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Lara-Lopez receives national honor

Posted 9/6/22

On Tuesday, Aug. 30, Fountain Hills High School senior Analiz Lara-Lopez received national academic honors from the College Board’s National Hispanic Recognition Program.

Lara-Lopez is one of …

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Lara-Lopez receives national honor

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On Tuesday, Aug. 30, Fountain Hills High School senior Analiz Lara-Lopez received national academic honors from the College Board’s National Hispanic Recognition Program.

Lara-Lopez is one of 62,000 high school students from around the country to be recognized by the College Board for excelling in her PSAT scores, AP Exams and classroom work. At Fountain Hills, Lara-Lopez is not only a great student, but she’s also very involved.

Lara-Lopez qualified for the academic honors by scoring within the 90th percentile with her PSAT score. She also was eligible for the award by meeting the standard for AP exams. The College Board says sophomores and juniors can be eligible to apply if they score a three or higher on two or more AP exams, and Lara-Lopez scored a three or higher on five different AP exams.

“It shows that I’ve been working hard, and it paid off,” Lara-Lopez said. “Also, it highlights that I’m technically a minority and I’m excelling and doing great, like everyone else. I studied and sacrificed my social life last year just for good grades. It proves it pays off.”

Lara-Lopez is currently taking AP statistics to have six APs on her transcript and receive the Capstone diploma upon graduation. On top of her studying, Lara-Lopez has been both a pom team captain and an EVIT film program student for the past two years. She also got a job this past February.

Since she was young and watched “Hannah Montana” on Disney Channel, Lara-Lopez has been interested in acting. As a child, she took acting classes and auditioned, but wasn’t ready to move to California like the studios wanted. Lara-Lopez continued to train as an actress with Verve Studios in high school, and because of EVIT, her eyes have been opened to more possibilities in the film industry.

“It’s provably good if I want to go into the industry to know behind the camera, too,” Lara-Lopez said. “Ever since I started going there, I fell in love with it…It’s basically learning everything. The editing, the pre-production, the production, everything. We can like a certain thing, but we still have to have training in everything.”

Lara-Lopez will have certifications from EVIT in several Adobe programs for editing when she graduates. She could try to get a job immediately with her training, but Lara-Lopez has her sight set on a distinguished film school. She wants to go to Chapman University in Orange, California.

“Its program seems pretty unique,” Lara-Lopez said. “They have a screen acting program and you work with the performing arts college, but you also work with Dodge film college. I haven’t seen that out there as much, and also Dodge is No. 4 in the country this year for film colleges. Also, the directors and writers, the Duffer brothers, for “Stranger Things,” went there. So, it has a lot of pride, and it’s only 10 miles away from Disneyland, which is great.”

Chapman University accepts approximately 14 students each year into its screen acting program, according to Lara-Lopez. She is in the process of applying now, and if accepted, she will have to sign an agreement committing to an available seat. She said that she’s looking at the University of Southern California and University of Arizona as her backup school choices.

Lara-Lopez said she has tried several things to make sure she’s on the right path. She’s found creative outlets as the social media manager for Student Government this year and as a member of the yearbook staff. She’s also always had a knack for math and has worked as a part-time instructor at Mathnasium since February.

Lara-Lopez used to not be able to study, but her hard AP classes got her to develop study habits. One of her favorite study techniques is watching instructional videos online that give her a different perspective on a concept. At work, she tries to help local students from first grade to high school view their math from a different perspective, and she said she has seen her own skills improve since taking on the job.

“Monday is acting after school, Tuesday is pom after school,” Lara-Lopez said. “Wednesday and Thursday is usually work, and Friday is usually game day. Then also pom in the morning, so sometimes, like today, I wake up at 4:30 to make sure I’m ready and I don’t get home from work till 7:30.”

Lara-Lopez has many passions and the necessary time management skills all those passions require. She will continue to pursue her dreams through high school and college and aspire to be like her acting role models, Audrey Hepburn and Jennifer Lawrence.

“We’re thrilled that Analiz has earned this recognition,” Fountain Hills High School Principal Chris Hartmann said. “We are very proud of her for her achievements in the classroom and on College Board assessments. These programs help students from underrepresented backgrounds stand out to colleges during admissions.”