Schools applause

Hi-Q championship team members

Mariner High School won the Hi-Q championship tournament March 21, with Monroe High School and Coupeville High School finishing in second and third place, respectively. Each school got a trophy.

Mariner also received $1,000 for its school; Monroe, $750; and Coupeville, $500. Members of the top three teams:

Mariner High School: Charlie Tran, senior; Woo Song Do, senior; Sunwoo Lee, senior; Navdeep Aujla, senior; Trever Koenig, senior; and Navkiran Aujla, sophomore.

Monroe High School: Jen Groves, senior; Lauren Rosenthal, junior; Michelle Wells, junior; Sasha Hayman, junior; Kyle Ingersoll, junior; and Sean Higgins, sophomore.

Coupeville High School: Danny Brown, junior; Michael Vier, junior; Sam Parker, junior; Daniel Koster, sophomore; Tobe Platt, sophomore; Aaron Mitchell, sophomore; and Tyler Boonstra, freshman.

Student named to all-state academic team

Bellevue Community College student Tom Harrington, a 2001 graduate of Edmonds-Woodway High School, was named to the 2007 All-Washington Academic Team, which recognizes the best and brightest community and technical college students in the state.

A former intern for U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert and a member of Model United Nations, Harrington plans a career in government or international service.

His extensive volunteer work – through Americorps, Rotaract, UNICEF, student government and Phi Theta Kappa, of which he is chapter co-president – has produced results, including books for schools in Africa, computers for schools in Bulgaria and support for hurricane victims and local food banks.

An Iraq war veteran, Harrington previously won the Horatio Alger Association Distinguished American Military Scholar Award. He now lives in Renton.

Regional FBLA winners

The following local students, listed by school, were winners in the West Central Region FBLA Conference and eligible to compete at the state level:

Granite Falls High School: Hannah Anderson, Jesslyn Call, Nicole Deprey

Henry M. Jackson High School, Mill Creek: Jeff Cheng, Alfred Collins, Christopher Cummings, Felix Ekness, Victor Hoang, Jon Kong, Victor Liu, Nathan Rieger, Jason Yi

Lake Stevens High School: Philip Gerou, Coalan Hampton, Barbara Roberts, Solon Scott

Lynnwood High School: Estrada and Faylona, Jae Min Kim, Jezza Molato, Joseph Nguyen, Lynn Nguyen, Lee, Picard and Yu

Mariner High School, Everett: Sophia Fong, So-Ckheng Nay, Patrick Pollard, Tanya Runtung, Richy Seng, Charlie Tran, Michael Tuon

Marysville-Pilchuck High School: Teaira Lacson, Anna Nikolova

Snohomish High School: Jennifer and Sarah Courtney, Alex Fischer, Kiku Mizuno, Jordan Reichelt, Jon Setzer

Bothell, Stanwood schools send teams to Science Olympiad

Seven teams from five schools in Bothell and Stanwood were among the 20 teams from the Puget Sound to qualify to compete at the Washington State Science Olympiad tournament April 14.

The teams finished in the top 10 at a regional tournament March 17 at Everett Community College.

High school teams advancing to state and how they fared at regionals: Bothell High School, second place, and Stanwood High School varsity team, third place.

Middle and junior high school teams advancing to state and how they fared at regionals: Canyon Park Junior High Team 1 (Bothell), first place; Canyon Park Junior High Team 2 (Bothell), third place; Port Susan Middle School Red Team (Stanwood), fifth place; Stanwood Middle School Red Team, sixth place; and Stanwood Middle School White Team, eighth place.

Kirkpatrick in national AAA tournament

Stephen Kirkpatrick, a sophomore at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, has earned a chance to compete for a $20,000 college scholarship in the AAA Travel High School Challenge, a nationwide competition on travel and geography knowledge.

This May, Kirkpatrick will travel to Orlando, Fla., and represent Washington in the national finals, where he will compete with other winners from across the country.

Local students compete in state bee

Nine local students qualified to compete in the recent Washington State Geography Bee, held March 30 in Tacoma. Qualifying students, listed by city:

David Sackerman, fourth grade, Lockwood Elementary School, Bothell

Derek A. Lee, eighth grade, Skyview Junior High School, Bothell

Lance D. Kidder, eighth grade, Coupeville Middle School

Sanjay Chepuri, sixth grade, Explorer Middle School, Everett

Zachary M. Smith, seventh grade, Everett Christian School

Igor J. Ummel, seventh grade, Granite Falls Middle School

Sohaib Hussain, eighth grade, Monroe Middle School

Scarlett H. Strauss, fifth grade, Terrace Park School, Mountlake Terrace

Seth C. Farb, eighth grade, Stanwood Middle School

Laster to national forensic tourney

Ian Laster, a senior on the Edmonds Home School Resource Center’s speech team, placed third in Impromptu Speaking at the Washington State Individual Events Tournament held March 10 at the University of Puget Sound, sponsored by the Washington State Forensics Association.

Ian will help represent the Puget Sound at the National Forensic League Tournament in Wichita, Kan., in June. He will compete in International Extemporaneous Speaking.

Snohomish ROTC competes

The Snohomish High School Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps along with 14 other schools recently met for their last competition of the school year at Mariner High School.

Snohomish Color Guard No. 1, under the command of Cadet Major Ashleen Williams, placed second. The team also placed first in the Olympic Division. Color Guard No. 2, under the command of Cadet Sgt. Tiffany Carey, placed first. The Unarmed Drill team, under the command of Cadet Major Ashleen Williams, placed fifth.

The Armed Drill team placed first. It was commanded by Cadet 2nd Lt. Geoffrey Smelser, who also placed first in the Commanders category. Cadet 2nd Lt. Spenser Rader placed first in Individual Drill, while 2nd Lt. Geoffrey Smelser and 2nd Lt. Spenser Rader placed first in Duel Drill.

The Air Rifle team under the command of Cadet Staff Sgt. Andrew Jacobs took fifth place. Cadet Gunnery Sgt. Sarah Winks placed first in Armed Drill and Cadet Sgt. Maggie Smelser placed second.

Muter wins essay contest

Jessica Muter, a student in Janet Duvardo’s class at Seattle Hill Elementary School, is the Washington state winner of American Mothers Inc.’s 2007 fifth-grade essay contest.

Jessica wrote about her mother, Tracy Muter, in her essay titled “What My Mother Means to Me.” Jessica’s essay will now represent Washington in the national competition; the winner will be announced in Las Vegas in April.

Debate teams head to nationals

The National Qualifying Tournament held at Kamiak High School on March 1-3 determined who would advance from the Puget Sound District to the National Forensic League’s National Tournament this June in Wichita, Kansas.

Teens can only compete in one event, so there may be alternates competing as well. Eligible for nationals are:

Kamiak High School: Mike Fitzgerald (Student Congress)

Snohomish High School: Todd Rainey and Sarah Spiker (Public Forum Debate); Nicole Thompson and Kammie Sheeler (Public Forum Debate); Michael Cruz and Houston Kraft (Dual Dramatic Interpretation); Houston Kraft (Oratory); Brandon Merrell (Oratory); Todd Rainey (Foreign Extemporaneous); Kayla Drysse (Humorous Interpretation); and Brandy Spani (Student Congress).

Dean’s List

Students on college and university Dean’s Lists include:

Jason Craig Nishikawa, Lake Stevens, and Maria Walters, Mill Creek, Pacific University, Forest Grove, Ore.

Mariko Coverdale, Marysville; Ben Staley, Bothell; Meredith Brandstetter, Lake Stevens; Amy Brown, Langley, California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Ryan Pettibone, Mukilteo, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY.

President’s List

Charise Alexander, Edmonds, is on the President’s List at the University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY.

Honor’s List

Amy Hudson, Everett, is on the Honor’s List at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Mich.

Scholarships

Erik Foss, Marysville-Pilchuck High School, received a Presidential Merit Scholarship at Seattle Pacific University.

Bothell teens go to national MathCounts

The math team from Northshore Junior High School in Bothell recently placed third at the Washington State MathCounts competition, which was March 17 at the Microsoft campus in Redmond.

Team members included seventh-graders Yota Kato of Bothell and Patrick Lu of Kenmore and eighth-graders Yuta Kato of Bothell and Omeed Faghih of Redmond.

Yota Kato also placed second in the state in the individual competition and Yuta Kato placed fourth in the state. The brothers will join the other top four individual students from Washington at the national competition in Texas in May where they will compete as the state team.

Arlington, Oak Harbor students win culinary competition

Students from Arlington High School walked away with top honors from the 2007 Washington Restaurant Association Education Foundation ProStart Invitational held March 24 and 25 in Seattle.

The team will go on to compete in the national competition to be held April 20-22 in Charlotte, N.C. Students also won scholarships to continue in culinary education.

The competition gives students a chance to showcase their talents in cooking, knife skills and restaurant management proficiency in front of judges who hold prominent positions in the culinary world and are potential employers.

Oak Harbor High School placed second in the overall competition and also took first place in the cooking portion of the competition.

Melissa Rust, an Oak Harbor senior, won the association’s ProStart Student of the Year award. She is the recipient of a $1,000 scholarship from the Washington State Beef Commission.

Sportsmanship awards presented

The following students at Immaculate Conception-Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School were honored by their teammates with the Francine Veith Sportsmanship Award for exemplifying Christian sportsmanship: Andy Atwood, Parker Eugenio, Madelyn Hoban and Caitlin Egan, fourth-graders; Devin Whalen and Maggie Keaty, fifth-graders; Christopher Boe, Duncan Woolman-Otis and Allyson Lawton, sixth-graders; Nicole Rohlinger, MariCris Taja, Ryan Fenton and Trenton Heisel, seventh-graders; and Adam Whitley and Tyler Kepler, eighth-graders.

Archbishop fifth at state mock trial

Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy High School finished in the top 10 – in fifth place – at the recent YMCA Youth and Government Mock Trial Competition, held March 25. They were among 20 teams vying for a chance to go to nationals. It is the highest finish by a Snohomish County school in at least six years, school staff said.

Local finishers at state technology competition

Local students who placed in the top three in one or more events at the recent Washington Technology Student Association competition held March 22-24 in Everett and generally qualify for the national tournament:

Stanwood High School: Nick Bear, Jay Bonnifield, Jason Brown, Kyle Buse, Jacob Crofoot, Nolan Daly, Josh Docken, Nolan Heintz, Gabe Herigstad, Tony Holtum, Kevin Kline, Kyle Kline, Matt Kline, James McCune, Michael McCune, Jimmy McGraw, Drew Pollock, Chas Shirley, Justin Simmons, Kamren St. Clair and Stacee Wilson.

Cascade High School, Everett: Matt Goldsmith, Kari Lathrop, Gabrielle Lefebvre, Sean Lefebvre, David Morrison, M.T. Minhtam Nguyen, Alden Wege and Tyler Zonneveld.

Brier Terrace Middle School: Jenna Berndt, Connor Christensen, Alisha Evich, A.J. Fisher, Caitlin Flath, Dennis Levin, Maia Marusak, Matt McClenny, Jordan Mckinney, Tamura Nafume, Opel Puratep, Chris Roe, Terrah Short, Corinne Stone and Nick Youngkrantz.

Henry M. Jackson High School, Mill Creek: Andrew Haskell, Kaelin Jacobson, Carissa Pavlakos, Drew Plunkett, Jason Yi and Wei Liu.

Washington Scholars

Local students named Washington Scholars by the state Higher Education Coordinating Board:

Anna J. Thordarson, Arlington High School; Tyler L. Varnell (alternate), Arlington High School; Courtney L. Smith, Cascade High School, Everett; Nicole E. Berger, Cedar Park Christian School, Bothell; Cheng Tian, Everett High School; Alexander J. Schulz (alternate), Everett High School; Mckenna T. Milici, Kamiak High School, Mukilteo; Jonathan Wells, Kamiak High School, Mukilteo; Rory J. Backman (alternate), Lynnwood High School; Charlie Tran, Mariner High School, Everett; Dane M. Hansen, Marysville-Pilchuck High School; Megan E. Crenshaw (alternate), Marysville-Pilchuck High School; Christina K. Carter, Oak Harbor High School; Zachary W. Webb (alternate), Oak Harbor High School; Lane P. Dalton, Snohomish High School; Christopher W. Freeburg, Snohomish High School; Nicolle E. Thompson, Snohomish High School; Emma L. Ruggiero, South Whidbey High School

Best Teen Chef

Shawna Belmont, a senior at Snohomish High School, recently won the local portion of the Best Teen Chef in America Competition, sponsored by the Art Institute of Seattle. Shawna won a $2,000 scholarship and a gold medal.

She also has the opportunity to compete in the national competition being held in Texas on May 5. Shawna has taken part in the Sno-Isle Skill Center’s Culinary Arts program for the past two years.

Her teacher is Chef Becky Pechman. Shawna’s future plans include attending the Art Institute of Seattle starting this August to work towards her associate’s degree in Culinary Arts. She would like to one day own a restaurant in the Seattle area that features Northwest cuisine.

Teens warn of tobacco dangers

Students in the Teens Against Tobacco Use club at Henry M. Jackson High School in Mill Creek recently received a $500 grant from the American Lung Association of Washington to continue their anti-tobacco activism.

On Kick Butts Day last week, TATU members hit the Everett Mall over their lunch hour and after school to tell people about the dangers of smoking. They also hung fliers and posters up at school.