Everett Color Guard judged region’s bestThe Everett High School’s Navy Junior ROTC Color Guard Team One competed in the Northwest Regional Drill Championships in Oak Harbor and won the championship. The team outperformed 23 other schools (Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force) from Oregon and Western Washington.
Everett High has one of the few all-girl color guard teams. The team includes Susanna Komp, Kelsey Southwick, Cerna Tarpley and Sammy Durr.
Durr and cadet Henrick Kiaer also competed in an Unarmed Drill Down against about 70 other cadets and made the final three. Durr earned the gold medal; Kiaer, the bronze.
“As proud as I am with their achievements, I must also say how proud I am of Everett cadets’ sportsmanship,” said Commander Rick Gile, noting that team members were quick to cheer on and volunteer to help other teams.
The Marysville School District’s Navy Junior ROTC Tomahawk Company also competed. Among the group’s accomplishments, its Unarmed Drill Team Blue, led by Cadet Stanley Reyes (Marysville Bio Med Academy), earned third place.
Third-grade readers ready for ChallengeThe Sno-Isle Libraries Mega-Fun, Biblio-Trivia, Rockem-Sockem Third-Grade Reading Challenge concludes with a final championship, 7 p.m. Wednesday at Rosehill Community Center, 304 Lincoln Ave., Mukilteo. The public is invited.
Nearly 900 third-graders from 26 schools in Snohomish and Island counties started out in this quiz bowl-style competition. Teams of five to eight students answer questions based on six books selected by Sno-Isle Libraries staff.
Advancing to the finals from regional semi-final events around the two counties:
The Fantastics from Oak Harbor Elementary School (Oak Harbor School District)
The Brier Bobcats from Brier Elementary School (Edmonds School District)
The Reader Leaders from Mount Pilchuck Elementary School (Lake Stevens School District)
The Wood Owl Readers from Discovery Elementary School (Mukilteo School District)
The Rebel Readers from Eagle Creek Elementary School (Arlington School District)
Teachers say the program has helped boost interest in reading, even among teams that didn’t advance.
“The kids had a great time and learned a lot about team work, as well as increasing their motivation to read more,” said Brenda Rossnagle, a teacher and the coach for a team from Mountain Way Elementary School in Granite Falls.
As one Granite Falls student said: “It made me happy to read new books I would never have known about, and we got prizes and special T-shirts even though we didn’t win.”
3 students advance in aerospace programThe following local students are among the 214 statewide selected to participate in Phase One of the 2013-14 Washington Aerospace Scholars program cycle:
Bethany Garver, Sky Valley Education Center (Monroe)
Jared Graef, Lake Stevens High School
Mary Hlavacka, Glacier Peak High School (Snohomish)
The Washington Aerospace Scholars program, hosted at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, is a competitive science, technology, engineering and mathematics education program. Phase One students were among more than 300 who initially applied in the fall. They will spend the next two months continuing to compete for one of 160 slots in a Summer Residency at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
Young volunteers help kick off We DayGateway Middle School sixth-grader Quinn Williamson and seventh-grader Manasvini Tanikella on March 12 represented their school’s G.I.V.E Club (Guardians Involved in Volunteering Experience), joining four other students in the state to be invited by Seahawks coach Pete Carroll at a We Day news conference.
Stacy Stephens is Gateway Middle School’s librarian and has been advisor of the school’s GIVE Club for 14 years. Club members are focus on projects that help the school and school community. Students meet each Thursday at noon to plan their projects. They recently finished collecting several large boxes of arts and crafts supplies they donated to Seattle Children’s Hospital.
They also are a part of We Act, which focuses on inspiring young people to care for others and act generously, culminating in We Day events, including a March 21 We Day event in Seattle. Students from Evergreen Middle and Henry M. Jackson High School also are involved.
Kids’ posters offer tips on protecting coveFifth-grade students from Utsalady Elementary School on Camano Island created posters to educate their community about water pollution in the Triangle Cove watershed.
Students’ posters encourage the public to take simple steps against water pollution, such as scooping pet waste, washing vehicles at commercial facilities, repairing vehicles and practicing natural yard care, to name a few. Thirty of the posters will be on display at local businesses throughout April.
The Youth Art Contest was part of a larger Pollution Identification and Control program administered by Island County Public Health with the Snohomish Conservation District.
Chess team beats odds to finish 11thMariner High School’s chess team finished in 11th place, with a score that tied 10th-place Bellevue, at the Washington High School State Team Championship held Feb. 28-March 1 at Issaquah, overcoming an 18th-place ranking entering the competition. The team members are Jignesh Trivedi, Austin Tang, Tim Kovalchuk, Anthony Luong and Leo Pankovets.
“This was a remarkable and unexpected finish,” said Rich Mar, the team’s coach, noting that Wesco is the traditionally weaker league in chess.
Snohomish High School also competed and finished 16th. Snohomish had edged Mariner in earlier league play.
Stanwood High School also competed in individual tournaments. Kyler Elmer placed second and Desert Stone tied for sixth. Jared Alfieri and Paxton Ritchey tied for sixth in the Reserve (lower) section.
Mariner’s Prachatorn Joemjumroon took second place in the Reserve section.
Lake Stevens robotics teams advanceTeams representing Lake Stevens schools are advancing to the VEX Robotics World Championships slated for late April in Anaheim, Calif. The teams qualified at the Western Regional Championships, held at Cavelero Mid High School on March 1.
Advancing to the world championships are:
Team Trifecta (sophomores from Lake Stevens High School), which also won the regional Excellence Award and consists of Jonah Hansen, Jason Allen, Jacob Sasse and Alexis Hepburn
Team Five Guys Robots and Fries (ninth-graders from Cavelero Mid High School), which includes Skyler Baugher, Aiden Pile, Andrew Deebach, Ryan Sobsky and Jordon Conner
Team Geoff (Cavelero ninth-graders), made up of Jacob Lagajeno, Josh Beck, Jacob Hubar, Sean Lavering and Carter Alldredge
Drama students take 5th Avenue stageSeveral local drama students took part in The 5th Avenue Theatre’s Rising Star Project, which culminated in an all-student production of “Spamalot” March 14 and 15 in Seattle.
Taking leading roles were Gaven Wilson (Kamiak High School graduate) in his 5th Avenue debut as Sir Bedevere, along with Cameron Lee (Monroe High School sophomore), who returned to The 5th in the roles of Prince Herbert and the Historian, among others.
Other local students who took part: Sophie Burnett (tech crew deck carpenter), Tyler Good (performer in ensemble), Kevin Keogh (tech crew props), Eli Lotz and Mariah Lotz (performers in ensemble) and Isabelle Smith (tech crew sound-mics), all of Edmonds Heights K-12; Cole Conefrey (orchestra trumpet) and Liam McDonald (orchestra trombone), both of Edmonds-Woodway High School; Lydia Weir (performer in ensemble) of Everett High School; Sarah Arpin (performer in ensemble), a Jackson High School graduate; Miranda Quintanilla (tech crew costumes) of Kamiak High School; Ezekiel King (tech crew auto) of Lynnwood High School; Rachel Lee (producer), Anya Liebman (development and marketing) and Jordan Roche (tech crew hair and makeup), all of Monroe High School; and Kathryn Severson (tech crew deck carpenter), Alex Croce (tech crew lightboard) and Bryan Wilson (tech crew auto), all of Mountlake Terrace High School.
Jackson research students earn honorsSix students from Henry M. Jackson High School’s Science Research and Engineering Club and their research were recognized at the Central Sound Regional Science and Engineering Fair on March 8:
Celia Evans won first prize in the Behavior Science category and the American Psychological Association Award for her research, “Ascertaining Common Misconceptions About Concussions and their Consequences While Analyzing the Effectiveness of Concussion Health Laws”
Hannah Choe won second prize in the Environmental Science category, the Stockholm Water Prize, and a second-place American Chemical Society Award for her research, “Spirulina Plantensis Cadmium Binding Ability in Aquatic Conditions”
Indira Rayala won first prize in the Plant Science category and was selected as a Grand Prize finalist for her research, “Cranberry Extracts: A Quorum Sensing Inhibitor and the Novel Application of Cranberry Extracts as an Environmental Measure to Inhibit Pectobacterium carotovorum in Crops”
Shruti Parikh won the Women of Geological Science Award for her research, “Analyzing and Mapping Coal Dust Loss and Developing Techniques to Capture Lost Dust”
Natalie Weed won the Stockholm Water Prize for her research, “The Effect of Photo-catalyst TiO2 Concentration of E. coli Inactivation in Water”
Anna Pischer won the third-place American Chemical Society Award for her research, “Efficiency of Electron Donors for Denitrification via Facultative Anaerobic Heterotrophs”
Rayala later went on to earn more awards at the March 14 Washington Junior Science and Humanities Symposium at Seattle Pacific University, earning her an invitation to the national symposium April 23 in Washington D.C. Two days earlier, Rayala was the only Washington state student selected to compete at the International Sustainable World (Energy, Engineering, Environment) (or I-SWEEP) Science Olympiad, to be held April 30 in Houston, Texas.
Word masters finish in top 10A team of students representing Everett High School recently won highest honors in this year’s WordWright Challenge, a national competition requiring close reading and analysis of many different kinds of prose and poetry. Participating with 596 school teams from all across the country, the school’s tenth-graders tied for eighth place in the nation in the year’s third meet, held in February.
Students at the school who won high individual honors in the meet included sophomores Eleanore Johnson, Shelby Hocking, Marielle Stockton, Hank Tian, Sean Underhill and Taran Vazquez.
DECA students invited to national eventThe following students placed at the Washington DECA State Career Development Conference, in a variety of business- and marketing-related field events, and have qualified to attend the International Career Development Conference, to be held May 2-7 in Atlanta, Ga.
Cascade High School: Nick Janner, Brittany Burrus and Emily Irwin (first place, Chapter Awards Project)
Jackson High School: Nikolai Birchler and Crystal Tray (third place, Business Operations Research); Paul Schastlivets (third place, International Business Plan); Caitlin White (fifth place, Fashion Promotion Plan); Mitchell Weholt (seventh place, Marketing Management Series Event)
Lake Stevens High School: Alexis Alverson and Sarah Kylany (fourth place, Buying ad Merchandising Team Decision Making); Tallon Cote, Lilly Hannigan and Kaity Main (15th place, Chapter Awards Project)
Edmonds-Woodway High School: Max Teer and Julia Hutchison (fifth place, Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making)
Mariner High School: Rafael Achacoso (seventh place, Retail Merchandising Series Event)
Marysville Getchell High School: Kymberlie Devlin, Ali Page and Savannah Duce (16th place, Chapter Awards Project)
Students spend time as pages in OlympiaTwo local students served as pages the week of March 10 in Olympia with the state House of Representatives:
Arlet Astorga, of Lynnwood High School, was sponsored by state Rep. Luis Moscoso, D-Mountlake Terrace
Abigail Humbarger, a home-schooled student from Marysville, was sponsored by state Rep. June Robinson, D-Everett
Technology teacher honored by regional groupWanda Hill was recognized as the Northwest Council for Computer Education’s Outstanding Technology Educator of the Year during its March 13 conference at the Seattle Convention Center.
Hill has taught in Everett Public Schools for more than 25 years after teaching in Shoreline and Bellevue. She also has taught at Seattle Pacific University and the University of Montana Missoula.
“She says that she finds teaching to be an enjoyable challenge, regardless of the age of the student,” said Anne Carnell, Penny Creek Elementary School assistant principal.
Foundation breakfast breaks record
Over 350 community members gathered March 7 at the newly remodeled Snohomish High School to raise money for Snohomish School District students and to gain awareness about the programs the Snohomish Education Foundation provides to support student success within the District. The breakfast fundraiser raised a record $56,000.
“These funds will leave lasting fingerprints on student lives and greatly impact the futures of tomorrow’s students,” said Janelle Farley-Beyer, Breakfast Event Committee chair.
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