Archive for May, 2010
Ferndale High School FFA students recently attended the state convention, ending months of effort and work on a variety of topics.
Results are listed below (from Ferndale School District)
1. First in Washington State in Proficiency Placement, Work Experience: Kamaldeep Bhumber. Kamal will represent Washington in competition at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis in October.
2. American Degree recipients: Kamaldeep Bhumber, Kenny Stuit, Katie Goodin. They will be receiving this degree at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis in October.
3. First in Washington in the “Sales Career Development Event”: the team of Aja Van Nus, Ellie Bolt, Ashley Blake, and Jen Goodin will be representing Washington and competing in the National C.D.E. at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis in October.
4. Second in Washington in the “Sales Career Development Event”: the team of Karli Zwade, Anissa Molina (alt.), Allison Hand, Lisa Nye and Stephanie Nye.
5. Top 10% of FFA Chapters in Washington, Gold Recipient: Ferndale FFA Chapter will be competing in the National Chapter competition in Indianapolis in October.
6. Public Speaking: Kelsey Reeck and Ellie Bolt qualified for and competed at Sub State, but did not make finals.
7. Extemporaneous Speaking: Karli Zwade placed eighth in Washington State FFA finals, and Aja Van Nus placed seventh.
8. The Ferndale FFA was recognized for its “March of Dimes” fund raising.
9. Fourth in Washington in the “1st Year Member” Career Development Event: the team of Josh Alvarez, Braydon Westoff, Bryce Kober, Evie Dostal, Jake Anderson and Stephanie Nye. They competed against 76 teams.
10. State Band: Monica Dorman.
11. State Talent: Ellie Bolt.
12. State FFA Degree: four members receive this distinction.
13. The Nursery/Landscape team of Monica Dorman, Chris Pitt, Josh Alveraz, Lisa Nye and Stephanie Nye placed sixth in Washington State finals.
14. FFA competed in the Scrapebook C.D.E. It was prepared by Britny Davis.
15. Karli Zwade was elected to the position of Washington State FFA Secretary, and will work in that position for the 8,000 Washington FFA members next year.
Ferndale FFA advisors are Mike Smith, Tony Torrretta, Edwin Elefson, Mitch Davis.
The Bellingham High class of 1940 is having its 70th reunion this summer, but the guest list is incomplete.
Invitations are being sent out to people who have attended reunions in the past, but reunion organizers are looking for names and contact information for people that may not have attended before.
The reunion will be on August 17 at the Harborside Bistro. Any graduate wishing to attend should contact Betty Collings at 738-2914.
Two teams from Bellingham High School won first and third place in the Technological Challenege category at the Imagine Tomorrow event last weekend.
Students Alex Kolodychuk and Samuel Pramodh won first place and $2,500 each for a project that uses lauric acid to absorb and store heat. In their project, they heated till liquid and measured the amount of heat energy released, all in an effort to test for a more efficient insulating system.
Students Peter Carmichael, Elise Cooper, Naomi Gibson, Benjamin Kunesh and Kevin Mitchell won third place and $1,500 to be split. They developed a process using saprophytic fungi to digest waste hydrocarbons into agricultural soil and make them into fuel for cars. This is a project that various students have been working on for a couple years.
In all, Bellingham High will receive $6,500 due to the teams’ victories.
A Ferndale High School team won the Community Impact Award, which is given to a project that can easily be implemented on a small scale. Students (whose names I don’t have at the moment) worked on an anaerobic digester project.
The Imagine Tomorrow event included nearly 100 teams from 32 high schools. The annual event challenges students to find new ways to address energy and sustainability issues.
Complete results of the competition and more information are available here.
The deadline for 8th graders to sign-up for the College Bound Scholarship program is June 30.
The program, which is coordinated by the Higher Education Coordinating Board, promises to pay college tuition, fees and a $500 book allowance for low-income students who sign-up in middle school and graduate from high school and attend college. If eligible 8th graders don’t sign up this year, they lose their chance to receive help from the program.
Eligible students must be a Washington resident and be part of the Free and Reduced meal program, be a foster youth or be receiving Temporary Assistance For Needy Families benefits.
As part of the sign up process, students promise to graduate from high school, demonstrate good citizenship, and seek admission to an approved two- or four-year college or university, or an approved private career school. Continued financial eligibility and compliance with other conditions of the program will be re-checked prior to awarding College Bound Scholarship money.
The state Legislature created the program in 2007, with more than 55,000 students statewide having applied for the program. The first college students will begin receiving benefits in 2012.
Students and parents who want to sign up should contact their local school counselor or the HECB by phone at 1-888-535-0747, or by email at collegebound@hecb.wa.gov.
Additional program information is available on the HECB website .
The following honors were recently announced by the Bellingham School District
- Birchwood Elementary School recently received a $5,000 Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant. The money will be used to buy materials for a greenhouse, an outdoor covered area, an irrigation system, work tables, cold frames, a worm bin system, a three-part compost system, tools and wheelbarrows. Labor for the project is being donated by volunteers.
- Sehome High Spanish Teacher Janae Hodge and Fairhaven Middle School Principal Deirdre O’Neill recently received creative innovation certificates from the Washington Association for Language Teaching for their instructional workshops with World Language teachers in the northwest. The award is given to people who come up with creative ways to teach second language converstion, culture and multi-cultural awareness, and help develop reading and writing skills.
- Bellingham High School art teacher Paul Berg, who is retiring at the end of the school year, recently received the Washington Art Education Association Tribute Award, the highest honor available from the group.
- Bellingham High math teacher Paul Clement was recently one of 50 educators nationwide chosen as a 2010-11 Siemens STEM Fellow. Clement will be spending a week at the Seimens STEM Institute in Washington, D.C. for professional development in science, technology, engineering and math.
- Two graduating seniors – Bellingham High’s Selina Doran and Sehome High’s Michelle Lam – recently won the Gates Millennium Scholar Award. The scholarship covers tuition at any public or private school in the U.S. and will cover up to 10 years of education, over any estimated family contributions or grants. Doran will attend Westmont College in California and Lam will attend Parsons The New School for Design in New York City.
- Sehome High Spanish teacher Katie Gómez was recently named the Washignton Association Language Teaching Teacher of the Year.
- Sehome High Spanish students recently participated in the 2010 National Spanish Examinations and earned 7 gold medals, 8 silver medals,15 bronze medals and 34 honorable mentions in levels 1 through 4. Student ranks are listed below.
Gold medal participants — Level 4: Louise Highleyman, Molly LeCompte, Evan Madill and William Giller; Level 3: Caitlin Delahunt, Matt Sloane and Evan Johnson.
Silver medal participants — Level 4: Owen Chambers; Level 3: Taylor Brown, Forrest Laine and Teresa Rose Osborne; Level 2: Ian Earle, Katelin Taylor and Charles Linneman; Level 1: Meika Barclay.
Bronze medal participants — Level 4: Ryan Newell; Level 3: Katie Johnson, Bjorn Thorpe and Sheldon Dudas; Level 2: Tiffany Chou, Katherine Hannah, Miranda Hewlett, Liam Horner, Lauren Pittis and Elisabeth Larson; Level 1: Heron Paulson-Quick, Morgan Kavanaugh, Elsa Balton, Meerim Ruslanova and Darya Yesipova.
Honorable mentions — Level 4: Glen Marquardt and Brailey Murray-Kraft; Level 3: Kevin Karcher, William Topp, Anthony Mallory, Isaac Poulson, Katherine Davis, Matthew Goebel, Alex Knops, Geordie Marriner, Payton Weidenbacher and Brian Willson; Level 2: Cheyenne Bell, Amelia Black, Emma Crabo, Amy Han, Lauren Higman, Maya Hunger, Michael Mallory, Katherine Mullen, Erik Poulin, Jaden Duffy and Janice Liang; Level 1: Daniel Karcher, Raeanne Hemmen, Sophia Carbone, Hanna Tarleton, Andrea Roy, Bohdan Vorozhtsov, Amelia Bryan, Russel Goebel, Johann Lahud-Zahner, Natalie Anderson and Kristin Chalmers.
- Sehome High senior Matt Junttila recently won first plance in the Knowdown at the Washington State Mathematics Council Competition.
- Fairhaven Middle School teacher Stephanie Strow is a candidate for the National Middle School Association Board of Directors. She is a candidate to be a teacher trustee to represent the North and West regions. As a member of the board, Strow would help develop policies, procedures and regulations, monitor the association’s finances, programs and overall performance, and help the executive director.
Washington Engineering Institute in Bellingham is offering some special summer and fall programs.
The Assistance League of Bellingham recently made 47 Whatcom County public school students happy by providing scholarships for them to attend a variety of summer programs.
The 47 students are in grades 6 through 11 and come from eight high schools and six middle schools. The scholarships range in size from $150 to $1,000. In all, $29,455 was given out for this summer.
Recipients are as follows:
The St. Luke’s Foundation is accepting applications for the Lois Jean Roberts Nursing Scholarship.
The scholarship is open to students living in Whatcom County or who have graduated from a Whatcom County high school. Scholarship winners receive $1,500 per year and it may be renewed for up to three years.
The scholarship is in memory of Lois Jean Roberts, a register nurse who died in 1992. Since the scholarship was established in 1993, 95 students have received $206,000.
The application deadline is June 18. For more information call 671-3349 or go to www.stlukesfoundation.org. To download an application, click here.
Bellingham Technical College President Tom Eckert is one of six finalists to be the new president of Blackhawk Technical College in Janesville, Wisconsin.
According to a story from the Janesville Gazette, Eckert will be there for interviews and community meetings on Tuesday, June 15.
Eckert’s finalist status was confirmed by a Bellingham Technical College. To read the Janesville Gazette story, click here.
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