Forty graduating seniors from across the greater Tri-Cities area with career aspirations ranging from business and finance to STEM and law recently received $230,000 in scholarships from a long-running academic program. 

The Hispanic Academic Achievers Program, or HAAP, held its annual awards ceremony on April 24 at the HAPO Center in Pasco. The program honors Hispanic students that maintain a 3.0 grade-point average or greater beginning in fourth grade. More than 8,500 students met that standard for the 2025-26 school year, according to a HAAP release. 

Scholarship award winners hailed from the following high schools: Chiawana, Columbia (Burbank), Connell, Hanford, Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, Southridge and Tri-Cities Prep. 

This year’s top scholarship recipient was Noé Lima Ponce of Pasco’s Chiawana High School, who received $10,000. Beyond holding a 3.95 GPA and being on the cusp of earning an associate degree at Columbia Basin College through the Running Start program, Noé also is a student representative on the Pasco School Board and interns in a dual language elementary classroom. He aspires to be the state’s first Latino Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

He plans to attend University of Washington and major in educational studies.