The Highline High School Alumni Foundation is a non profit organization founded in 1995 that helps generate funding to provide scholarship opportunities for Highline High School students and complete special projects at the High School. The Foundation has sponsored over $500,000 in scholarships since its inception.
The Foundation greatly appreciates the generous support from its alumni and friends and hopes to continue to generate additional scholarships of greater magnitude with your help in the future. In addition to providing academic support, the Foundation also provides a communication link for alumni and friends to find important events and activities connected with Highline High School.Go Pirates!
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"Highline High School and the Burien community are fortunate to have such a hard working, committed Alumni Foundation supporting our students through a variety of recognition and award programs." -- Mike Fosberg, Former HHS Principal and Alum
Information At Your Fingertips
REVIEW THE ........
Scholarship section for names and pictures of scholarship award winners
Whats New section for current and past events
Athletic Hall of Fame section to see if any former classmates or coaches
have made the ring of honor
Alumni Soundings section to review the yearly Alumni Soundings newsletters.
Alumnus of the Year section to appreciate the extraordinary efforts of some
very special contributors to the success of Highline High School and the Alumni Foundation.
Membership section to join the Foundation.
Lifetime Members and Current Donor Lists - for our great Alumni that continue to fund more scholarships every year!
Contribute Now Tab - to use our safe Ecommerce page to make internet donations to the Foundation!
2017 Membership Drive Results
141 One Year Members
29 New Lifetime Members
Total 2017 Member Donations = $22,080
Thank you for your generous donations for HHS Scholarships
Introducing Our New 2018 Scholarship Recipients
Front Row, L-R Noel Rodriguez, Tramy Nguyen, Kim Ha, Haylee Beckham, Caitlynn Rahal Middle Row, L-R Valerie Tran, Emmanuel Cruz Soria, Maria Arevalo Martinez, Minh Tu Huynh, Christine Nguyen, Michelle Lopez, Cathy Nguyen, Dennise Lopez Sanchez, Tsion Hailu Back Row L-R Cesar Lopez, Ingrid Perce, Christian Hagler, Anita Chung, Nghi Lam, Erendira Mercado, Precious Gonzalez, Leann Barnes Not present: Daniel Villalon-Tinoco
Highline High School Alumni Foundation Awards 23 Scholarships for $67,000!
Article By B-Town Blog Writer Shelly Voie
On Sunday evening, June 10, the Highline High School Alumni Foundation awarded over $67,000 in scholarships to 23 graduating seniors of Highline High School. Families, alumni, staff, and honorees celebrated the students’ awards and accomplishments at the Highline ERAC Building.
Foundation President Gary Korsgaard (Class of 1964) opened the evening with Pirate pride about how much the program has grown since 1995, when it awarded just a single $500 scholarship.
Scholarship chair Patti Burgess (Class of 1950) shared a story about the namesake of the first scholarship, “a very precious teacher” named Harry Lemon. Mr. Lemon taught music and biology at HHS and later taught at Camp Waskowitz. While teaching names of trees and plants, he would joke with Waskowitz students, “I know you’ve heard of a fuzzy peach, but you probably haven’t heard of a hairy lemon!” Burgess then introduced the 2018 Harry E. Lemon Scholarship recipient, Ingrid Perce, and continued by highlighting information about each scholarship, its sponsor, and its winner.
New this year is the Tom Sawyer AVID Scholarship, which is named for a former principal. Its recipient, Erendira Mercado, said “AVID has been really helpful. They helped me pay for three SATs and the ACT.” AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to closing the achievement gap by preparing all students for college and other postsecondary opportunities. In Highline, AVID is an elective class that students can join in middle and high school.
When asked what they liked about HHS, some students answered the spirit, the people, the diversity, and those “who are trying to change the stigma of going to Highline High School,” explaining that the run-down building doesn’t represent the high quality of the students and teachers in it.
More than one student thanked Sydney Williams, HHS College and Career Access Specialist, for her invaluable help with college and scholarship applications.
University of Washington Seattle is the favorite choice of the graduates, with Western Washington University, Gonzaga University, Pomona College, Stanford University, Pacific Lutheran University, Colorado College, and George Fox University rounding out the list.
The Foundation’s annual golf tournament funds some of the scholarships. Alumni and staff (living or passed), family members, and BECU round out the remainder of the donors and scholarship namesakes.
The 2018 Highline High School Alumni Foundation Scholarship recipients are:
Mike Walsh Sponsors Four Schloarships Including New Donald Burger Future Technology Award
Front Row: L-R Leann Barnes (Donald Bunger Future Technology Scholarship), Caitlynn Rahal, Nghi Lam, Noel Rodriguez (Walsh Family Scholarships)
Back Row: Sponsor Mike Walsh
Highline High School Alumni Foundation Board Members
Introducing Our Current Board Members:
President – Gary Korsgaard 1964
Vice President - Joanne Bakken Pease 1970
Treasurer - Scott Salzer 1971
Secretary - Martha Brock 1958
Member At Large - Sally Newton 1970, Tricia Anderson 1977
Alumni Soundings Coordinator – Michele Ham Miller 1978
Golf Day – Kevin Ostic 1971, Larry Olson 1960
Scholarships - Patti Burgess 1950, Tricia Anderson 1977
Membership - Cathy Low 1967
Website - Kevin Ostic 1971
Facebook Manager – Marc Anderson 1972
Athletic Hall of Fame – Howard Call 1957
Introducing Our 2017 Scholarship Recipients
The Highline High School Alumni Foundation awarded over $60,000 in scholarships to Pirate seniors this year. Here are this year’s recipients, honored June 4, 2017:
Top row, left to right:Joey Swim-Balcom (English Department Scholarship), Amir Shazaad (Uli & Gayle Chi Mathematics), David Dinh (Nancy Tully Memorial—Business), Chelsi Haskins (Music), Kathleen Silvernale (Dick Dahlgard Visual Arts), Jenna Wydick (R. & L. Walsh), Benji Box (Harry E. Lemon Memorial), and Carson Torres (McEachern Family Fine Arts).
Middle Row, left to right:Miriam Alkorashy (Emily Nishimura Herod), Lauren Powers (Donald Bunger, Future Technology), Tara Nester (Anex Brothers—Basil, George, & Robert, Science), Alyda Marincovich (Patti Burgess Future Teacher), Natalie Ha (Steve & Candy Eyler-Irwin), Rasha Barem (Social Studies), and Madison Hall-Lambert (Dr. Alan Gunsul).
Front row, left to right:Dominic Quiroz (Turn-around), Jason Luna-Posadas (Patti Burgess Future Teacher), Stephanie Menka (R. & L. Walsh), Katherine Montenegro-Blandon (R. & L. Walsh), and Tseyon Nurilegn (Mavis Luksan).Not pictured:Debbie Acheampong (Mavis Luksan), Miquela Wallace (Turn-around), and Nayeli Quiroz-Torres (World Languages).
Photo by Marc Anderson.
Introducing Our 2016 Scholarship Recipients
The winners and their scholarships are, left to right in the top row. Kayla Brower (Turnaround Scholarship); Rachel Brazil (English Department); Saint Williams (The Turnaround); Joe Kenta Niizuma (Donald Bunger Future Technology); Hansol Kim (Emily Nishimura Herod); Carissa Merkel (McEachern Family Fine Arts); Allen Braun (Uli & Gayle Chi Mathematics); Robert Bilic (Social Studies); Han Luc (Nancy Tully Memorial Business).
In the middle row left to right are Rachael Tang (Dr. Alan Gunsul Scholarship); Karina Marroquin (World Language Department); Celestina Adu (Mavis Lukson); Rachel Myers (Patti Burgess Future Teacher); Nomandeep Kaur (The Anex Brothers (Basil George, & Robert) Science Department); Trang Minh Khuc (Roger & Linda Walsh); Ailed Gomez (Roger & Linda Walsh); and Som Subba (Roger & Linda Walsh).
In the front row left to right are Gavin Mosier (Mavis Lukson Schoarship); Jose Bermudez (Music Department); Lodrigo Omar (Harry E. Lemon Memorial); and Yohannesabeb Belay (Dick Dahlgard Visual Arts).
2015 Scholarship Recipients
The Highline High School Alumni Association has awarded 21scholarships worth over $50,000 to 2015 graduating seniors at the Burien school.
The winners and their scholarships are, left to right in the top row. Olivia Beckham (Uli & Gayle Chi Mathematics), Julissa Gallegos (Donald Bunger Future Technology), Yusuf Ali-Halane (World Language Department), Citlaly Ramirez (Roger & Linda Walsh), Jacob Hines (Mavis Lukson), Hai Quang Le (Harry E. Lemon), Fredy Galpani (Roger & Linda Walsh), Nizama Djuderija (English Department) and Sydney Williams, Highline High college and career access specialist.
In the second row are Rodha Sheikh (Social Studies Department), Katie Gatto (Emily Nishimura Herod), Faith Todd (Science Department), Shelbianne Figgins (McEachern Family Fine Art), Cassidi Young (Roger & Linda Walsh), Diana Algomeda-Villada(Dr. Alan Gunsul), and Adanech Makey (Mavis Lukson).
In the front row are Jonathan Soledad (Dick Dahlgard Photography), Kodie Frankele (Patti Burgess Future Teacher), Kyle Pitz (Music Department) and Kelvin Herbruger (Nancy Tully Memorial Business Department).
Not pictured: Tajinique Ruffin (The Turnaround) and Alexiz Gomez (The Turnaround).
2014 Scholarship Award Winners
Photo by Eric Mathison/Highline Times
Winners of the 2014 Highline High School Alumni Association scholarships were honored at a reception on June 8.
In the back row, from left, are Andrea Mandt, Harry Schwendemann, Jonathan Mantello, Disney Vorng, Patricia Ruelas-Tejeda, Daisy Cortez-Arevalo, Ben Myers and Kamal DeCampos.
In the front row are Langh Mang, Hanbit Kim, Ashleen Kumar, Alyxis Burks, Thais Pedro-Trujillo and Hoda Ibrahim.
Not pictured are Dario Castellon, Khaliq Shahzaad, Dominique Thomas-McCollum and Elizama Aguilar.
Michael Walsh & Parents with HHS Scholarship Recipients
The Alumni Foundation wishes to thank Michael Walsh again for contributing in 2016 to retain each scholarship at $3,000. This comes on the back of an unprecedented matching donation from the Highline grad in excess of $20,000.
After having a great business year and long lasting memory of how his parents helped fund their children's college studies, Michael was interested in providing others the same opportunity to begin their college, professional, or vocational training. This was a tremendous opportunity for the Alumni Foundation to double the amount of donations given by our Alumni and friends!
Michael's generosity along with your contributions allowed the Foundation to increase our scholarships from $2,500 to $3,000. In addition to this increase, we opened up new scholarships in honor of Mike's parents, Roger and Linda Walsh, both HHS graduates themselves. This enabled the HHS Foundation to award 20 scholarships for a total of $60,000!
Exceptional thanks to our Lifetime Foundation Members and all contributors who have generously provided funding to support scholarship grants for Highline High School graduates!
The Alumni Foundation is always searching for new volunteers for: Alumni Foundation Officers, Community Service Support, Newsletter Articles, and Alumni Class Representatives. If you live in the area and are interested in keeping your class in touch with the Alumni Foundation, contact Michele (Ham) Miller at memill59@comcast.net or Kevin Ostic at dawgpa@msn.com
Most Recent Web Update -June 20th 2018 - Website Developed & Published by Kevin Ostic ( Class of 1971)
Highline Alumni Facebook Manager - Marc Anderson (Class of 1972)
Annual Newletter Production Coordinator - Michele (Ham) Miller - 2016 Edition Published March 21st, 2016
