Talk of the Neighborhood highlights Central Texans’ achievements.

* Class Acts *

* Northwest Waco Rotary Club recently awarded $2,000 scholarships to three area students for the 2010-11 school year at McLennan Community College.

Emily Leek is a 2010 graduate of Midway High School, where she was involved in the Spanish and art clubs. She has been a Girl Scout for 11 years. After attending MCC, she plans to pursue a master’s degree in speech pathology.

Keith Nichols is a 2010 graduate of Lorena High School, where he was a football captain and powerlifter. He plans to study criminal justice at MCC and later become an officer for the Waco Police Department.

Tammy Hill, of Valley Mills, is a returning student studying business management who plans to pursue a bachelor’s degree through Tarleton State University.

* Rosa Jimenez, of Waco, graduated Aug. 7 with a Master of Science in nursing from Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi.

* Nathan Wade, of Waco, who teaches Latin at Rapoport Academy, graduated summa cum laude in August with a Master of Latin degree from the University of Florida.

* Matthew Marlin Hand, of Waco, received his doctor of philosophy degree from Louisiana Tech in Ruston, La., on Aug. 19.

* Applause *

* Cherry Mills Boggess (right) is the Cen Tex African American Citizen of the Month for September. She is a graduate of Booker T. Washington High School in Miami.

She graduated from Paul Quinn College in Waco in 1963 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in vocal music and has a Master of Arts teaching degree in public service administration from Tarleton State University.

At McLennan Community College and Waco ISD, she was coordinator of the adult education programs and an adjunct instructor in child development. In 1996, Cherry became an independent contractor for the Head Start Bureau at Washington, D.C., the Institute for Child and Family Studies at Texas Tech University and the Center for Adult Learning at Baylor University.

She is a mentor with the juvenile probation department, a volunteer at the Waco Center for Youth and a member of the board of trustees of Paul Quinn College.

* The Carla Yager Waco Home Team, consisting of veteran producer Carla Yager and team member Geraldine Lasater with RE/MAX Affluent Realty, was honored as one of the top 20 teams in the Vanguard Council of RE/MAX offices for the first two quarters of 2010.

The Vanguard Council incorporates all RE/MAX offices from El Paso to Texarkana, and the Texas Panhandle to Brownsville not located in a major metropolitan area.

Yager has been in real estate locally since 1997 and with RE/MAX since 2004. Lasater has been in real estate since 2005.

* In the Military * 

* Air Force Airman Brady D. Novian (right), a 2008 graduate of Bruceville-Eddy High School, graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. He is the son of Stephen and stepson of Patrisia Novian, of Eddy.

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