By Shan Yonamine

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An impromptu assembly held in the MHS gymnasium on March 28 proved that hard work doesn’t always go unnoticed. The purpose of the gathering was to recognize MHS’ advanced placement (AP) teachers, while also specifically honoring AP Psychology teacher Judy Taparra with a trip to the House of Representatives for her students’ exceptional AP test statistics.

“She puts a lot of effort into what she does. She sees every kid as a potential scholar and treats them individually and
works with them until they get it,” stated Principal Fred Murphy, who was contacted by the House of Representatives in February in
regards to honoring Taparra.

This decision, however, was kept secretup to the day of the assembly. It wasn’t until the very end that Taparra was informed of her achievement. “I’m speechless,” she stated upon receiving the news.“She loves her job, she spends a lot of time (working),” added her husband Anthony Taparra, who was present to watch
his wife’s honoring.

Individually, Judy Taparra is responsible for 10.6 percent, approximately one third, of the 33.16 percentof the total passed AP tests credited to MHS. But passing
students isn’t Judy Taparra’s main objective. “Working with the AP students and seeing them, I think all levels of the student and seeing them trying to, whether they passed the test or not that they survived my class that, that to me is so inspiring,” she explained.

In spite of the award, Judy Taparra attributes much of her success to her students. “They work really hard,” she said, “Students are the best people to work with, they never grumble. They always just do, you know, what is asked of them, they’re awesome.”After the completion ofthe assembly, Judy Taparra was whisked away to prepare for her meeting with the House of Representatives later that day where she received a framed resolution and was accompanied onstage by Murphy, her husband and her parents.

However, the assembly was not solely to honor Judy Taparra. It was also used as an opportunity to recognize all of the AP teachers and celebrate the strong presence of AP at MHS. “One third of the entire state’s total of passing AP exams comes from this school when we’re only one twentieth of the entire population,” stated Murphy, who attributes much of MHS’ success to former principal Dr. John Brummel, current District Superintendent for the North Side, as well as Vice Principal Jim Petersen.
“Petersen had the vision and (Brummel) put the support behind that vision and that combination has been a winning combination,” stated Murphy, “It’s not easy to
channel resources before students arrived, so to speak, and that’s basically what they did in those early days, they allowed some classes to be very small and they nurtured them to become larger.”

Though MHS has already made it onto the Washington Post’s “2012 High School Challenge Index” for being one of the nation’s best college preparatory schools, it is the school’s hope through continual perseverance of the staff that the curriculum will continue to expand and accommodate for more AP classes and more passing scores.