School news – May 21
Bethel Park High School will stage its annual Telerama talent show 7:30 p.m. May 30 and 31 in the Bethel Park High School auditorium. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door both evenings. Each night is a different show, featuring Bethel Park High School students sharing their musical, acting and comedic talents.
• USCSD’s electronic newsletter, eBLAST, is one of four publications in the state to receive an Award of Excellence (the highest rating) in the Electronic Newsletter category of the 2013 Pennsylvania School Public Relations Association’s “Excellence in Education Communication” contest. In addition, the school district’s website, along with five other school districts, received an Award of Honor in the website category.
• USC’s Board of School Directors was selected to receive the Tri-State Area School Study Council’s 2013-2014 D. Richard Wynn Distinguished School Board Award.
The NAMM Foundation recognizes the Mt. Lebanon School District for its outstanding commitment to music education with a Best Communities for Music Education (BCME) designation. Mt. Lebanon joins 376 districts across the country to receive the prestigious distinction in 2014. This is the seventh year in a row that the Mt. Lebanon School District has received this honor.
Bethel Park High School junior Steven Davis finished in Fourth Place on the Westinghouse Science Honors Institute’s Voluntary End of Program Exam and earned $500 for his efforts.
Steven scored a 96.28 out of a possible 110 points on the exam.
Additionally, Steven and 14 other Bethel Park High School juniors received Certificates from Westinghouse for successfully completing the program. They are: Amrita Beaudine, Colton Blair, Bryce Carter, Aaron Coplan, Jake Eichenlaub, Lauren Hensler, Emily Kukan, Tayler McGurk-Mannarino, Brendan Moorhead, Jordan Myers, Keith Powell, Mackenzie Stark, Vincent Tavoletti and Harrison Zelt.
Bethel Park High School Physics Teacher Lee Cristofano coordinates the program for the school district.
Six area high school students were winners in the National Merit $2,500 Merit Scholarship Program. The winners are the finalists in each state judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies:
• Jarrod T. Cingel, Bethel Park High School, with a probable career field in computer science.
• Joncarlo Patton, South Fayette High School, career field in medicine.
• Elizabeth Rose Wildenhain, Seton LaSalle High School, biology.
• Henry G. Giltz, Seton LaSalle High School, law.
• Chandrasekar Muthiah, Keystone Oaks High School, medicine.
• Abigail Xie, Mt. Lebanon High School, biomedicine.
Eli Naragon (double bass) of Mt. Lebanon attends the Winchester Thurston School in Pittsburgh. A member of his high school jazz band, Eli has participated in the PMEA Orchestra and Festivals and the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra. He is a bassist at the Carnegie Mellon Summer Pre-College Jazz Program and is a winner of the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award.
Jonah Trout (bass trombone) of Canonsburg attends Canon-McMillan High School. He is an active member of his High School Brass Ensemble, Marching and Concert Bands and Musical Pit Orchestra. Outside of school, he plays with the River City Youth Brass Band, Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestra and Pittsburgh Youth Symphony and Chamber Orchestras.
Pennsylvania American Water awarded Stream of Learning Scholarships to Jamie Cavrak and Eric Kamincki of Bethel Park High School; Zien Deng of Chartiers Houston High School; Connor McCormick of Upper St. Clair High School; Angela Urban of Mt. Lebanon High School; Allison Vogrig of Canon-McMillan High School; Elizabeth Wildenhain of Seton-LaSalle Catholic High School; and Melissa Zender of Chartiers Valley High School. This is the fifth year that Pennsylvania American Water offered the program to support outstanding students within its service areas who are charting a course of study that is critical to the water and wastewater industry, with each winning student receiving a $2,000 scholarship.
Alexis Mayrann Taylor, an eighth-grader at St. Louise de Marillac School, received a $1,000 scholarship from Educational Outfitters as credit toward her 2014-15 tuition. Sara Szymanski, a freshman at Bishop Canevin High School, is one of three runner-ups and received a $500 scholarship towards her 2014-15 tuition from Educational Outfitters.
Two Peters Township students will represent the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at the U.S. competition of National History Day, slated for June 15-19, 2014 at the University of Maryland in College Park. Juniors Nick Larimer and Ryan Williams earned this distinction by taking first place at the “National History Day in Pennsylvania” contest held at Millersville University on May 12-13, 2014. They were among nine Peters Township students who represented Western Pennsylvania at the state contest, an event that drew over 800 students in grades six through twelve.
Dr. Gary Cartwright, an orthodontist with offices McMurray and Bethel Park, recently awarded four $500 scholarships to four high school seniors. Each year for the past 15 years, Cartwright conducts an essay contest for all past and present patients who are furthering their education. The winners included Emma Sebastian of Upper St. Clair, daughter of Gerald and Stacie Sebastian who will be attending Juniata College; Brittany Crouse of Caononsburg, daughter of David and Nicolle Crouse who will be attending California University of Pennsylvania; Mukunda Aithal of Canonsburg, son of Hari and Arpana Aithal who will be attending Purdue University; and Suhas Hoysala of McMurray, son of Subramanya and Nikhila Hoysala, who will be attending Ohio State University.