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School News Week of May 3

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Bethel Park

• Bethel Park High School Freshman Cody Hendrych-Bondra, an Honors II German Student, has been awarded the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Scholarship for the 2020-21 school year.

Cody was one of 350 students selected nationwide to receive a stipend to live with a German host family in the Federal Republic of Germany and attend a German “Gymnasium,” which is a secondary school for college-bound students.

His travel and study will be jointly funded by the U.S. and German governments. Because of the current global situation, the duration of his experience living and studying abroad may have to be shortened, with a possible departure delayed until January.

Cody is the latest in a long line of Bethel Park High School German students who have earned this prestigious scholarship. He is an active member of the Bethel Park High School German Club and its fantasy soccer league team, Eintracht Bethel Park.

He is taught by Bethel Park High School German teacher Christopher Tobias.

• For the fifth time, Bethel Park School District received the Best Communities for Music Education Award from the National Association of Music Merchants for outstanding commitment to music education.

The award is given annually to school districts that demonstrate outstanding achievement, in an effort to provide music access and education to all students as part of a well-rounded education program.

Bethel Park was one of 754 school districts across the country to receive the award in 2020. To qualify for the Best Communities designation, Bethel Park was required to answer detailed questions about funding, graduation requirements, music class participation, instruction time, facilities, support for the music program and community music-making programs. Responses were verified with school officials and reviewed by The Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas.

Upper St. Clair

• Upper St. Clair High School ranks among the top 3 percent of high schools in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Ranked 15th in Pennsylvania, Upper St. Clair is the third highest-ranking high school in Allegheny County. Nationally, Upper St. Clair ranks 709th out of more than 17,700 public high schools in the nation.

“Upper St. Clair High School’s success in rankings like this is attributable to a community that values and supports education,” Timothy Wagner, principal, said. “Our residents expect high quality education. Our schools deliver on this expectation thanks to a variety of factors, paramount among them a School Board policy that describes continuous progress, students who arrive at school ready to learn, and staff who are highly skilled at supporting student growth and achievement.”

According to the U.S. News & World Report, the methodology takes a holistic approach to evaluating schools, focusing on six factors: college readiness, reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, underserved student performance, college curriculum breadth, and graduation rates. College readiness measures participation and performance on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams.

Students honored

• Bethel Fife and Drum Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, honored three area students with the DAR Good Citizen Award.

The award is for students who possess good citizenship qualities of dependability, service, leadership and patriotism in their homes, schools and communities. Teachers and the school’s senior class select the students.

Once a student is chosen as the DAR Good Citizen, he or she is invited to participate in the scholarship portion of the program by submitting an essay. The essay winner is selected by independent judges. This year’s theme was “Our American Heritage and Our Responsibility for Preserving It”.

These students are the DAR Good Citizens winners in their school districts: Rachel Ruslavage of Cannon-McMillan, Kathleen McCurrie of Upper St. Clair and Danielle DeProspo of South Park.

Danielle was selected as the Bethel Fife and Drum Chapter DAR Good Citizen winner and receives a token monetary award. She is also an honorable mention winner in the Pennsylvania State Society DAR competition.

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