South Cherokee Optimist Club Honors CCSD Students Cherokee County School District (CCSD) students and employees were recognized recently at the South Cherokee Optimist Club's Annual Youth Appreciation Awards Breakfast. The event recognizes high school students with disabilities with awards in several categories. The Club honors middle school students with disabilities in the spring. The honored students included:Most Improved Kelsey Phillips, Etowah HS; Victoria Wooldridge, Sequoyah HS; Austin Garrett, Transition Academy at Woodstock HS;Outstanding Achievement Matthew Blalock, River Ridge HS;Positive Attitude and Outstanding Achievement Ryan Hamburg, Woodstock HS.
Etowah HS Senior Wins Youth Gold Award Katherine Morawa, a senior at Etowah HS, has won a regional award in recognition of academic achievement and leadership. Katherine has won the Hispanic Heritage Foundation 2014 Regional Youth Gold Award in the Education category. The awards for the Atlanta region recently were presented during an awards ceremony held at Georgia Tech University. The Youth Awards honor Latino high school seniors who excel in the classroom and community and for their achievement in various areas of study; the Education award is sponsored by Southwest Airlines. Three students are honored in each category one Gold, one Silver and one Bronze winner in each of the Foundation's 10 regions; of the 30 total honorees, one will be selected as the National Youth Award recipient of the category. Approximately 10,000 applications are submitted each year by high school juniors, who are honored as seniors in the fall. Students have an average GPA of 3.5 or higher, and winning students are role models who "inspire others and shatter negative stereotypes." Katherine will be recognized by the Cherokee County Superintendent of Schools and School Board at the January 15 School Board meeting.
Woodstock HS Student Receives Charity Sponsorship Kirsti's Wishing Well, a nonprofit for musicians, writers, and artists in loving memory of Kirsti Sue Baiel, has selected WHS sophomore Brooke Bowling as its first recipient of a sponsorship for Indoor Color Guard/ Indoor Drumline. Brooke is a member of the WHS Winter Guard and the Marching Wolverines Color Guard. She is the daughter of Jim and Christy Bowling; Christy Bowling is assistant principal of Arnold Mill ES.
Woodstock Sophomore Elected to Georgia Junior Classical League Nic Franco, a sophomore at Woodstock High School (WHS), has been elected as a State officer for the Georgia Junior Classical League. He was elected during the League's Fall Forum, which is the first major Latin competition of the year and was attended by students from 30 Georgia schools. As State Convention Host, Nic will hold a State officer's position for the 2014-15 school year, will be required to attend and host all officers' meetings, and will be the host of the State Convention for 2015. Also during the Fall Forum, out of hundreds of students taking exams, WHS sophomore Kevin Chong placed third in the Latin 2 grammar exam and fourth in the Latin 2 Roman History exam. At these events, Latin students compete in creative, athletic and academic contests as individuals and to earn school recognition, and attend informational and fun workshops to further their knowledge of the Classical world. WHS Latin teacher Kellie Jo Mason serves as the school's Latin Club, Junior Classical League, and National Latin Honor Society sponsor. "I am so excited about the growing enthusiasm and energy I'm seeing in our Latin Club every year and am proud of how far our students have come in the few short years I have been here," she said. "I am honored to have brought state and national recognition to WHS through the growth and success of the Latin program. It is truly great to be a Latin Wolverine!"
River Ridge Student Writes Novel for Senior Project River Ridge High School senior Cindy Chen is conducting a "book tour" after writing a novel for her senior project. The novel, "Sounds of War," is a young adult historical fiction based in 1941 Leningrad during the Nazi occupation. Cindy did extensive research for the setting of this novel, as well as arranging for it to be published. Cindy is sharing her experience as a published writer with other CCSD students. Media Specialist Keara Rubin has assisted her in scheduling five presentations already, including a recent video conference with Woodstock High School (WHS) seniors in Jacqueline Vance's AP Literature class. Several WHS students are doing a similar project, and said they appreciated talking with Cindy about her process. Cindy's book can be purchased through Amazon.
Chattahoochee Gold Swimmers Earn Scholarships Rachel Pelzek of Chattahoochee Gold swim team has accepted a swim scholarship from Western Kentucky University. Rachel is a senior at Sequoyah High School and has competed for Gold since the eighth grade. She says the scholarship offer never would have happened without her coach, Mark Schilling. "I can literally say that Mark is the reason I have stayed with this sport and am able to swim in college. He has never given up on me and he constantly inspires me to reach higher goals than I ever thought possible." Rachel is mostly a sprint freestyle swimmer and plans to major in Exercise Science at WKU. Alarii Levreault-Lopez, who has been a member of Chattahoochee Gold since he was 5, has accepted a swim scholarship to Louisiana State University. Alarii says he knew LSU was the college for him when he visited the campus. "I was so honored and amazed by the way the entire swim team treated each other that there was no way I could think of going anywhere else to swim for the next four years." He adds, "Chattahoochee Gold has been nothing short of the greatest life experience any teenager could ask for. I've learned so much in and out of the pool from the team coaches and swimmers that I'll remember for the rest of my life. Gold really prepared me for the next step in my life and I couldn't be more thankful." Alarii will study Petroleum Engineering at LSU.
Carmel ES Teacher Named STEM Teacher of the Year by Museum of Aviation Carmel Elementary School (CES) teacher Merry Willis has been named the Museum of Aviation National STEM Academy's STEM Teacher of the Year for 2014-2015. Willis was nominated by the school's 2013-2014 principal, Keith A. Bryant. Both the school and Willis will receive a $1,000 prize for the achievement. Willis is responsible for building CES' STEM program from scratch two years ago. More than 1,200 students in kindergarten through fifth grade participate in the STEM class once a week throughout the entire school year. Three judges carefully reviewed the applications that were submitted. Judges were Katie Thompson, a STEM director at West Georgia RESA; Edwin Mills, a Master STEM Teacher in Bay County, Fla.; and Amy Hudnall, deputy director of the Georgia Center of Innovation for Aerospace. Melissa Spalding, director of education at the Museum of Aviation, visited Willis' classroom and took a tour of CES. Willis was presented her award prize at the 4th Georgia NASA STEM Day Conference for Educators, held recently at the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins.
Boston Elementary Students Show Spirit for Operation Graduation Boston Elementary School students show the Etowah Eagle spirit they're building as part of the "Operation Graduation" Zone initiative! The initiative encourages students at all of Etowah High School's feeder schools to become a part of the Etowah High School family at an early age by participating in Etowah High School football and basketball games and other Innovation Zone initiatives.
WES Parent Wins Box Top Sweepstakes Woodstock Elementary School (WES) parent Carlene Hotz has won 50,000 box tops for the school in an online sweepstakes. The box tops can be traded in for $5,000 in school supplies, equipment or other rewards. The contest, Box Tops for Education "Dimes in Disguise," sponsored by General Mills, already has transferred 50,000 box tops to the school's account to spend. Each box top has a value of 10 cents to trade in for school supplies. The school earnings loyalty program allows parents to turn in special labels from boxes of food products to earn rewards for their school. Hotz is the mother of WES fourth-grader Matthew and first-grader Michael. "The school is grateful for this unexpected but much-needed gift," said Principal Kim Montalbano, adding that she is researching funding options for an additional computer lab at the school. "This will certainly help with the cost of this project."
WHS Senior Selected Student Advisor to School Board The Cherokee County School Board has included a student advisor position since 1999, as well as a student delegate from each high school in the last five years. The student delegates serve for one year, contributing valuable feedback to the school board. The advisor role is rotated among the county's high schools. The 2014-15 student delegates to the Cherokee County School Board took office at the board's first meeting of the new school year. Parth Patel, a senior at Woodstock High School, was selected student advisor. The student delegates are: Richard "Alex" Fulbright, ACE Academy; Kathryn Huller, Cherokee High School; Calli Ruschmeyer, Creekview High School; Rushay Amarath-Madav, Etowah High School; Molly Herring, River Ridge High School; and Isabelle Riddle, Sequoyah High School. "These are among our school district's most impressive students, and we appreciate their willingness to serve in order to provide a student's perspective to the school board," said Superintendent of Schools Frank R. Petruzielo. "The students selected for these positions already are outstanding student leaders, and through this new role they will gain greater experience and insight that will serve them well as they pursue higher education, careers and, we hope, important leadership roles in their communities and our nation."