Madison Elementary School District
Boys end season as conference champs
The Madison Meadows boys varsity basketball team finished the season undefeated for the second year in a row, defending its Valley Athletic Conference championship. The team also earned first place in the Greenway Christmas Tournament, finishing 24-2 for the season.
The Madison School Board paid tribute to the team members at its meeting on May 3, highlight those “scholar athletes” who also were able to maintain straight A’s during the season, including: eighth graders Zachary Williams (captain), Cullen Burt, Paul Hayden, Nick Asa, and David Haen; seventh grader Elijah Johnson, and fifth grader Sammy Williams.
Adrian Moore, Sam Aguirre Kadin Beler and Niko Haen round up the eighth graders. Returning to defend the championship will be seventh grader Nolan Parker.
Zachary Williams and Cullen Bert are headed to Brophy College Prep to play basketball and soccer. Paul Hayden, Nick Asa, Niko and David Haen, Sam Aguirre and Adrian Moore are headed to Sunnyslope High School to compete in basketball and other sports.
Osborn Elementary School District
Volunteer vets renovate school
More than 70 veterans and community volunteers reported for duty on April 30 with The Mission Continues 2nd Platoon Phoenix to renovate Longview Elementary School, 1209 E. Indian School Road.
Together, the volunteer veterans and some of their family members updated the courtyard and recreational space with plants, gravel, artwork, a new desert tortoise habitat, gardens, benches, tables and special needs activity centers. 2PLT team members also performed repairs and did minor construction work.
The volunteers created a memorial in the memory of SPC Ari Weeks, killed in action in Baghdad, Iraq in 2007. A bronze marker and memorial space was installed in his honor.
Longview Elementary is a Title 1 public elementary school in the Osborn School District, serving the families and children of Central Phoenix. The Mission Continues is a national nonprofit organization that empowers veterans to serve their country in new ways through two innovative and action-oriented programs.
For more information, visit www.missioncontinues.org.
Phoenix Union High School District
Team captures third at culinary cook-off
The Camelback Culinary team of Javier Duarte and Juan Orneles took third place in the Teen Cook-Off at the Scottsdale Culinary Festival April 16, and they beat the two teams from the hometown high school Chaparral. Arianna Soberanes and Joseph Grant made up the other Camelback team.
The students had to prepare a appetizer and an entree in 45 minutes. The three-judge panel included Jeff Holman, who is a former instructor at Metro Tech, and Chef John, who competes in worldwide competitions. The Camelback team was invited to Chef John’s kitchen to learn some techniques on plating.
Lam earns coveted ASU Medallion
Central High School student Ellen Lam was one of 34 Arizona seniors to earn the 2016 ASU Medallion Scholarship. She attended the awards reception on April 15.
Lam, who will major in biomedical engineering, also was awarded the Doran Scholarship from Arizona State University. Both scholarships amount to $24,000 over four years, in addition to mentoring.
Candidates had to successfully complete the rigors of writing an essay, completing a professional resume, and sitting for a panel interview.
Two students travel to summer conventions
Juniors Marlene Palacios and Carlos Hernandez will represent Central High at the annual Girls and Boys State Conventions this summer.
Girls State will take place the first week of June on the campus of the University of Arizona. Boys State will meet the same week at Northern Arizona University.
The American Legion sponsors these conventions, which bring together high school students from throughout Arizona to learn about citizenship and state and local government. Delegates will organize political parties, compete in elections and run their own city council and legislature. They will also elect delegates to represent Arizona at the Girls and Boys Nation meetings in Washington, D.C.
A competition for analyzing crimes
Metro Tech High participated in the State of Arizona Eighth Annual CSI/Law Competition, held at Shadow Mountain High School on April 16. Metro Tech had four teams in the Forensic/CSI competition. Contestants were evaluated on how successful they were able to process a burial crime scene using forensic anthropology science techniques.
Contestants had to secure the crime scene, uncover and recover human bones, provide proper identification and bagging of evidence, perform any lab analysis and DNA testing, gender and age identification, and produce appropriate documentation and reports for the adjudication process.
Metro Tech winners included Emily Diaz, William Serrano, Jaime Gutierrez and Jamila Gonzales, who took first place in Best Crime Scene Photography. The team of Kimberly Romero, Jacqueline Ramirez, Yelitza Gomez and Celia Landaverde captured first place Best Crime Scene Preparation.
Students receive socks, scholarships
The Ronald McDonald Prize Patrol visited Camelback High School on May 11, handing out 500 pairs of red-and-white striped socks to students in honor of the school having the most Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) scholarships awarded this year.
Nine Camelback High School seniors received scholarships totaling $25,000. They are: Luisangel Barrera, Wynter Coleman, Jayleen Espinoza, Yuribi Gonzalez, Yanairi Guillen, Naruro Hassan, Hintisar Juneyd, America Sandoval and Helena Silva-Nichols.
RMHC Phoenix, with the support of McDonald’s of Phoenix, is awarding 100 scholarships, ranging from $1,500 to 2,500, to high school students attending college this fall.
Club members design prosthetic arm
The Metro Tech MESA Club (Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement) competed in the MESA Day Arizona Competition held at Arizona State University on April 23. They entered four events: Prosthetic Arm, Duct Tape Challenge, Hydropower, and On-Site Challenge.
Team members included Suny Mendez, Odalys Oscobar, Lavina King, Luis Pena, Jonathan Hernandez, Arely Contla, Alexis Pamphile, and Gustavo Rendon. Math teacher and club advisor is Michael Carlson.
The team’s prosthetic arm took sixth in the state. This project required building a prosthetic arm and programming it with an Arduino board. The project required the prosthesis to perform three tasks—distance-accuracy task, object relocation task, and dexterity task.
Along with the arm’s performance task, students were required to document the engineering process by keeping and submitting an engineering notebook, submit a 5-15 page technical paper, and create a poster presentation.
One highlight of the Metro project was the way students attached the device to their arm. The students designed a holder using design software and printed that part with a 3-D printer.
Bench decorated in honor of former staffer
The North National Art Honor Society recently completed a mosaic-tiled bench in memory of Assistant Principal Melville McKay, who passed away unexpectedly last summer. The students talked to various teachers and staff to find out what they knew about “Mac.”
Some of what the students learned is represented in the tiles, such as: He loved to travel to New York City (Statue of Liberty); he loved jazz music (the musical instruments and musical notes), his name is intertwined within the notes; and when anyone came to see him, he always had candy to offer (candy scattered throughout).
One of his favorite sayings was “Honesty breeds trust,” which is written in the tiles.
Under the direction of art teacher Julie Peters, the students made the ceramic tiles by hand, designed the imagery, and then glazed the tiles. Finally they were added to the top of the bench and grouted. The bench currently resides at the west side of the administration building. Bob Jacot, sales manager at Precision Precast Group, donated the concrete bench.
Washington Elementary School District
Student honored for food drive efforts
Khalia Enriquez, a student at Sunnyslope School, has been an active program participant at the Sunnyslope Community Center, located at 802 E. Vogel Ave. So when she heard the center was participating in a canned food drive for St. Mary’s Food Bank, she wanted to help. And soon a friendly competition ensued between her and former recreation coordinator Scott Williams.
While Khalia worked to get youth at the community center energized about taking part in the food drive, Williams rallied the seniors from the adjacent Sunnyslope Senior Center. Ultimately, the youth beat out the seniors and adults by bringing in the majority of the food. Together Khalia and Williams were able to get center participants to raise more than 85 pounds of food for the food drive.
Both were recently honored by St. Mary’s food bank for their efforts.
Private and Charter Schools
Speech, debate team wins state championship
The Phoenix Country Day Middle School Speech & Debate team won the Arizona State Championship at a tournament at Chandler Prep held the first weekend of May. There, nearly 300 students in grades five through eight from over 20 schools across the state competed for the state title, and PCDS took the championship for the second year in a row.
In multiple categories, from Model Congress to Extemporaneous Speaking to Duo Interpretation, PCDS students performed well, and along with their team state championship, individual state titles were won by Sam Steiner, Pierce Florey, Olivia Boscardin, Emory Murff, George Nassar, Ethan Lambert, and Hampton Kohler.
This is the second year of existence for the PCDS Middle School Speech & Debate team, as well as its second state title. Up next, this group will send selected qualifying competitors to the Speech & Debate National Championship in Salt Lake City in June.
MHP track and field competes at state
The Madison Highland Prep varsity track and field team completed its season in April at the 2016 Canyon Athletic Association (CAA) State Championships.
Jennifer Kobs finished as state runner-up in the 400-meter dash. The women’s relay team of Jennifer Kobs, Tarihya Perkins, Madison Jones, and Jada Easter finished as state runner-up in the 4×400 meter relay.
The men’s relay team of Hugo Lopez, Kai Kroodsma, Carlos Lopez, and Simon Bowen finished as state runner-up in the 4×800 meter relay. Top finishers for the women included Madison Jones who came in third in the 300-meter hurdles and sixth in 1600m. Also ranking high were Jada Easter, fourth in 400m; Tarihya Perkins, sixth in shot put; and Jennifer Kobs, seventh in 800m and 1600m.
Top finishers for the men were Simon Bowen, third in 800m, and Alex Kobs, sixth in discus. The team of Harrison Dagher, Cristian Casarrubia, Evan Hallquist, and Simon Bowen came in fifth in 4×100-meter relay, and the team of Carlos Lopez, Evan Hallquist, Harrison Dagher and Simon Bowen came in eighth. In all, six men’s and three women’s school records were set at the state championships.
Cool drinks bring in canned food for needy
At the end of April, the youngest members of the All Saints’ Episcopal Day School community, the pre-kindergartners, teamed up to hold a lemonade stand. The cost of a glass of lemonade was one can of food that was donated to St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance.
Students, faculty, staff, and visitors donated both cans and money totaling 354 pounds of non-perishable food and $100 in donations.
Students at All Saints’ participate in service learning throughout the school year. St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance is just one of the school’s community partners. Students at each grade level choose a service project each year.
Local youth heads to China this summer
North Central teen Brandon Hulston, a junior at Brophy College Preparatory, was awarded the U.S. Department of State’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y), a scholarship that will allow him to spend this summer in China, learning about the culture and language.
Brandon is one of only approximately 600 competitively selected students from across the United States who will receive a scholarship to study Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Russian, or Turkish overseas this year. While in China, Brandon will receive formal instruction and informal language practice in an immersion environment.
The NSLI-Y program seeks to increase the number of Americans who can engage with native speakers of critical languages. The goals of the NSLI-Y program include sparking a lifelong interest in foreign languages and cultures, and developing a corps of young Americans with the skills necessary to advance international dialogue and cross-cultural opportunities in the private, academic, and government sectors. For more information, visit www.nsliforyouth.org.
Dunn to speak in Washington, D.C.
Xavier College Preparatory faculty member Alison Dunn was invited to be the keynote speaker at this year’s Congressional Art Competition celebration on June 23 in Washington, D.C.
Dunn is an instructor and co-chair of Xavier’s studio art department as well as the co-curator of the school’s Stark Gallery.
MHP students volunteer at Phoenix food bank
National Honor Society (NHS) students at Madison Highland Prep volunteered at Desert Mission Food Bank on April 30. Nine volunteers assembled two bins of bagged food totaling 2,460 pounds. The time they donated to the food bank fulfilled the students’ club service requirement.
NHS students also attended a joint field trip with Madison Park Middle School to The University of Arizona College of Medicine–Phoenix on May 16-17. Madison Highland Prep students served as mentors to middle school students as they toured the new medical school.
Midtown ‘steams’ up this summer
With help from Executive Charities, Midtown Primary received private funding to offer its kindergarteners a summer “Jump Start” program. They get a head start on number sense, letter awareness, how to be a group member, and a part-time introduction to being away from home.
In the meantime, the first-fourth graders have the opportunity to participate in a Science Technology Engineering Art and Math (S.T.E.A.M.) summer camp. They are looking forward to using their new patio, complete with fans (which Lowe’s helped to build). Volunteers are installing misters. The outdoor space will be a great compliment to the classrooms and playgrounds.
“We are excited to give our students a creative, challenging, and healthy summer,” says Principal Judy White. “Research shows that children that are engaged in fun activities where they can apply what they have learned, regress very little over the summer.”
