) I was really nervous at first when they called me, and I thought since I was nervous, I thought my nervous will take over and I wouldn't be able to say the word, like spell the word out.

But I wanted to try something new so I decided to try it, and it worked.

(Rev.

Kelcey West) We host spelling bees in these schools.

The kids that qualify in the first through third rounds automatically qualify for the finals.

So before we get to the final round, we have already hosted 24 spelling bees in those eight particular schools.

It's a love of learning, it's self-esteem.

It brings the family together, it brings the community together.

When you look up and you have the community cheering for all the spellers, it's like okay, that's why we're here.

(Samantha Bermudez) Spelling really does help the students develop their reading and writing skills.

It really starts from those foundational skills.

If they know how to spell, they are going to be better readers and better writers, and that's what we want.

We want to develop a really strong foundation in literacy.

-I mean, I've never won something like that, and everybody was really happy and everyone was proud of me.

They were clapping, and I was happy.

-At first I thought oh, look at all these kids.

They're so much better than me.

But when I realized that I won, I was happy.

♪♪♪ -The Native Son Spelling Bee is named after a bookstore that used to be located in the Historic Westside.

You can learn more about the competition at nativesonspellingbee.com.

At many CCSD campuses, students have an opportunity to watch lessons and seeds bloom as part of the Green Our Planet program.

Bryan Callahan shows us how for some students, developing their green thumb is helping teach them lessons that go beyond the garden.

The Green Our Planet Student Farmers Market is something Clark County School District students across the valley look forward to every year.

This year the student farmers market took over Downtown Summerlin, giving community members a chance to taste the fruits and vegetables of CCSD students' hard work.

(Angel Terry) This is fun, seeing how people react to the things you have.

The event is a chance for elementary and middle school students to show off how and what they have grown in the school gardens.

Items for sale include fresh fruit and vegetables as well as unique crafts.

We have kale, lettuce and some other stuff like herbs.

The dozens of school gardens throughout CCSD provide a unique opportunity to teach students the importance of caring for our planet as well as the science behind growing the food we eat.

(Kimberli Griffin) This is the first year for us doing it, so it gave my kids opportunity to see other kids and their garden, what they're growing.

For some Roundy Elementary students, the farmers market provided more than an opportunity to harvest the crop from the garden, it gave them a chance to practice classroom lessons as well.

(Tatum Fain) "I really loved seeing the people, "and it was so fun to look at "all the decorations and people watch."

Several Roundy students who are deaf or hard of hearing got to show off their blossoming personalities to the community as they sold their kale, chamomile and beets.

(Leah Hiller) They were learning a lot, learning how to communicate with the people out in public.

When the students weren't busy selling their wares, they got a chance to do shopping of their own and make some new friends.

"Some of the kids did really cool rocks "and different animals."

Just awesome.

Before we go, we want to give you a heads-up about The Great Vegas Recipe.

It's a new Vegas PBS digital series featuring culinary students from various CCSD high schools cooking their favorite recipes with Chef Martin Yan.

We can't wait to watch these students in the kitchen with a celebrity chef.

Keep your eye out for episodes on the Vegas PBS website this summer.

That does it for this edition of Student Spotlight and the 2021-22 school year.

It went fast.

We love shining the spotlight on all students and staff who make the Clark County School District number one for kids.

A reminder that you can watch this episode and past episodes of Student Spotlight on the Vegas PBS website.

Have a great summer, and we'll see you next school year.

♪♪♪