School Winners

Young violinist wins national award

Yesong Sophie Lee, 11, was named the Junior Performance National Winner for strings in the 2014-15 Music Teachers National Association national competitions. Yesong plays violin; her teacher is Simon James.

In addition, Yesong was selected as a winner and as a Festival Medalist at the 2015 Seattle Young Artists Music Festival Association Concerto Competition, held March 28 at the University of Washington in Seattle. It is the association’s only competitive event. Winners are selected without regard for grade or instrument, and medals are only awarded in select circumstances.

Also at the 2014-15 Music Teachers National Association national competitions, Eric McElroy won first place in the National Composition Competition Young Artist Division (ages 19-26). McElroy is a pianist-composer currently pursuing a master’s degree in piano at Konservatorium Wien in Vienna, Austria under the direction of Klaus Sticken. McElroy also studies composition with his mother, Patricia McElroy, a piano teacher in Arlington.

Lakewood choir finishes second

The Lakewood High School jazz choir, Swingbeat, brought home their seventh consecutive trophy from the annual Pleasant Hill Jazz Festival, held April 17-19 in Springfield, Oregon. They finished in second place in their division. Senior Cassidy Fry also was awarded a Festival Soloist award.

National Merit Scholars

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation recently announced winners of its corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards. Corporate sponsors provide scholarships for National Merit finalists who are children of their employees, who reside in a community the company serves, or who plan to pursue college majors or careers that they encourage.

Linh-Huan Gahr of Edmonds-Woodway High School and Vincent Srey of Lynnwood, who attends Seattle’s Lakeside School, each received a National Merit Boeing Scholarship.

Terrace High honored for Press Freedom

Mountlake Terrace High School won a First Amendment Press Freedom Award, sponsored by the Journalism Education Association, National Scholastic Press Association, and Quill and Scroll Society. The school was honored on April 16 at the JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention.

The award recognizes schools that actively support and honor the First Amendment through their student media. Mountlake Terrace, home of The Hawkeye, was one of seven schools honored nationwide.

In addition, senior Nicholas Fiorillo was a runner-up in the National High School Journalist of the Year competition. He received an $850 scholarship.

Green thumbs up for students

The seventh- and eighth-grade students of Everett Christian School joined members of the Everett Parks and Recreation Department and Snohomish County PUD to plant trees April 15 at the new Judd and Black Park, at the corner of Hewitt Avenue and Maple Street, as part of an Arbor Day celebration.

The tree-planting ceremony marks an Arbor Day tradition in the city of passing stewardship from one generation to the next, parks program supervisor Jane Lewis said. “If you look around Everett, you will see many kinds of thriving trees planted by students in celebration of Arbor Day, along our streets, in our parks and at our schools.”

Students created informational posters depicting native trees, served as the color guard, and helped plant trees, including a ceremonial planting of the park’s first tree.

Elsewhere in the city, students from View Ridge Elementary School were expected to help with an Earth Day work party April 24 at Johnston-Kelly Park, at 49th Street SW and Forrest Drive. View Ridge students often help take care of the greenbelt, which is used as an outdoor classroom by the school and other groups.

“Without their help, the park would not be the great site that it is,” said Craig Callies, an Everett horticulturist.

Meanwhile, 27 students from an Arlington High School environmental science class and other volunteers planted trees and picked up garbage near the entry bridge to campus and at Zimmerman Trail along Portage Creek for an Arbor Day project.

Scholars named

The Washington Student Achievement Council and the Association of Washington School Principals recently announced the names of 654 Washington Scholars from 263 high schools this year. The Washington Scholars recognition award represents the highest academic honor conferred by the state and is awarded to students who demonstrate educational excellence and civic commitment.

Archbishop Murphy: Elliott Forde

Arlington: Peter Chung, Connor Ghirardo, Tyler Kervella, James Piscioneri

Cascade: Emily Gonzalez, Robianne Ramos, Audrey Taber, Kenneth Tran, Ashley Turcott

Cedar Park Christian: Hannah Wong

Edmonds Heights K-12: Cassidy Waters

Everett: Cooper James, Kyra Mohn, Logan Wahl, Andrew Winecoff

Glacier Peak: Megan Christie, Alexander Helman, Sarah Jones, Paige Lipetska, Dylan Peterson

Henry M. Jackson: Hye Yeon Cho, Celia Evans, Lessane Ketema, Dong-Gyo Lee, Macy Matheson

Kamiak: Hye Won Ahn, Kara Eckley, Garrett Peterson, Dominik Smith, Jin-Hyuk Son

Lynnwood: Julianna Brutman, Kelsie Knowles, Khanh Le, Jessica Nguyen, Thien Bao Trinh

Mariner: Timothy Angelos, Thuy Bui, Andrey Busev, Anh-Minh Nguyen, Christine Truong

Marysville Getchell: Jasmine Ortiz (Academy of Construction and Engineering), Cristianna Campbell (School for the Entrepreneur)

Marysville Pilchuck: Jennifer Baxter, Emily Dunston, Sierra Price

Monroe: Samuel Burke, Cassandra Engvall, Amber Van Brunt, Matison Wichser

Snohomish: Katie Doucette, Michaela Flitsch, Collin Kane, Mylinh Le, Ava Linvog

Stanwood: Sasha Cordier, Caitlin Lingrey, Joshua Marble, Corina Pierce

Youth artists win at state exhibit

Washington State Youth Art Month was celebrated in March by the Washington Art Education Association with a special exhibit at Schack Art Center in Everett.

The 2015 Youth Art Month theme was “Art Builds Bridges.”

Jenny Ro of Kamiak High School received the Best in Show award for her drawing, “Sienna.” Ro receives an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City for herself, a parent, and her teacher, compliments of Sargent Art.

Students from eight schools in the state participated in the exhibit.

Other local winners were Dakota Tice of Kamiak High School (high school division); Kristina Golonko of Voyager Middle School (middle school division); and Erin Mee of Glacier Peak High School (YAM Flag design).

Kamiak dancers place third at state

The Kamiak High School Dulcineas dance team placed third in the dance category at the WIAA State Dance and Drill Championships held March 27-28 in Yakima. The group also took fifth place in the pom category. Kamiak competed against 35 other schools in the 4A division.

Honorable mentions in literature contest

Four local students were given Honorable Mentions in the 2015 Letters About Literature contest, sponsored by the Washington State Library. The students were among 217 semifinalists statewide.

Letters About Literature encourages young readers to read a book and write a letter to the author about how the book changed their view of the world.

Local honorable mentions:

Reese Gosselin of Everett, for R.J. Palacio’s “Wonder”

Nicholas Fiorillo of Mountlake Terrace, for Richard Wright’s “Native Son”

Thanh Nguyen of Everett, for Shane Koyczan’s “To This Day”

Ben Reijonen of Mountlake Terrace, for H.A. Dorfman’s “The Mental Game of Baseball”

The students will be honored at a ceremony May 15 in Olympia.

Best book posters in Edmonds

A reception for the Edmonds Arts Commission’s annual “Best Book I Ever Read” poster contest winners and their families was held April 16. The contest was for Edmonds third-grade and multi-age classroom students.

This year’s Outstanding Award winners: Emma Averbeck, Maplewood; Dannika Burke, Chase Lake; Ayden Burliegh, Chase Lake; Daniel Conaty, Holy Rosary; María Delgado, Westgate; Alyssa Dittoe, Sherwood; Carson Gougeon, Chase Lake; Waylisha Grey, Westgate; Reese Krieger, Maplewood; Fiona Lynch, Holy Rosary; Charolotte Miceli, Maplewood; Audrey Mitchell, Holy Rosary; Tayla Newman, Seaview; Ruby Persun, Seaview; Sonja Scarseth, Seaview; Thalia Sibaja, Chase Lake; Brenden Steenmeyer, Sherwood; Sydney Stumpf, Holy Rosary; Malia Terwilliger, Seaview; Rachel Wechsler, Sherwood.

Winning posters are on display through May 14 in the Frances Anderson Center, 700 Main St.

Kamiak junior serves in Olympia

Joon Young Lee of Mukilteo spent a week in April serving as a page in the Washington State Senate in Olympia. He was sponsored by Sen. Marko Liias, D-Lynnwood.

“It’s challenging to find all the different rooms and buildings on the first day,” said Lee, a junior at Kamiak High School. Lee enjoyed hearing senators debate issues on the Senate floor, then created his own mock bill for a page program exercise. “(The program) is a lot of fun and you learn more than you would in a class.”

Music teacher honored by Rotary

Phil Onishi, a music teacher at Lynnwood High School, was named the Alderwood-Terrace Rotary April Educator of the Month.

“I have observed him to be one of those unique individuals who is able to relate to kids, earn their respect and positive behavior, and also be organized and effective in planning complex activities and events,” Principal Dave Golden said. “On any given day, you will find him working with kids at 6:30 a.m. as he teaches our Jazz Ensemble and it is a tribute to him that they are always there and ready to go at such an early hour.”

Monroe teacher walks Dostoyevsky book

Monroe High School English teacher Giles Stanton recently returned from a three-week trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, to study the setting behind Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,” which he teaches in his Advanced Placement English class. “According to a number of scholars, the city of St. Petersburg is actually a character in the book,” Stanton said.

Stanton traveled at his own expense as part of an Oxford University program, guided by the director of the Hermitage Museum. “The focus of my time was to understand how the city affected the book,” Stanton said. “To walk the streets and imagine how crowded it was back then, how rushed, how smelly.”

Stanton visited the room where Dostoyevsky wrote the novel and was able to look across the street to the room where the book’s character lived. Stanton said the experience already is informing his teaching. “It was a fantastic trip because so many of my expectations were completely wrong.”

Army credits facilities manager

U.S. Army Major Paul Beausoleil recently presented Edmonds School District facility use coordinator Linda Lane with a Certificate of Appreciation for assisting in scheduling a U.S. Army Reserve Unit to use district track facilities for physical fitness training. “As a Commander, I am unable to execute successfully without continually assessing the fitness of our soldiers and she has worked diligently to accommodate our needs without interfering with overall community (and) school events,” Beausoleil said.

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