The Jim Hill High School Choir captured the Grand Champion Award at the Big Apple Classic Music Festival in New York City on March 17, 2012. The choir also won the top awards for Concert Choir, Men's Choir, and Women's Choir. The choir spent March 15-19, 2012, on the road, performing and sightseeing in New York with sightseeing stops also scheduled in Washington, D.C., on the return trip. In New York, they visited the Apollo Theatre, Times Square, Staten Island, the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, and saw the Broadway musical Memphis and the Medieval Times Tournament. Forty-three students made the trip to New York.
The choir, directed by James Hawkins, also was awarded superior ratings at recent district and state choral festivals sponsored by the Mississippi High School Activities Association.