Some 64 eighth-grade students at Joshua Cowell Elementary School are about to embark to high school.

But first they were recognized for their efforts, in particular, the past two years at a special promotional ceremony held in the school yard quad area.

The Class of 2019 was led by the top academic students. Zerak Jalali, Dianne Lafuente, Aiden Lang, Ashlee Perez, and Marcus Rudes earned perfect 4.0 grade point averages for the past year.

Adrianna Aldaco, Cody Demieville, Sarah Hunter, Ethan Leon, Cecilia Lopez-Sandoval, Alejandro Murillo, Jaisleen Nijar, Seth Obrochta, Mohammed Rahoof, Eduardo Sanchez, and Alyson Tse had 3.5 GPAs or better for the entire year.

Classmate Daizy Espinoza led in the Pledge of Allegiance. She also welcomed those in attendance. Included were Manteca Unifie Director of Professional Learning Julie Jenkins and Trustee Karen Pearsall, who was former parent of the school.

Student Body President Lang and Alexia Manucal were speakers during the promotional event.

Principal Christie Newman and Vice Principal Katie Frances also played big parts in the morning program.

Other members of the departing class are as listed:

Andre Baltazar, Erin Barney, Laci Bell, Haiden Brim, Alaura Cachu, Marques Callahan, Jason Cardosa, Emily Cargill, Alexander Chatham, David Chea, Isaac Cisneros, Angel Contreras, Hailey Dela Cruz Voris, Julian Espinoza, Andrew Estrada, Ryan Faias, Peyton Finley, Cecilia Flores Bravo, Edwin Garcia, Gabriella Garcia, Andrew Garden, Brennan Garibay, Terrell Gibson, Ryan Gomez, Jayden Gonzalez, Miguel Gonzalez, Dylan Gulseth, Dakota Harris, Nishaan Heer, Giselle Herrera, Brandon Holland, Bella Hughes.

Prabhdeep Kaur, Ali Khalaf, Celeste Imena Lara, Judah Morris, Nathaniel Mota, Andrew Murray, Mia Navarro, Ashantiana Negron, Aiko Oda, Indiya Odell, Matthew Pang, Alexander Pape, Alonso Rodriguez, Saul Ruiz, Murad Safi, Sanjana Sagar, Dixsha Singh, Daniel Socarras, isaiah Soto, Victor Talamates, John Urias, Elijah Ward, Caden Waton, and Yu Ning Xu.