School Winners

Mock Trial teams move on to state

Teams from Archbishop Murphy High School and Jackson High School, both from the Mill Creek area, have been invited to the state YMCA Mock Trial competition, to be held March 28-30 in Thurston County. Two teams from King’s High School in Shoreline also are advancing.

The invitations came after top finishes at a Snohomish County event. At that event, Archbishop Murphy’s varsity team finished second and Jackson High School placed fourth. Afomia Seleshi from Jackson High School was named best witness. Jessica Lucas from Archbishop Murphy tied for best attorney.

Stillaguamish Valley High School (Arlington) also competed in the district-level event after finishing well at an earlier competition at the Tulalip Tribal Courtroom.

Everett students tops in art contest

Four students in the Everett School District will take their music, stories and photography to the national level of competition in the National PTA Reflections Art Program after earning the Washington State PTA’s top honors. This year’s Reflections theme was “Believe, Dream, Inspire.”

Students taking Outstanding Interpretation awards and moving on to the national level of competition for their age groups:

June Chang of Heatherwood Middle School in Literature for “The New Indian Summer”;

Elise Moe of Penny Creek Elementary School in Literature for “The Little Seed”;

Aidan Rufer of Gateway Middle School in Music Composition for “My Dad and Me”;

Hannah Peterson from Forest View Elementary School in Photography for “Morning in the Web”;

Not moving on to the national competition but receiving state honors for their age groups:

Lindsay Nims from Forest View Elementary School, Award of Excellence in Music Composition for “Dream it, Believe it”;

Kaitlyn Rufer from Henry M. Jackson High School, Award of Excellence in Photography for “Behind These Eyes”;

Chana Kim from Henry M. Jackson High School, Award of Merit in Visual Arts for “Believed, Dreamed, Inspired”.

See, read and hear the students’ winning works at www.everettsd.org/Page/4744 under “News Releases,” or click on the links in this story at www.heraldnet.com.

Everett team celebrates award

Gateway Middle School’s Lego Guardians robotics team was given the Robot Mechanical Design award at the state FIRST Lego League championship, held Feb. 22 in Ellensburg.

The team includes eighth-graders Omeed Beckman, Arka Bhattacharya, Zach Holly, Isaac Ku and Dhruvik Parikh, and seventh-graders Shayne Clark, Neil Lindgren and Kunal Singla.

“The FLL World Festival held April 23-26 in St. Louis is not a competition, but more of a celebration,” said coach Brick Baldwin. “So the state championship is the final level of competition for the Gateway Guardians this year and we are definitely jumping for joy.”

Also at the state competition, the LepBRICKcons Team 5771 from Camano Island won the “Core Values: Inspiration” award.

High school robotics teams advance

High school-level FIRST Robotics Competition action continues this month with district-level qualifiers leading up to the Pacific Northwest contest April 10-12 in Portland. A district event held March 7-8 at Glacier Peak High School in Snohomish drew about 700 students from 32 teams across the state.

Lynnwood High School’s Royal Robotics team took the District Chairman’s Award — the competition’s most prestigious award — and also was a second-place alliance finalist. The Chairman’s Award honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST.

Other local winners: Archbishop Murphy High School won an Industrial Design Award; Edmonds-Woodway High School won the Judge’s Award; Henry M. Jackson High School won the Team Spirit Award; and Glacier Peak High School won the Imagery Award.

FIRST Robotics Competition is the highest level of play in For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, a national nonprofit organization.

National Merit finalists named

Students who were earlier named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program have now been named finalists. Among the local finalists are Madelyn Schneider (Archbishop Murphy); Jacob Tavenner (Arlington); Devon Mercer (Everett); Saidutt Nimmagadda (Henry M. Jackson); Hannah Hertzog, Yi-Hsin Jong, Heather Pearson, Margaret Slack and Ryan Vogt (Kamiak); Eric Grewal and Evan Wang (Monroe); and Grace Elliott (Snohomish).

Selection of the approximately 15,000 finalists nationwide represents the top 1 percent of U.S. high school students who took the 2012 PSAT/NMSQT. Selection was based on academic performance, a personal essay, and a school recommendation.

Finalists now under consideration for one of nearly 8,300 National Merit Scholarships sponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Program, as well as many U.S. corporations, colleges and universities.

Everett native to present at conference

Nambi Gamet, an anthropology major at Eastern Washington University from Everett, was honored as one of the university’s Library Award recipients. Gamet received $250 and the library will cover his travel expenses to the 2014 National Conference on Undergraduate Research Conference April 2-5 in Lexington, Ky. Gamet will be presenting his paper, “The Effects of Intentional Cranial Deformation on Closure of the Sphenoid Fontanelle.”

The NCUR Library Award recognizes and encourages student research and creative projects that incorporate library resources.

Gamet, a senior at EWU, hopes to enroll in graduate school with the goal of being a professor, perhaps in bio-archaeology.

Granite Falls honors students for service

The Granite Falls School District will honor its third-quarter Success in Education award winners at the school board meeting Wednesday.

High school winners are Beau Byron and Dansil Green; middle school winners are Kayla Arciniega (sixth grade), Shannara Brown (seventh grade) and Charlotte Brooke (eighth grade); the Monte Cristo Elementary winner is Olivia Harmon; and the Mountain Way Elementary winner is Izabelle Bennett.

The award honors students who demonstrate an understanding of the importance of education and provide service to other students, staff members or the community.

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