CedarBridge Academy yesterday highlighted its successful male students, noting their achievements academically, athletically and artistically.Principal Kalmar Richards said yesterday that the males in the school have demonstrated that they have risen above the labels often placed on young men.“They have chosen not to wear the label that so many in the public and community erroneously place on teenage males,” she said.“They have chosen to live up to the mission of CedarBridge Academy, which calls for them to be men of excellence.”2011 valedictorian and former head boy Andrew Fleming made school history by graduating with a 3.98 GPA, earning the 2011 Robert Clements/Ace Scholarship.Andrew, who is now pursuing an economics degree at Mount Saint Vincent, was exempted from taking freshman English because he scored a 4 in the AP English exam.Salutorian Israel Sanchez, graduated in the second spot with a GPA of 3.95. Now in his first year of study at McGill University, where he is studying engineering, Israel also took part in the Centre for Talented Youth Programme at Johns Hopkins, taking courses in Mathematical Modeling and Engineering Design.S3 student Jaret Simmons was also highlighted after winning both the Intellectual Property Essay Competition and the Tom Pettit Thanksgiving essay competition.He will graduate at the end of S3 after completing an accelerated programme.Overall, Mrs Richards said the school had more males graduate with honours than females in 2011.The school also had many male success stories in the world of athletics, with seven young men qualifying for the Carifta Games 2011. One, Bruce DeGrilla, earned the Island a silver medal in long jump.CedarBridge’s Under 16 male soccer team also saw international action, playing in the Dallas Cup finals in Texas, with a majority of the team being honours students or students of academic merit.Also highlighted was the CedarBridge Academy String Ensemble, who performed at the Waterslide Stage at Downtown Disney in Orlando in April, and Khaivon Castro and Naasson Swan, who took to the stage as lead actors in the ‘Taming of the Shrew’ as part of the Bermuda Shakespeare Festival.Student artist Khalid Muhammad was also praised for his work, which is used as the backdrop for the local show Songopoly.“One of the best things that we can do for males is hold them to high expectations,” Mrs Richards said. “I have found not only do they meet those expectations, they often exceed them.”