Thomas J. Watson Fellowship awarded to Berea College student
Awards/honors
▪ Berea College’s Zakiyya Ashe won the national competition for the 2017-18 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship prize of $30,000.
Zakiyya will travel the world for a year after she graduates in May.
Her project, “Hidden Minorities: Connection through Animation and Graphic Novels,” will take her to Australia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea and France.
▪ Theo Ehrenborg, a sophomore at Henry Clay High School, was named a winner in Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes office’s annual essay contest. Theo also won last year with his freshman essay. He received a $1,000 scholarship.
▪ Lexington Catholic’s swim and dive teams had their best-ever finishes at the Kentucky High School Athletic Association State Championships. Zac Hils, a sophomore, broke the meet record for the 200-yard individual medley. The boys’ team finished third, while the boys’ and girls’ teams combined for a sixth-place finish.
▪ Lexington Catholic senior Brian Wright defeated a host of other players in the 2017 Kentucky Individual Chess Championships in Paducah on March 4. This summer, Brian will travel to Norfolk, Va., to compete in the 118th U.S. Open Chess Championships.
▪ Taveion Hollingsworth, a senior at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, has been named Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball for the 2016-17 season.
Last year, Taveion led Dunbar to its first Sweet Sixteen championship. As a senior, he averaged 28.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, and closed out his high school career with 2,495 points.
Taveion, the city’s all-time leading scorer in boys’ basketball, is the first Lexington player to win Mr. Basketball since 1984. He has signed to play college ball at Western Kentucky University.
▪ Teams from WKU and the University of Kentucky were named winners in the Alltech Innovation Competition 2017 with ideas for music selection algorithms and activated carbon from stillage. Each team took home $10,000.
The WKU undergraduate team, including students Taylor Wathen, Blake Knott and Zachary Wathen, and their advisers Dawn Langkamp Bolton and Whitney Oliver Peake, captured the undergraduate first-place prize with their venture, Tech Gnar. The program and database uses complex measurements to suggest songs to users that are geared to their musical interests. They plan to launch the website and an app at the end of the year.
The UK graduate team, including students Fletcher Young and Zach Yonts, and their advisers Mariam Gorjian and Warren O. Nash III, captured the graduate first-place prize with their venture, Stillage Solutions. By using leftover stillage from the brewing and distilling process to produce activated carbon, the team hopes to develop a low-cost, high-quality and more environmentally friendly activated carbon product using coal, coconut shells and wood. The product could be used in everything from water and gas filtration systems to fuel cells and cellphones.
Alltech awarded the Disruptor Award — a reflection of this year’s theme at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference, “Disrupt the Disruptors” — of $2,000 to Bellarmine University’s undergraduate team for its EcoCups idea, a biodegradable version of the K-Cups used for coffee. The team members included Ariana Sherrard, Michaela Julian and Michael Ann Humphreys, and their adviser was Michael Mattei.
▪ Heesung Choi, a special education teacher at The Learning Center, has received a certificate of appreciation at the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Chicago. The recognition was for Choi’s devotion and work in sharing information about Korea with Fayette County students and the Lexington community.
At The Learning Center, Choi teaches a class that explores Korean culture, language and food. Choi was recognized for offering the first Korean class of its kind for elective credit in a Kentucky public school.
▪ Winburn Middle School placed sixth, and Paul Laurence Dunbar High School finished seventh in the 2017 Governor’s Cup state finals, which concluded March 13. The results:
Fayette County Public School high schools overall: Dunbar, seventh; Henry Clay, 16th (tied); Lafayette, 29th (tied)
Math: Austin Li, Dunbar, third; Shashank Bhatt, Dunbar, sixth
Science: Zsombor Gal, Dunbar, second; Austin Booth, Lafayette, ninth
Social studies: Zsombor Gal, Dunbar, ninth
Composition: Augustine Carlson, Henry Clay, second
Middle schools overall: Winburn, sixth; Tates Creek, 11th
Math: Lohith Tummala, Winburn, first; Dylan Li, Winburn; second; Ayush Kumar, Winburn, ninth
Science: Aditya Sundarrajan, Winburn, seventh; Lohith Tummala, Winburn, ninth
Composition: Lauren Hurt, Tates Creek, first; Gabriella Staykova, Tates Creek, fifth
▪ Two students from Lafayette High School earned national honors in the 2017 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards competition.
Zoe Felice, a senior, received two silver medals, for her art portfolio, titled “My Friends,” and for a mixed-media piece called “Stuffing Sausages.” Katrin Flores, a junior, received a silver medal in poetry for “The Poetic Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.”
Both are invited to the national awards ceremony June 8 at Carnegie Hall in New York.
▪ Lexington Catholic received a delegation of excellence award at the recent Kentucky United Nations Assembly conference. Its students received the following accolades:
J.T. Emnett, a junior, presented a bill on solar plants being built in equatorial countries to reduce reliance on nonrenewable resources. His bill was ranked highest in his committee and was debated later at Summits.
C.J. Buckles, a junior, participated in the International Court of Justices and ranked second for her debate.
Nicholas Dennis, a junior, was elected president of next year’s Security Council by his peers on the Security Council.
Sarah Simon-Patches, a junior, received the outstanding delegate award.
▪ For the third consecutive year, Eastern Kentucky University’s mock trial team earned a trip to the American Mock Trial Association’s National Championship Tournament in Memphis.
EKU finished with a 7-1 record at the Opening Round Championship series, good for third place among 24 teams and a trip to Los Angeles to compete for the national title April 21-23. EKU’s team lost only a single ballot in competition this spring after going undefeated at regionals.
Allie Maples, Mount Sterling, received another Outstanding Attorney Award. Tyler Swafford, a senior globalization and international affairs major from Tennessee, earned his first Outstanding Witness Award.
Other members of the squad include Hayley Abbott, Corbin; Laura Jackson, Artemus; Melissa Mahan, Illinois; Brianna Palmer, Richmond; Angel Spurlock, Rockcastle; Alexa Turner, Winchester; and Ryan Wiggins, Georgetown.
▪ The “We need more tape” team of Fayette County sophomores won the 2017 Destination Imagination state competition.
The group included Paul Laurence Dunbar High School students Hannah Broomhall, Elyse Halwes, Neal Rekhraj and Adam Telechbush, and STEAM Academy students Brenden Talbert and Shamik Chandrachood. They were guided by team managers Kelly Telech and Mona Azeem.
The first-place finish qualifies the group for the Destination Imagination Global Finals May 24-27 in Knoxville. Destination Imagination is a nonprofit, volunteer-led organization that aims to inspire and equip students to become the next generation of innovators and leaders.
▪ Several Family, Career and Community Leaders of America members brought home honors from the STAR (Students Taking Action with Recognition) state competition March 20-22 in Louisville.
Beaumont Middle School
Entrepreneurship, first place, Kristen Derringer, Katelyn Fields and Amber Koenig
Sports Nutrition, first place, Annie Boling and Allison Clabes
Focus on Children, second place, Kate Hazelwood and Sydney Montgomery
Illustrated Talk, second place, Khushi Arora
Parliamentary Procedure, second place, Lauren Alexander, Allie Barnes, Caroline Devine, Ava Gleckler, Hattie Maloney, Menna Shakir and Ella Williams
Sports Nutrition, third place, Logan Justice and Jackson Snodsmith
Henry Clay High School
Career Investigations, second place, Tatianna Hudson
First- and second-place winners advance to the national conference July 2-6 in Nashville.
▪ Conner Greenwell, a junior at Lexington Catholic, received a perfect score of 36 on his first attempt at the ACT.
▪ Dozens of Fayette County students have qualified for state competition in the 2017 National History Day in Kentucky program. This year’s theme is “Taking a Stand in History,” and the next contest is April 22 at UK.
The qualifiers are:
Junior Group Exhibit
Bella-Claire Carter and Ellen Bohannon, Winburn Middle School; “The Race to Equality: Jesse Owens’s Stand Against Racism in the 1930s”
Junior Individual Exhibit
Ashley Armstrong, Winburn, “Charlotte Gilman and Her Stand Against the Traditional Female Image”; Eleanor Badgett, Winburn, “From Plumbers to the President: Woodward and Bernstein’s Stand Against Political Corruption”; Dorottya Gal, Winburn, “A Picnic that Changed History: Cracking the Iron Curtain”; Emma Lauritzen, Winburn, “Evolving Ideas: John Scopes Standing Up for the Theory of Evolution in the Scopes Monkey Trial”; Elizabeth Moore, Winburn, “Tyranny and Treachery: Aaron Burr Takes a Stand for Honor”
Junior Group Website
Sarah Ming, Judy Lee and Lynn Ye, Winburn, “The Battle of Salamis: Taking a Stand for Unity in 480 B.C.E.”; Kate Messerli and Corinne King, Winburn, “Around the Campfire: John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt Taking a Stand in Yosemite”; Matthew Klee and Ava Chen, Winburn, “Gideon v. Wainwright: A Citizen’s Stand for Counsel”
Junior Individual Website
Sneha Amrit, Winburn, “Alan Turing, Turning History”; Sadie Bograd, Winburn, “A Punch to the Gut: One Magazine’s Stand on Privacy Rights”; Lian Denmann, Winburn, “All Changed, Changed Utterly: The 1916 Easter Rising”; Maggie Ferguson, Winburn, “The Lone Dissenter: John Marshall Harlan’s Stands Against Racial Discrimination”; also, Blake James, Leestown Middle, “The Freedom Stand”; Asmita Karki, Leestown, “John Brown: Stand Against Slavery”; Danielle Lake, Leestown, “Jacob Riis: Reporter and Reformer”; Jack Ayoob, Leestown, “Nelson Mandela’s Fight Against Apartheid”; Jaylin Basinger, Leestown, “Bernie Sanders: The Start for Future to Believe In”; Aidan Christian West, Leestown, “Holloway Fields Jr. and his Lasting Impact Not Only on the University of Kentucky but the Nation”; Brit Buchanan, Leestown, “Eunice Kennedy Shriver”; Isabella Squire, Leestown, “Juliette Morgan: An Unlikely Activist”; Abigail Stevenson, Leestown, “The Stonewall Riots”; Grecia Lara Martinez, Leestown, “Girabaldi”; Henry Noll, Leestown, “Harvey Milk”
Junior Paper
Evan Winkler, Morton Middle, “Taking a Stand for Equality: The Role of Radical Republicans in Reconstruction”; Juliann Hyatt, Winburn, “From Force-Fed to Free: Alice Paul’s Stance for the Nineteenth Amendment”; Ayush Kumar, Winburn, “The Massacre That Was: Tiananmen Square, 1989”; Abby Shadwick, Morton, “The Country Needed Men, and I Wanted Excitement”; Angela Sun, Winburn, “Florence Nightingale: How the Lady with the Lamp Took a Stand to Change the Face of Nursing”
Junior Individual Performance
John Baniak, Winburn, “Extre, Extre: Newsies Take a Stand!”; Garrett Peavler, Winburn, “Constitutional Conflict: Hamilton’s Battle to Save the Nation”
Junior Individual Documentary
Katherine Henson, Winburn, “Brave in the Attempt: The Story of Special Olympics”; Lily Gardner, Winburn, “Proletariat Politics: A Documentary”; Zoe Jenkins, Winburn, “The Greensboro Four: Taking a Seat against Segregation”; Sitara True, Winburn, “The Little Rock Nine: A Stand against School Segregation”
Senior Paper
Austin Li, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, “The Sherman Anti-Trust Act: Taking a Stand against Monopolies”; David Ma, Dunbar, “A Rebel with a Cause: Korematsu vs. the United States”
Senior Group Website
Reka Gal, Zsombor Gal, Rohith Kesaraju and Akhil Kesaraju, Dunbar, “The Swedish Liberator: Raoul Wallenberg”
▪ Winburn Middle School boasted the top students in the 2017 Mathcounts state competition held March 25 at WKU. Lohith Tummala placed first, and Dylan Li was runner-up among 200 regional winners from 48 schools. The Winburn team, which also included Lynn Ye and Angela Zhang, took first place.
Lohith and Dylan were awarded full-tuition, four-year scholarships to either UK or the University of Louisville. They also won a trip to the Mathcounts national competition May 13-16 in Orlando. Paula Minar, a teacher and math team coach at Winburn, will guide Kentucky’s five-member team at nationals.
In other highlights, Ayush Kumar of Winburn placed 10th among individuals, and Tates Creek Middle School finished ninth in the team standings. This group included students Nick Clevenger, Joey Ilagan, Noah Katz and JoonWoo Park.
▪ Elementary school teams from SCAPA at Bluegrass and Rosa Parks Elementary capped the 2016-17 Academic Challenge season with wins in the Superintendent’s Cup. These students, along with individual winners in the math/science and writing assessments, received scholarship offers from sponsoring colleges.
The top primary and intermediate teams from the three regional tournaments faced off March 28 in Norsworthy Auditorium to tackle core-content questions in math, science, language arts, social studies, arts and humanities, and practical living.
Primary (grades 2-3)
First place and winners of scholarship offers from Bluegrass Community and Technical College — Rosa Parks Elementary (16 of 18 possible points, yellow region): Ayaan Hasham, Tyler Johnson, Lilly Kinningham, Stoney Mack, Ahaan Thomas and Caelan Whitlow
Runner-up, Meadowthorpe (14 points, purple region): Jabez Caraballo, Avneesh Kudrimoti, Raejion Lewis, Grady Luebbehusen, Soumili Maity and Belle McKinlay
Third place, James Lane Allen (7 points, teal region): Lelo Badeagama, Carley Biddulph, Jesus Gabino, Lucy McClung, Leah Pearse and Gael Villalba
First place and recipients of scholarship offers from EKU — SCAPA at Bluegrass (15 of 18 possible points, yellow region): Mina Hartman, Alyssa Morrison, Hanari Otake, Liam Rayens, Elliot Tiennot and Faith Walls
Runner-up after 3-2 tiebreaker, Breckinridge (14 points, teal region): Braxton Baker, Nana Bamfo, Samantha Edington, Danielle Kaono, Micah Patrick and Christina Stokley
Third place after 3-2 tiebreaker, Tates Creek (14 points, purple region): Elise Dix, Asyonnah Ezzard, Aukylah Givens, Parth Patel, Zoey Washington and Tony Xu
Individual Awards
The following were awarded scholarships to UK:
Fourth-grade writing: Jay Pearman, Veterans Park Elementary, yellow region; and Emanuel Samwele, Harrison Elementary, teal region
Fifth-grade writing: Eduardo Tiscareno, Cardinal Valley Elementary, teal region; and Hailee Russell, Dixie Magnet Elementary, purple region
Fifth-grade math/science: Lauren VanZant, SCAPA at Bluegrass, yellow region; and Puja Adhikari, Julius Marks Elementary, purple region
Northern and Mary Todd elementaries received the Haymaker Foundation Team Award of $1,000, which goes to schools with significant increases in participation levels.
Miscellaneous
▪ College graduates interested in a teaching career may want to attend one of the upcoming information sessions on the Master of Arts in Teaching program at Morehead State University.
Morehead offers three programs (middle school/secondary/interdisciplinary early childhood education) in which degree-holders with no prior teaching experience may obtain a master’s degree and teacher certification while employed as a teacher.
Orientation sessions for the program will be held from April 24 through May 8. At the sessions, program design, including admission and application processes for middle, secondary and interdisciplinary early childhood education, will be discussed.
Interested persons are encouraged to bring transcripts and GRE or Praxis I (PPST, CORE/CASE) scores for evaluation purposes. Registration for the GRE, PPST or the Core Academic Skills for Educators exam can be completed through the Educational Testing Service website at Ets.org.
The sessions schedule:
April 24, 4:30 p.m., main campus, 801 Ginger Hall
April 25, 1 p.m., Kentucky State University, Frankfort
April 25, 4 p.m., Mason County High School
April 25, 4:30 p.m., Morgan County Public Library, West Liberty
April 26, 4 p.m., MSU at Ashland
April 27, 3 p.m., Morton Middle School, Lexington
April 27, 4:30 p.m., MSU at Mount Sterling
May 8, 4:30 p.m., Main campus, 801 Ginger Hall
For more information or to make an appointment, call 606-783-2503 or email m.roberts@moreheadstate.edu.
▪ Fayette County Public Schools will offer the Startalk Chinese Language Program this summer for students in grades K-5 to practice the language and learn more about the culture. Applicants must currently be studying Chinese in an Fayette County Public School classroom or be native/heritage speakers; this two-week program is not for beginners.
The free classes will provide Chinese cultural experiences and hands-on activities as students engage in conversational communication, interpretive listening and presentational speaking. The program will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays June 12-23 at Tates Creek Middle School, with a student showcase at 1 p.m. June 23. A light snack and school lunch will be provided daily; bus transportation will not be available. For questions, call 859-381-4749.
Enrollment is limited to 120, and a waiting list is expected. Online registration opens Monday.
▪ Lexington-based YouthAlert! Violence and Bullying Prevention/Health Program has been included in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Community Guide publication. Find it here.
Scholarships
▪ The deadline is Monday to apply for middle-school scholarships to send socio-economically disadvantaged boys and girls to The Lexington School for middle school.
The Pin Oak Scholarship for girls and the Bluegrass Boys Scholarship will pay all expenses for a boy and girl entering sixth grade. The scholarships cover all materials, fees, after-school care and school trips for all three years of middle school. The scholarship is valued at $25,000 a year. Contact Virginia Daugherty at 859-278-0501 or vdaugherty@thelexingtonschool.org or go to Thelexingtonschool.org/page/admission/middle-school-scholarships for more information.
▪ Horse Farm Workers’ Educational Assistance Fund Scholarship applications are available for children of Central Kentucky Thoroughbred horse farm workers. Applicants must have graduated from high school or have a GED and have been accepted by a college or technical school. Awards are made toward tuition and based upon financial need, merit, essay and a personal interview. Parent or parents must have worked for at least three years on a Central Kentucky Thoroughbred farm. Email Mstuart727@msn.com to request an application.
This story was originally published April 3, 2017 at 12:06 PM with the headline "Thomas J. Watson Fellowship awarded to Berea College student."