Forty-five students from Brier Terrace, Alderwood and College Place middle schools attended the Washington Student Technology Association (WSTA) State Competition March 22-24 at the Bellevue Hilton.
A total of 486 students from 50 schools around the state participated.
Edmonds School District students swept three events: “Career Prep,” “CO2 Dragsters” and “Structural Engineering,” which are all components of the new “STEM Foundations” course taught at all the middle schools.
Top local winners included: Haeley Johnston (Brier Terrace), first place, “Career Prep” and “CO2 Dragsters”; Hailee Mallins (Brier Terrace), first place, “Digital Photography”; AsiaLee Donnelly (Brier Terrace), second place, “Career Prep”; Jaiya Dragan (Alderwood), second place, “CO2 Dragsters”; Paxtyn Merten (Brier Terrace), second place, “Essays on Technology”; Sabrina Lieu (Brier Terrace), third place, “Career Prep”; Nathan Paulson (Alderwood), third place, “CO2 Dragsters”; Natalie Sutton (Brier Terrace), third place, “Prepared Speech”;
Teams of students with top finishes included: Donnelly, Johnston and Joey Owens (Brier Terrace), first place, and Maddy Caiola, Lieu and Sean Moore, second place, in “Leadership Strategies”; Wessly Hyde and Kristian Suzara (Brier Terrace), first place, “Problem Solving”; Moore and Suzara, first place, Jonathan Thiem and Logan Mauseth, second place, and Nathan Paul and Chris Seo (Brier Terrace), third place, in “Structural Engineering”; Josh Livingston, Aman Sharma and Nick Carhuff (College Place), second place, “Tech Bowl Team”; and Moore, Suzara and Seo, second place, “Video Game Design.”
To find out how other local students placed, visit www.edmonds.wednet.edu.
Students of the Month for March
Edmonds School District high schools recognize two students each month. For March:
Edmonds Heights
• Cody Rose says “the best way to challenge yourself is to push your limits but knowing how far is too far.” Rose has pushed his limits with a variety of athletic pursuits, including mixed martial arts and yoga, and he’s also learning Norwegian. An aspiring firefighter, Rose plans to attend the Getchell Fire Academy this summer. College could come later.
• Holly Haney was nominated for a 5th Avenue Award for her role as Mrs. Tottendale in “The Drowsy Chaperone.” An active Christian volunteer, Haney last summer helped build a giant water slide and meet other needs of kids in Puerto Rico. She plans to attend Grace Bible College in Grand Rapids, Mich., to pursue an education degree.
Edmonds-Woodway
• Katarina Nguyen is busy – the president of six clubs and active in two others, she’s also a student body leader, plays multiple sports, dances and tutors kids in math (just to name a few activities) – all while keeping a 4.0 GPA. Along with violin and piano, she plays the zither. Nguyen is a well-recognized young public speaker and plans to attend college.
• Tatum Tobiassen this summer will head to New Orleans to help with rebuilding efforts there, one of several volunteer activities she’s undertaken through her church. An aspiring educator, Tobiassen’s senior project involved a behavior modification experiment on her 4-year-old cousin. She plans to attend Pacific Lutheran University.
Lynnwood
• Rachel Magnenat coordinates events and activities at her school and plays tennis. An active volunteer, she can be seen each year helping out at the Edmonds Summer Music School. The Running Start student plans to transfer to Seattle Pacific University and pursue an education degree.
• Andrew Reeves is a jazz all-star who is drum major for the school band and also plays in the chamber winds ensemble. Also an Edmonds Summer Music School volunteer, Reeves played in and directed a jazz ensemble with his peers for a senior project. Reeves has been accepted into the University of Washington and plans to study engineering.
Meadowdale
• Stephanie Arroyo is an aspiring environmental researcher who is spending a lot of her time these days volunteering at Seattle Aquarium, including teaching kids how to dissect a squid. Arroyo also is a mentor to younger kids and helped with a leadership conference for Latino middle-schoolers. A knee surgery kept her from continuing with the basketball team this year, so she served as manager instead.
• Torin Dooley aims to continue a family tradition by becoming a certified public accountant. In the meantime, he’s kept busy with varsity basketball and baseball and other activities. For his culminating project, he’s organizing a free-throw shooting competition April 5 that will raise money for Run to Win Outreach, a Christian nonprofit.
Mountlake Terrace
• Allie Beeninga is taking her vast experience in drives of various kinds with Key Club to organize a toiletry drive for a downtown Seattle homeless shelter as part of her senior project. Beeninga is the student body treasurer, plays soccer and also has taken honors courses in English and algebra. She plans to pursue medicine at the University of Washington.
• Jonathan S. Vance is swim team captain, plays in the chamber winds and jazz ensembles and is learning to play the ukelele for his senior project. An active volunteer through his church, he hopes to “have a positive impact in society.” First stop: college, for a math degree.
Scriber Lake
• Sabrina Rich Bratsch for two years volunteered to bake 1,400 cookies for a book fair, and has been recognized by the Edmonds Exchange Club with its Accepting the Challenge of Excellence Award. Bratsch does costume design and theatrical makeup and hopes to turn that into a career in fashion. She has been living on her own for nearly two years yet continues to post good marks and attendance in school.
• Blanca Monroy was named a Hidden Winner by the Edmonds Daybreakers Rotary Club and plans to parlay her bilingual skills to help translate for Spanish-speaking customers at the Lynnwood Food Bank. Active in a variety of sports, Monroy also is noted for taking care of her younger sister. She plans to be a dental hygienist.
District names new assistant supe
Patrick Murphy has been chosen as the Edmonds School District’s new assistant superintendent for secondary schools, replacing Ken Limon, who is retiring at the end of June.
For the past four years, Murphy has served as executive director of secondary education for the Issaquah School District. Prior to that, he served 12 years as a middle school principal and high school assistant principal in the Issaquah district, and was a junior high assistant principal in Bremerton. He also taught social studies in the South Kitsap School District.
He will work in a limited capacity in Edmonds between now and June 30 before starting full-time July 1.
Students donate teddy bears
Students at Martha Lake Elementary School collected more than 115 teddy bears and other stuffed animals for Snohomish County Fire District 1 crews to give to children in emergency situations.
The Martha Lake PTA and students have been donating teddy bears to Fire District 1 for more than 10 years.
Fire District 1 Capt. Don Navarre and Kim Schroeder, fire and life safety education specialist, thanked the students as they accepted the donated stuffed animals during a school assembly March 28.
Edmonds Heights kids show art at Wade James
“Imaginary Friends,” a collection of paintings by teacher Amy Barnes’ students in grades 3-12 at Edmonds Heights K-12, will be on display in the lobby of the Wade James Theatre, 950 Main St. in Edmonds, during the Driftwood Players’ run of “Harvey.”
Students were asked to think of an imaginary friend they have had or would like to have.
Art can be viewed as early as one hour before showtimes. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, April 6-22. For more information about “Harvey” and tickets to the performance, go to www.driftwoodplayers.com or call 425-774-9600.
Call for student artists
Student artists, including home-schooled students, in grades K-12 within the Edmonds School District are invited to submit their art for consideration in the Student Exhibit of the Edmonds Arts Festival.
Open Class entries will be received and photographed at the school district offices, 20420 68th Ave. W in Lynnwood, from 2:30-6 p.m. April 26 and 27. Guidelines for entry are posted on the Student Exhibit page at www.edmondsartsfestival.com/the-festival/student-art.
Open Class entries will be juried by two professional artists and results will be sent out the third week of May. Artwork will be judged on the following criteria: originality, technique, composition, risk-taking and craftsmanship. Mediums include oil, acrylic, watercolor, charcoal, pastel, ink, crayon, print work, textiles, clay, fused glass, photography and recycled materials.
The top 20 artists will each receive a $50 award, and works of art will be selected as Honorable Mention. A graduating senior artist will receive the Pederson Family Award for Excellence in Community Service.
The exhibit will take place on Father’s Day weekend, June 15-17, at the Frances Anderson Center in Edmonds. The exhibit is sponsored by the Edmonds Arts Festival Foundation.
For more information, go to www.edmondsartsfestival.com or contact Tim Jones at jonesti@edmonds.wednet.edu or Karen Taverniti at tavernitik@edmonds.wednet.edu, or call 425-431-7115.
Free preschool program accepting applications
Snohomish County’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) is accepting applications to fill openings at 21 locations. The free preschool is offered to 4-year-olds from low-income families.
The following free services are provided to eligible families:
• a preschool program with literacy, math, art, science and field trips
• health screenings and referrals
• information about opportunities for parent education and family fun nights
For more information, contact Joe Varano at 425-388-7251 or joe.varano@snoco.org.
E-W dance team places fourth at state
The Edmonds-Woodway High School dance team finished fourth in the military category at this year’s state competition.
“This is a wonderful finish to our season but is also admirable as 12 of our 18 members are first-year members and were competing for the first time at such a large venue,” coach Deb Johnson said in a news release.
Test-trainer gets thumbs up
Kieran Edmundson, testing and evaluation technician in the Edmonds School District’s Teaching and Learning Department, received the Outstanding Product Award from the Washington Educational Research Association (WERA).
The award recognizes Edmundson’s many years of developing creative and engaging state assessment training presentations for colleagues across the state. Nancy Katims, current WERA president as well as the district’s director of Assessment, Research and Evaluation, presented Edmundson with the award on March 26.
Librarian headlines book-lovers’ event at Terrace Park
Terrace Park School families came together the evening of March 8 to celebrate reading with a school-wide book exchange, a gallery of book reviews written by Terrace Park students, and a presentation by librarian and author Nancy Pearl about children’s literature she thinks should be at the top of everyone’s reading wish lists.
More than 1,200 books found new homes with Terrace Park families that evening thanks to the generosity of Half Price Books, Third Place Books, Friends of the Mountlake Terrace Library, The Rotary Homework Center and Terrace Park families.
Want to see Pearl’s book recommendations? Go to www.edmonds.wednet.edu and click on “News,” then “2011-12 Headlines.”
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