School News Week of May 10
Bethel Park
• Four Bethel Park High School musicians successfully auditioned and were selected to be members of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association’s All-State Orchestra.
Representing Bethel Park are seniors Jaxon Stewart (clarinet) and Theresa Stolpa (French horn), and juniors Bill Kumer (cello) and Elijah Nice (percussion).
Because of the school closures in Pennsylvania, students auditioned virtually. The All-State Orchestra Concert, scheduled for April during the PMEA State Conference in the Poconos, had to be cancelled.
The students are taught by Bethel Park High School orchestra director Stephanie Glover and band director Chad Thompson.
• Nineteen Bethel Park High School German students have qualified for induction into the school’s chapter of the Delta Epsilon Phi German National Honor Society.
The students were to have been inducted the first week in April, but because of the closure of schools, they will be sworn in when students return in the fall.
In order to qualify for Delta Epsilon Phi, a student must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.6 in German and 3.0 in all other courses, must have at least one A grade and no grades of a C or lower in German over any given three-semester span, and must demonstrate personal and academic integrity, as well as a commitment to continue in the Bethel Park German program.
The induction class of 2020 will consist of these students: junior Alex Wiernik; sophomores Michael Bostaph, Sean Burns, Bella Heasley, Braden Lloyd, Becky Mack, Abby Quickel and Ella Voskamp; and freshmen Gavin Barzan, Jeremy Blocklin, Keegan Brusoski, Lauren Heh, Cody Hendrych-Bondra, Carter Kicinski, Nicole Martinelli, Megan Miehl, Jason Turske, Mira Weston and Samantha Wolf.
The students are taught by Bethel Park High School German teacher Christopher Tobias.
• Bethel Park High School senior Caleb Shook and junior Christian McClaine have been selected to be members of one of two five-member Pittsburgh-area World Schools Debate Teams that will compete virtually against teams from across the nation and world the week of June 15-19.
Normally, the teams would compete during the National Speech and Debate Association’s National Tournament, but because of the constraints on public gatherings caused by COVID-19, the competition will be held virtually.
World Schools combines prepared and impromptu topics to encourage debaters to focus on specific issues rather than debate theory or procedural arguments.
This is the second consecutive year that Caleb will participate in World Schools. Coaching Caleb’s and Christian’s team will be Bethel Park High School gifted coordinator and forensics team coach Christine Robb. This will be her second consecutive year coaching a World Schools team.
• Bethel Park High School sophomore Becky Mack successfully auditioned and was selected to play the oboe in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association’s All-State Band.
The concert would have been held as part of PMEA’s annual state conference, which was scheduled for April in the Poconos.
Becky is taught by high school band director Chad Thompson.
Upper St. Clair
• Boyce Middle School sixth-graders finished first in the eight-county region and second overall among 73 schools from throughout the state in the Pennsylvania Math League contest.
Individually, sixth-grader Luke An achieved the highest score in the eight-county region and the second-highest score in Pennsylvania. Also scoring among the top 34 in the state were Arth Italiya, Will Whitman, Sara Gillespie and Zahra Hossain.
Fort Couch Middle School students also earned high honors with seventh-graders finishing first in the eight-county region and fifth among 57 schools in Pennsylvania. Jamie Barrett, Eitan Schwartz and Yuhong Shi finished among the top 32 students in the commonwealth.
Eighth-graders placed second in the region and fourth among 57 schools in Pennsylvania. Libby Eannarino, Leona Chen, Arjun Suresh and Brian McFerran were among the 33 top scorers.
Upper St. Clair High School was the highest-scoring school among the 17 participating high schools in Allegheny County and tied for fourth among the 102 schools in Pennsylvania. Seniors Braden Yates and Katie Hobart were recognized as high-scoring students.