Students win Escribo en Español, a Spanish literary contest

Students win Escribo en Español, a Spanish literary contest

Students at Everett High School and Jackson High School were recognized for winning awards in Escribo en Español, a Spanish literary contest, held at the University of Washington.

There were 500 Washington students from 31 different schools who wrote essays or poems in Spanish with the theme, “It makes me smile, it makes me laugh, it makes me happy.”

The three Everett Public Schools students will be recognized at an award ceremony on May 18 at the university.

Luzel Carmona, Everett High sophomore, AP Spanish Literature student, earned first place in the Prose for Native Spanish Speakers division.

Fernando Gonzalez, Everett High junior, AP Spanish Language student, earned third place in the Poetry for Native Spanish Speakers division.

Juliana Mothersbaugh, Jackson High junior, AP Spanish Language student, earned third place in the Prose for Speakers of Other Languages division.

“I’m so proud of our students,” said Margarita Hurtado, world language teacher at Everett High School. “This is a big accomplishment!”

“I do appreciate Juliana’s effort and commitment to work extra and I acknowledge her for that,” added Ivette Thompson, world language teacher at Jackson High School.

The contest is sponsored by the Center for Spanish Studies — Seattle, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, the University of Washington and the Education Office of Spain — USA.

Student honored

Rotary of Everett Port Gardner’s March student of the month is Phuong Vu. She is a chemistry major at Everett Community College and plans be a pre-med major at the University of Washington in the fall. She was nominated for this award for supporting Vietnamese language learners.

Kamiak awarded for AP representation

Kamiak High School received the college-level Advanced Placement Computer Science Female Diversity Award by the College Board for attaining female student representation in Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles for 2018. Kamiak was one of only 685 out of secondary schools worldwide to be honored.

Band, choir and orchestra students make music at regional competition

Everett Public Schools students competed against other regional high school students to qualify for the state competition at Central Washington University on April 26 and 27.

Either as an ensemble or soloist, 37 qualified to compete at the state level and will represent Everett Public Schools at the two-day competition. Ensembles will compete April 26 and soloists will compete on the 27th. Winners in first, second and third place in each category are awarded medals at a ceremony each evening.

Ten soloists and 40 ensembles also qualified as first or second alternates and will also travel to CWU.

“Alternates from our region often get called up to compete,” said Melanie West, orchestra director at Jackson High School.

In total, 87 students are heading to CWU. The competition is fierce with top students statewide performing at their highest level against each other. Even with the stakes high, there is a lot of support and encouragement shared by all the competitors.

“This is a tremendous experience for our students who have worked so hard to get this far in music,” concluded West.

Eagles Aerie donates $15,000

Twelve Whidbey Island nonprofits were recently the recipients of contributions from the Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie in Freeland.

The Eagles’ mission is “People Helping People,” and they followed through last Saturday with a total of $15,000.

Recipient organizations were Senior Services of Island County, Helping Hand, Enso House, the Readiness to Learn Foundation, Whidbey Island Nourishes (WIN), Friends of Friends Medical Support Fund, South Whidbey Homeless Coalition, M Bar C Ranch, the HUB Youth Center, Friends of Freeland Library, Whidbey Island Dance Theatre and South Whidbey Hearts & Hammers.

— South Whidbey Record