{"id":131750,"date":"2026-06-03T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-high-school-grad-appointed-to-naval-academy\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T15:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:30:00","slug":"montezuma-cortez-high-school-grad-appointed-to-naval-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-high-school-grad-appointed-to-naval-academy\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez High School grad appointed to Naval Academy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez High School graduate Cory Carver has been appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy. (Courtesy of Jennifer Boniface)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A Montezuma-Cortez High School graduate will attend the U.S. Naval Academy and continue his baseball career at the Division I level after earning one of the most competitive appointments for high school grads.<\/p>\n

Cory Carver received the appointment, which recognizes outstanding academic achievement, leadership, physical fitness and character, Jennifer Boniface, MCHS principal, said. Students at the academy also receive military training to prepare for service as an officer in either the U.S. Navy or Marine Corps.<\/p>\n

The announcement came during the school\u2019s annual awards ceremony, which took place on May 20 the night before graduation.<\/p>\n

Joshua Yarborough was named valedictorian and received the Daniels Scholarship, an award that recognizes exceptional character, leadership, perseverance, community involvement and academics, Boniface said. The scholarship provides up to $100,000. In some cases, it provides full tuition to partner universities.<\/p>\n

Three seniors graduated with associate degrees from Pueblo Community College while completing high school: Yarborough, Alexis Martinez and Daniel Thornton. Five other students earned certifications in welding, automotive and certified nursing assistant programs.<\/p>\n

Boniface said that Isaac Dozal Escarcega received the Barney Rowe Fighting Heart Award, which honors courage, determination and perseverance, and Amita Crowley earned the P.E.O. (Philanthropic Educational Organization) Chapter EV Scholarship, which supports women\u2019s education.<\/p>\n

Several local organizations also presented awards and scholarships, including Empire Electric; Kiwanis; Onward Foundation; Cortez Youth Basketball; Tri City Soccer Association; Native American Parent Committee; P.E.O. Chapter EV; TRIO Talent Search; Hagan Scholarship Foundation; Horatio Alger Scholarship; Dean Hanson Memorial Scholarship; Chang Chavkin Scholarship; Eulalia Skinner Scholarship; and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.<\/p>\n

The ceremony included special recognition for students joining the military, and a mini-graduation was also held for six varsity baseball seniors who left early for the state tournament.<\/p>\n

bduran@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

graduates receive honors, scholarships<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5794,5735],"tags":[21,28,60,36,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-131750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131750"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=131750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}