Interlochen Arts Academy Senior named Presidential Scholar in the Arts

INTERLOCHEN, MI – U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has named classical voice student Tyler Hodges of Kalamazoo, a senior at Interlochen Arts Academy, one of 20 Presidential Scholars in the Arts. This year’s Presidential Scholars in the Arts, along with 121 academic scholars, will be invited to Washington, D.C. from June 24 to 27 for National Recognition Week. Among their many activities, the students will be honored by the President with a Presidential Medallion at a special ceremony in Constitution Hall.

On June 26, Hodges will be among the Presidential Scholars in Dance, Music and Theater featured during a program at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The naming of this year's awardees again makes Interlochen Arts Academy the largest producer of Presidential Scholars of any high school, public or private, in the United States. Since 1980, Interlochen Arts Academy students have been named Presidential Scholars in the Arts an unsurpassed 37 times.

“Students come to Interlochen to be challenged and to focus their talents,” said Interlochen Center for the Arts President Jeffrey Kimpton, “so it is rewarding to see Tyler recognized both for his talents and for his hard work.”
Hodges originally developed his musical skills playing flute. While attending Mattawan High School, he was a member of the Mattawan High School Master Singers, where he began to gravitate more toward vocal performance and decided to attend Interlochen Arts Academy for his junior and senior years. Hodges has been studying with Interlochen instructor Jeffrey Norris. After graduating, he plans to attend the Chicago College of Performing Arts to prepare for a career in opera performance.
The Presidential Scholars Program is a national recognition program administered by the U.S. Department of Education to honor some of the nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors. At the request of the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts (NFAA) nominates students for consideration after an extensive talent search program.
“This honor is among the most prestigious a young artist can receive,” Kimpton said. “The Presidential Scholars program recognizes the highest aspirations of our students, and confirms once again how much these talented and motivated young artists can accomplish in a creative environment that challenges, inspires and focuses them.”

Interlochen Arts Academy is considered by many to be the premier fine arts boarding high school in the United States. The Academy attracts exceptionally talented and motivated students from nearly every state and more than 20 other countries who study music, dance, visual arts, creative writing, theatre, motion picture arts and rigorous college-preparatory academics.

In January, Interlochen Arts Academy was one of only five schools in the nation honored by the NFAA as a Distinguished Schools in the Arts.

The high school academy is part of the nonprofit Interlochen Center for the Arts, the only community in the world that brings together:
• a 2200-student summer camp program
• a 500-student fine arts boarding high school
• a 150-student independent pre-K through 8th-grade day school and summer day camp
• opportunities for hundreds of adults to engage in fulfilling artistic and creative programs
• two 24-hour listener-supported public radio stations (classical music and news)
• more than 600 arts presentations annually by students, faculty and world-renowned guest artists
• a global alumni base spanning eight decades, including a galaxy of arts luminaries.

For information, visit Interlochen online at www.interlochen.org.