Bryan Station students win Congressional Art Competition
▪ The Sixth District’s winners in the 2017 Congressional Art Competition include Kaitlyn Roark and Caitlynn Lopez, both of Bryan Station High School.
Kaitlyn was the overall winner with “Max in the Jungle,” which will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol building for one year along with winners from each congressional district. Caitlynn received the Constituent’s Choice award for “Play,” which collected the most “likes” on U.S. Rep. Andy Barr’s Facebook page. Her work will be displayed in Barr’s Washington office.
▪ University of Louisville political science major Erica Wheeler has won a Ralph Bunche Summer Institute award to take part in an intensive study program at Duke University.
The Lexington native was one of 20 students selected nationwide for the award, which introduces political science doctoral study to scholars from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.
The award covers room, board, tuition, transportation, books and other expenses for a five-week stay at Duke. Wheeler is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a 2014 graduate of Henry Clay High School and the daughter of Nola Justice and Eric Wheeler, both of Lexington.
▪ Damon Poke of Lexington and Rebecca Brock of Leslie County, both students at Sullivan University’s Lexington Campus, recently took home first place in the Idea State University Regional Business Plan Competition held March 29 at Lindsey Wilson College. They were awarded $1,000.
Poke and Brock’s winning entry was a business called Family Connect Transportation, which focuses on providing low-cost transportation for families of incarcerated individuals to local prisons for visitations.
▪ University of Kentucky professor Peter Kalliney has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Kalliney is UK’s William J. and Nina B. Tuggle Chair in English and the associate chair of his department in the College of Arts and Sciences. Specializing in 20th-century literature in English, Kalliney is the author of three books. His Guggenheim Fellowship was awarded to support his current research and book endeavor, “Bandung Generation: Literature, Decolonization and the Aesthetic Cold War.” The project focuses on the efforts of the United States and Soviet Union to influence the emergence of global literature in English in the decades after World War II.
▪ McDonald’s of the Bluegrass awarded a total of $10,000 in Balanced Active Lifestyle grants to 10 schools in eight counties across Central and Southeastern Kentucky. The program rewards schools and educators for developing educational programs that support physical fitness and health education for students. The following area schools were grant winners:
Southern Middle School: Spartan Sunrise Fitness Program
Breckinridge Elementary: Walk Across America
School for the Creative and Performing Arts, Bluegrass: #LiveWellScapa
Royal Spring Middle School: Titan-Up and Get Fit
▪ The Kentucky Board of Education has presented the Dr. Samuel Robinson Award to Kentucky Educational Television and the YMCA of Central Kentucky.
Since 2004, the award has been conferred on an individual or group in Kentucky for leadership, commitment and service in promoting equity and opportunity to learn at high levels for all Kentucky students.
The award went to KET for its work in providing high-quality resources, services and support across the educational spectrum.
The board recognized the YMCA of Central Kentucky with a Robinson Award for strengthening communities through youth development, healthful living and social responsibility.
▪ At the district’s 2017 STEM Fair, showcases enabled students to demonstrate projects that had an impact on a classroom, school or community. Categories included classroom instruction, community service, technical expertise and robotics. Entries were judged March 25 at Bryan Station High School.
Instruction
First place:Julius Marks Elementary, “The More You Learn, The More You’ll Earn”; Crawford Middle, “Instructional Recycling Team”; STEAM Academy, “Google-Full STEAM Ahead”
Second place: Tates Creek Elementary, “RESPECT ... We Need This at TCE!”; Jessie Clark Middle, “NTI”; Locust Trace AgriScience Center, “Agriculture Education: Positive Experiences in Agriculture for Fayette County Youth”
Third place: Arlington Elementary, “Triple D”; The Learning Center (high school division), “A Look at How We Seek, Seize and Sustain”
Service
First place: Julius Marks Elementary, “K-9 Kevlar”; Morton Middle, “Mustang Web Team”; Lafayette High, “General Tech”
Second place: Harrison Elementary, “Go Green”; Morton Middle, “Mustang Video”; Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, “International Connections”
Third place: Julius Marks, “A.O.K @ JME”; Jessie Clark, “JCMS Mission 22”
Technical
First place: Liberty Elementary, “Solar Carz”; Jessie Clark, “Washington 360”; Bryan Station High School, “Phones Down”
Second place: Julius Marks, “iMovie Manners”; Morton, “Mustang Technology Training”
Third place: Southern Elementary, “SES STLP Digital Pride”; Jessie Clark, “Money Tech”
Robotics/SumoBots
First place: Jacob Mangas of STEAM Academy
Second: Eli Milburn and Conner Sapp of Leestown Middle
Third: Timothy Kern and Tyren Harris of Mary Todd Elementary
▪ Teams from Rosa Parks Elementary and Winburn Middle School turned in strong efforts in the Kentucky Chess Association’s scholastic state tournament, in which 500 students competed in March.
In the K-1 division, Rosa Parks was runner-up with scorers Eashon Kolli, Tommy Mosely, Aditya Munish, Jack Gill and Aaron George. Alternates were John Chellgran and Ismail Khan.
In the K-3 section, Rosa Parks came in third with Raymond Yu, Daniel Fu, Oliver Houchin and Elise Trimble. Alternates were Sandyha Karthick, Riya Aron, Aaron George, Aditya Munish, Fatima Khan, Thomas Ridge and Ishmail Khan.
In the K-5 competition, ninth-seeded Rosa Parks placed second after an impressive run by Kevin Rhyne, Trey Todd, Ahaan Thomas and Emily Walsh. Alternates were Clark Malone and Kyle Yang.
In the K-8 section, Winburn brought home second-place honors behind the play of Connor Zhang, Ayush Kumar, Dominic Verry and Krishna Bhatraju. Backup was Jeremiah Hong.
▪ Dozens of musicians from Fayette County Public Schools were selected for the 2017 Kentucky Music Educators Association’s District 7 Middle School Honors Orchestra. The group is divided into the Symphonic Orchestra, conducted by Alexandra Howard of Barret Traditional Middle School in Jefferson County; and the Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Colleen Ferguson of Eastern Kentucky University.
Students from Fayette, Woodford and Clark counties auditioned for placement in the two ensembles. Following are those picked from Fayette County Public Schools.
Symphonic Orchestra
Beaumont: Jenny Lee, Chandler Zhu, Anna Ackerman, Mary Rice, Claire Ackerman
Bryan Station: Emily Peng, Jasmine Ngo, Andrew Peng, Ben Shapere, Adam Florence
Crawford: Liza Duarte
Edythe J Hayes: Annika Maxey, Ezra Mualic, Catherine Dalton, Trevor Davis
Jessie Clark: Kaionah Cooper, Hao-Wen Chih, Lindsey Long, Lia Raupp, Wes Baskette
Leestown: Abby Peck, Richard Smith, Rosa Smith
Lexington Traditional Magnet: Ethan Tantasook, Navin Tantasook, LeAnn Khong
SCAPA at Bluegrass: Ella Abraham, Maren Bylund, Isabelle Logsdon, Luise Wendroth, Allison Chavez, Emily Xiao, Priscilla Higashi, Sarah Padgett, Jackson Arnold, Claire Abraham, Nathan Duttlinger, Sara Tucker
Tates Creek: JoonWoo Park, Alan Liao, Caitlin Mamaril, Angela Gao, Vivienne Lucier, Joey Ilagan
Winburn: Jimmy Chen, Lynn Ye, Connor Zhang, Eleanor Badgett
Philharmonic Orchestra
Beaumont: Rylee Wallace, Megan Anaskevich, Alan Na, Connor Sutton, Bailey Zhu, Daniel Goff, Jason Chen
Bryan Station: Kelsey Brown, Thomas George, Mia Hunter, Corinne Sharrard, Joey Cusic, Brennen Taggart
Edythe J. Hayes: Lizzie Rice, Madeline Samuelson, Sophia LoPiccolo, Wesley Davis, Alex Troth, Chloe Stone, Evanna Marji, Emma Anderson
Jessie Clark: Isaac Schmidt, Debby Lee, Violet Updike, Teagan Fowler, Gordon Chih, Lauren Peck, Hanna Knox, Halley Johnson, Kaia Bush, Makenzie King
Leestown: Emma Thyne, Brayden Mefford, Victoria Holliday, DelTarria Jackson, Asmita Karki, Nina Bradley
Lexington Traditional Magnet: Avanti Sawardekar, Emmanuela Adu
SCAPA at Bluegrass: Caroline Groth
Southern: Faith Morales
Tates Creek: Tharanie Sunramaniam, Amber Knight, Ethan Couch, Arik Baron
Winburn: Judy Lee, Emma Snyder, Sarah Ming, Jeremy Hong, Halie Boyer, Daniel Strode
▪ Trish Dawson, a Fayette County Public Schools food service employee, has been named the Southeast Region’s Employee of the Year by the School Nutrition Association. Dawson, who was also Kentucky’s 2017 statewide honoree, is now in the running for the national award.
Dawson was appointed interim cafeteria manager at Cardinal Valley Elementary from August to January, and then interim manager at Morton Middle School from February to May.
▪ A pair of students from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School took third place in “Best of Fair” under life sciences in the 2017 Kentucky Science and Engineering Fair. The team project by David Ma and Amy Wang was also runner-up in the category of Translational Medical Science, which fell under the microbiology division.
Students in grades 5-12 from throughout Kentucky squared off April 1 at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, with the winners and runners-up in all categories receiving ribbons and monetary awards.
First-place winners, by category:
Animal Sciences: Sundus (Sunny) Ghuneim, Dunbar
Behavioral and Social Sciences: Eli Abernathy, Winburn Middle
Biochemistry: Akhil Kesaraju, Dunbar; and Vivienne Lucier, Tates Creek Middle
Earth and Environmental Sciences: Richard Haywood, Dunbar
Environmental Engineering: Julia Radhakrishnan, Dunbar
Materials Science: Brenna Wallin, Lafayette High School
Runners-up:
Behavioral and Social Sciences: Elke Coenders, Bryan Station Middle
Biomedical and Health Sciences: Dorottya Gal, Winburn
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics: Zsombor Gal, Dunbar
Engineering Mechanics: Rachel Seevers, Dunbar
Materials Science: Krista Manche, Dunbar
Plant Sciences: Rhyan Moseley, Carter G. Woodson Academy
Physical Energy: Kayla Turney, Leestown Middle
Physics and Astronomy: Ronit Kar, Dunbar
Robotics and Intelligent Machines: Nathan Rukavina, Kelly Kral and Chris Duncan of Dunbar
Systems Software: Erin Markel, Dunbar
Third place:
Animal Sciences: Megan Slusarewicz, Dunbar
Cellular and Molecular Biology: Rohith Kesaraju, Dunbar
Chemistry: Eric Cao, Dunbar
Earth and Environmental Sciences: Anna Ackerman, Beaumont Middle
Embedded Systems: Jan Balk, Dunbar
Environmental Engineering: Wilson Spangler, SCAPA at Bluegrass
Materials Science: Maggie Ferguson, Winburn Middle
Microbiology: Kelly Chen, Dunbar
Physics and Astronomy: Eric Turney, Leestown Middle
Plant Sciences: Isabella Squire, Leestown Middle
Robotics and Intelligent Machines: Melissa Hannemann, Winburn Middle
Other awards:
Army/Materials Science: Brenna Wallin, Lafayette
Air Force: Jan Balk, Dunbar; Rachel Seevers, Dunbar; Varun Hariprasad, Tates Creek Middle
American Institute of Professional Geologists/Earth and Environmental Science: Richard Haywood, Dunbar
ASM Materials Education Foundation/Materials Science: Brenna Wallin, Lafayette
NOAA’s Taking the Pulse of the Planet Award/Earth and Environmental Science: Varun Hariprasad, Tates Creek Middle
Broadcom MASTERS honorees: Elke Coenders, Bryan Station Middle; and Vivienne Lucier, Tates Creek Middle
▪ Three students from Fayette County Public Schools earned recognition in the Kentucky World Language Association’s latest showcase, hosted March 25 by UK.
In Chinese, Sarah Poston of Bryan Station High School took first place in the novice high division. In Spanish, Bryan Station Middle’s Victoria Lowe was the overall runner-up, while Esmeralda Alvarez placed second in the heritage speaker category.
▪ Andrew Albrecht, a senior at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, is among Kentucky’s 22 recipients of 2017 corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship awards. Andrew, whose probable career field is computer science, will be supported by the Cardinal Health Foundation.
Winners of $2,500 awards will be announced May 10, and recipients of college-sponsored merit scholarships on June 7 and July 17. By the end, 7,500 seniors will receive scholarships worth $32 million.
Miscellaneous
▪ A groundbreaking ceremony was held April 13 for Sayre Lower School on the same downtown ground that Sayre has called home for more than 160 years. Head of School Stephen Manella, Mayor Jim Gray, Board Chairman Ben Haggin, and the Head of Lower School Annie Papero addressed the Lower School students and guests. Special guests and major donors assisted Manella with turning over the first shovels of dirt.
The new building will include a state-of-the-art science classroom with a laboratory that opens onto a rooftop patio and garden. Outdoor spaces will serve as an extension of educational philosophies and will provide opportunities for experiential learning.
This story was originally published April 24, 2017 at 2:24 PM with the headline "Bryan Station students win Congressional Art Competition."