Honors, Awards & Recognition

In May 2025, many instrumental music students, taught by Ms. Jones, were accepted into honors groups.

Leah Mollner was accepted into the California All-State Honor Band.

Eily Bowser, Leah Mollner, and Benji Karpoukhin were accepted into the Southern California School Band & Orchestra Association (SCSBOA) Honor Band

Eily Bowser, Ulyana Kurylovich, Leah Mollner, and Finn Williams were selected to perform with the Los Angeles Secondary Music Teachers Association Honor Band, with rehearsals and a concert in Huntington Park.

Laaon Choi and Chris Gurdal were selected to perform with the LAUSD Honor Orchestra at the LAUSD Arts Fest.

Palms Middle School's instrumental music program received a grant from Save the Music.

Save the Music provides grants to hep schools  to build their in-school music education programs.

In April 2025, Palms 7th grader Porche Brinker performed with legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma at LAUSD's musical instrument repair shop, as featured in the Oscar-winning documentary short "The Last Repair Shop."

The event was covered by the Los Angeles Times, which reported that Porche had watched videos of Ma playing cello and quoted her as saying "Now that I’ve played with professionals before, I’m a little less scared."

In February 2025, Aerial Panthers, the Palms drone team, in its first-ever competition, won the Aerial Drone Competition for All Around Champion Middle School by the REC Foundation at Hilda Solis Senior High School in Boyle Heights.

In December 2024, art by two Palms students was chosen by LAUSD for its annual holiday card.

The card cover art was by Palms 6th grader Jamisen Coats.

The side cover art was by Palms 8th grader Jenna Coats.

In April 2024, Palms students participated in the 2024 Science Fair, winning a number of awards.

Results:

• Grand Prize winner: Joshua Gupta-Pontius
• President’s Award: Isabel Gudino
• Special 10 Year Anniversary Award for Sustainability: Aanya Khattar
• 2024 Sticker Design: Aanya Khattar
• Honorable Mention: Arva Parikh
• Honorable Mention: Julia Grzegoczyk

Awards:

• Most Creative: Reese Manuel
• Most Innovative: Lexi Kampa
• Most Aesthetic: Darlene Santiago
• Most Unique: Aditi Kumar

In April 2024, Palms students Lexi Lee, McGreggor Roberts, Matthew Lopez-Vega, and Christopher Vasquez won first place in the "Walk in our Shoes" category of the annual state-wide Directing Change film contest.

Their film, on the theme of suicide prevention, was titled “The Light in the Darkness.”

They earned a $500 award and a trophy for the school, awarded at the May 2024 ceremony in downtown Los Angeles.

6th grader Pratim Rajesh won the SCRIPPS Spelling Bee competition at Palms in January 2024.

In March 2024, Pratim represented Palms at the Regional West Spelling Bee competition, finishing in 2nd place.

"The Last Repair Shop," a documentary about a repair shop for school instruments, featured two Palms students. You can watch the documentary, in which the repair shop workers tell their individual stories and one Palms student is interviewed, at latimes.com.

When the film won an Oscar for Best Documentary Short, Palms 6th grade violinist Porché Brinker (shown below) accompanied filmmakers Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers to the Dolby Theatre stage. About 20 million people watched the telecast.

Palms students took a field trip Westchester High School for a screening of the film. The filmmakers were privately funded professionals who worked with LAUSD to make the film.

Palms 7th grader Robin Cunningham and Palms 8th graders Cybelle Rivera-Guzman and Alex Ruiz were selected as finalists in the annual Día de Los Muertos art contest sponsored by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses.

There were about 1000 entries, 16 of them from Palms Middle School.

Robin Cunningham

Cybelle Rivera-Guzman

Alex Ruiz

The Motivating Minds Club was created by Palms students Mia Rubalcava, Katalin (Katie) Rison, and Isabella Morales in the 2022-2023 school year.

The LAUSD Office of Human Relations, Diversity & Equity selected Mia, Katie, and Isabella as recipients of a Human Relations Student Leadership Award!

Mia Rubalcava, Katie Rison, and Iliana Morales

In June 2023, three 7th graders from Palms won the first-ever LAUSD Level Up! Minecraft Competition, beating other middle school teams as well as high school teams, totaling almost 800 students throughout the school district. They competed through two playoff rounds before wining the championship. The contest challenged LAUSD students to design safe, connected, equitable, resilient, and sustainable communities.

In May 2023, a Palms 7th grader won recognition and a Barnes & Noble gift card while placing 3rd in an essay contest run by the Dr. Barbara Seniors Harkins Foundation.

The contest asked students this question:

Imagine that you could give advice to someone—it could be someone you know personally, a historical figure, or a famous person living today. Write an essay that identifies the person and the advice you would give. Choose a familiar subject so that you can provide details and explain why this person needs your advice.

Palms and Hamilton Robotics students

In January 2023, two teams of Palms students in the Robotics elective, taught by Ms. Czujko, demonstrated their engineering, leadership, and teamwork skills at their First Tech Challenge (FTC) qualifying tournament.

Both teams emerged victorious while competing against middle and high school teams.

• The "Cyber Knights" team earned the 3rd highest award at the competition, the Connect Award, for strongly networking with the local STEM community.
• "Team Hydra" was ranked 3rd place, and advanced to the 2nd place alliance to compete in the semi-finals.
  
  Team Hydra invited Hamilton High School to team up. After sweeping their competitors, Team Hydra advanced to the final round, earning them 2nd place in the robot game.
  
  Team Hydra was even prouder to be named the first runner up for the Inspire Award, which is the highest honor and top award given at an FTC tournament. The judges recognized the team’s ability to balance robot engineering and performance with community service, outreach efforts, team identity, and gracious professionalism.

In December 2022, the LAUSD Superintendent created a holiday card for the LAUSD community, using artwork by LAUSD students. The featured art was by Palms 8th grader  Zara Syed.

The card also featured art by four other Palms art students of Ms. Goldin:

7th grader Phaedra Lindner:

8th grader Marissa Martinez:

6th grader Sarai Van Ert:

7th grader Raleigh St. Claire Hill:

Congratulations to our fantastic art students!

In September 2022, the Wende Museum in Culver selected flags designed by nine of Ms. Goldin's art students to be part of a flag installation at the museum.

The Wende's Flag For Our Times Competition challenged students to create an original flag design representing dreams for a brighter future or one’s vision of a utopia.

The selected Palms students were:

• Namkha Drolma
• Daniel Huang
• Samia Kilpatrick
• Phaedra Lindner
• Aanya Khatter
• Brenda Martinez
• Zara Syed
• Mya Umar
• Sacha Wiley

The Wende's The Medium is the Message: Flags and Banners exhibition combined Cold War-era political, ornamental flags from communist countries with contemporary artworks offering critical reflections on the here and now.

Students from the Video Production elective, taught by Mrs. Clark, won 10 awards at this year’s Directing Change Mental Health and Suicide Prevention film competition and the monthly Hope and Justice film competition.

In the Mental Health category, they were competing against 700 submissions from middle schools throughout California. In the Hope and Justice category, they were competing against both middle school and high school students.

Each film crew consisted of 2 to 6 students, representing quite a few of our Modern Media and Communications Magnet students!

Hope and Justice category

• Finally There by Riley Trosclair and Kennedy Saunders - 2nd place tie

• Pledge To Mental Health by Angelica Cole, Christian Valdez, Shelliece Coleman, and Jesse Rivas - Honorable Mention

• Finding Hope by J. Vasquez, S. Guzman, A. Mendoza, J. Sutherland, and S. Nolasco - Honorable Mention

• Choose Hope by Kayley Zargar, Katjah Gayley, Baran Ahmadvand, and Ariel Feld - Honorable Mention

TAKE Action for Mental Health category

• Light At the End of a Tunnel by Darnell Russell, Imanuel Garr, and Langston Notto-Bennett - 3rd place tie

• Speaking on Mental Health by S. Johnson, C. Harris, R. Gray, N Fuentes, M. Sokai, and J. Austin - 3rd place tie

Walk in Our Shoes - What is Mental Health & Words Matter category

• “The Hardest Part of Getting Help” by Kiran Eyre and crew - 5th place

• “Reality” by Siyam San Juan Pascual and crew in the Walk in Our Shoes - What is Mental Health & Words Matter category - Honorable Mention

Walk in Our Shoes - The Superhero In Each of Us category

• “A New Light” by Darnell Russell and crew - Honorable Mention

• “Start Being There” by Riley Trosclair and crew - Honorable Mention

Finally There from Directing Change on Vimeo.

Winning video by Riley Trosclair and Kennedy Saunders

In April 2022, Palms students from the Video Production elective, taught by Mrs. Clark, won ten awards at the annual Directing Change Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Film Competition and the monthly Hope and Justice Film Competition.

In the Mental Health category they were competing against 700 submissions from middle school throughout California. In the Hope and Justice category they were competing against both middle school and high school students.

Each film crew consisted of 2 to 6 students, representing quite a few of the Modern Media and Communications Magnet students.

In March 2021, students in the Palms Modern Media and Communications Magnet swept the awards in the monthly Directing Change California Hope and Justice contest.

First place (winner of $300):

“Hope is Contagious” by Uleses Henderson and Kinidi Curl

Second place (winner of $150):

“When It All Seems Hopeless” by Baron Ellis

Third place (winner of $100):

“Hopeful, Healthy Happy Cookies” by Sara Rocha

Three other entries by Palms students won Honorable Mention awards:

“The Silver Lining” by Samantha Hartmann and Ieva Arnold

“Find the Rainbow” by Madison Fujioka

“Finding Hope” by Diana Hernandez

In April 2021, students In the Palms Modern Media and Communications Magnet won seven awards in the annual Directing Change California film contest.

First place in the Words Matter category (winner of $500):

“Online Dangers: The Power of Our Words” by Baron Ellis, Shayaan Hyder, and Yossi Lazaro Cruz

Blue Shield of California published an article about Baron's video.

First place in the Superhero in Each of Us category (winner of $500):

“Help Equals Hope” by Samantha Hartmann, Ieva Arnold, and Margot Madeira

Third place in the What is Mental Health category (winner of $250):

“A Simple Hi” by Uleses Henderson, Traydell Wilson, Lennox Bradford, and Shane Hines

Two entries by Palms students won Honorable Mention awards in the What is Mental Health category:

“A Quiet Insecure Mindset” by Kinidi Curl, Victoria Toovi, and Zinnia Woods

"Listen Close" by Sara Rocha, Diana Hernandez, Gabriella Daza, and Aaliyah Martinez

Two entries by Palms students won Honorable Mention awards in the Superhero in Each of Us category:

“Making a Friend” by Lincoln Elbert and Arel Kotzen

“Call for Help” by Seanna Coleman, Kennedy Pitts, and Lauren Richard

In December 2020, Mrs. Clark, an English, Speech, and Video Production teacher in the Palms Modern Media and Communications Magnet, was honored by the Los Angeles Clippers with a Teacher Appreciation Award and certificate, for her "hard work and dedication to students."

Mrs. Clark was asked "What advice would you give young Clippers fans in regards to the importance of education?" Her answer was "Life is an education. We learn most from what we think is difficult. See it in a positive light, as a challenge, and then work hard to meet and beat that challenge."