Desert Hills High School is pleased to announce an exciting college scholarship opportunity, “The Leona Promise,” available to our students!

Desert Hills is offering a $1,000 annual college scholarship to any student attending DHHS for four years. This scholarship, renewable for four years up to a maximum amount of $4,000, is open to any qualifying students who graduate from Desert Hills and attend an approved post-secondary program, four-year college or university. Students must be continuously enrolled at Desert Hills High School from 9^th through 12^th grades.

For more information on this scholarship opportunity and qualification requirements, contact the DHHS front office at 480-813-1151.

The event was deemed a great success, according to Fawn Eaton, Academic and Career Center Director and the organizer of the event, which drew more than 250 people to the Gilbert campus.

“We were extremely pleased that so many colleges and vocational schools sent representatives to the Extravaganza,” said Ms. Eaton. “Our goal each year is to give students as much information as possible about their post-high school opportunities, so that they can make informed decisions about their futures.”

The Extravaganza featured representatives from Arizona State University, Chandler-Gilbert Community College, Pima Medical Institute, Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, ITT Technical Institute, Grand Canyon University and DeVry Institute.

Also in attendance were officials from Brookline College, Everest College, The American Institute of Dental Assisting, Rio Salado College, Carrington College and Mesa Community College, among other institutions.

Much has changed for Travis Largent, a Northern Arizona University student and military veteran, since he graduated from Desert Hills High School in 2005.

After graduating, Largent followed his passion to serve his country with the U.S. Army, and was deployed halfway around the world in Afghanistan.

 In Afghanistan, he found the adventure he was looking for, and also found himself in consistent danger. He ended his tour in a harrowing firefight that left him with three bullet wounds and a collapsed lung, bleeding and waiting for more than 30 hours for the medical transport that would ultimately take him to safety.

 ”We were in a five vehicle convoy, and we were ambushed,” Largent says of the attack, which occurred in January 2008 in Ibrahim, some 50 kilometers south of Kandahar, near the border with Pakistan. “We were under fire and being attacked on two sides. And because of the narrow terrain, we couldn’t back up.”

Largent was leaning out of an Army Humvee and firing, when he felt “heat” in his chest. “I had been shot three times in the side.”

Eventually, the convoy moved to relative safety, but Largent’s troubles were far from over.

“A medic was treating me, and we were waiting for a medivac to come in,” he says. “The medic said he had 36 hours worth of blood for me – after that, there was nothing left. I ended up waiting 34 hours for the medivac to arrive.”

Largent spent two months recuperating in Germany, and was sent at his request back to his unit. He ultimately was awarded the Bronze Star for valor.

Now, back in the U.S., married and studying at NAU, Largent, 22, says his experience in Afghanistan motivated him to become a classroom teacher.

After completing his coursework, he hopes to return to Desert Hills to undertake his student teaching.

“What I saw in Afghanistan were a lot of young men who were uneducated. And because they were uneducated, they were able to be manipulated,” he says.

“I saw the importance of education,” Largent says. “And I wanted to make a difference.”

The DHHS Green House, built in conjunction with Glendale Community College and other sponsors, is being established as an addition to Desert Hills’ Land Lab and will be operated by the school’s Department of Science and Agriculture and FFA program.

The grand opening was a family event, and featured pumpkin carving, face painting, a pie eating contest, a petting zoo and pony and hay rides.

For more information, contact the Desert Hills front office, at 480-813-1151.

It may be surprising to learn that “honor killings” are not uncommon in the United States. But first, what do they mean by an “honor killing?” In Iraq, and many other Middle Eastern countries, it is acceptable for fathers to kill their daughters, or husbands to kill their wives, if they feel that the women are disgracing the family’s honor. In the case of Noor Almaleki, her father felt she was becoming too “westernized,” or too “American” – a typical rebellious teenager. Friends of Noor insist that she rarely spoke of her dreaded home life, but they knew she was not happy with her overbearing father. She struggled with her strict family’s traditions.

It must have been difficult for Noor to be surrounded by peers who lived carefree, American teenage lives while she was limited to stiff traditions. We here in the United States sometimes fail to realize the enormous blessings that we are bestowed with through our freedom. It is stories like Noor Almaleki’s that should remind us to count our blessings.