Seattle Public Schools | Celebrating the Best in Student Achievement

Celebrating the Best in Student Achievement

Emerson student goes to SCORES National Poetry Slam
Emerson Elementary student Keyah Wilson was one of 30 elementary school students across the nation who was chosen to perform her poetry for the America SCORES National Poetry Slam in New York City. Keyah was chosen from among 5,000 America SCORES students nationwide.

First Place - Lilianne Stevens

Second Place - Xavier Mallett

Students win top prize in Seattle Aquarium Art Contest
Two Seattle Public Schools second-graders were the top winners among hundreds of local elementary students who participated in the annual Seattle Aquarium “Your Ocean – Our Home” Art Contest. First place was Lilianne Stevens, a second-grader at Lawton Elementary School and second place was Xavier Mallett, a second-grader at Dunlap Elementary School.

Nathan Hale student wins award for stage management
Shane Goldbaum-Unger, a Nathan Hale High School student, was awarded the Special Honors-Special Achievement Award for his stage management of the spring musical, "Urinetown" during ceremonies June 4 at the 5th Avenue High School Musical Theatre Awards. Nathan Hale students presented “Urinetown" in May.

Nathan Hale physics students to work as polar scientists
Several Nathan Hale students submitted winning proposals for polar ice experiments and will follow with a visit on the Coast Guard Icebreaker Healy - all while being paid interns for research company NorthWest Research Associates. The students are Andrew Geiss, Phil Alexander-Lees, Alex Dupler and Jordan Paeth.

Seattle Schools Scholarship Fund Award Winners 2007

The Seattle Schools Scholarship Committee awarded 22 students with scholarships worth $2,000 each. Several
of the students, above, attended a May 23 ceremony where they received the awards.

Students receive Seattle Schools Scholarship funds
The Seattle Schools Scholarship Committee awarded college scholarships each worth $2,000 to 22 Seattle Public School students in a ceremony May 23, at the John Stanford Center auditorium. Students and their schools are: Damon Arrao, Ballard; Bereket Ayele, Roosevelt; Shannon Braswell, Ingraham; BreAnna Cal, Summit K-12; Diego Cortez, Chief Sealth; Jia Fu, Roosevelt; Elaine Green, Ballard; Dmitri Groce, Garfield; Aradna Gutierrez, Chief Sealth; Amber Healy, Marshall; Debbie Huynh, Cleveland; Rashunda Johnson, Nathan Hale; Talia Jordan, Rainier Beach; Henry Liu, Cleveland; Andrew Lyon, Nathan Hale; Lan Pham, West Seattle; Chanell Robinson, Franklin; James Stone, Rainier Beach; Cindy Torres, Ingraham; Chadd Tripp, West Seattle; Jordan Veasley, Franklin; Wanda Ward, Garfield.

National Merit Scholarship Corporation names winners
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation selected several Seattle Public Schools students to receive scholarship awards. Scholarship categories, names of winners, their high schools and probable career fields are:

College-sponsored Merit Scholarships:

Pranoti G. Hiremath, Garfield High School at Lincoln, Medicine (University of Washington)

Jacqueline Lin, Garfield High School at Lincoln, Neurology (University of Washington)

Kazimer L. Skubi, Garfield High School at Lincoln, Science/Research (Carleton College)

Matthew S. Yelin, Roosevelt High School, Engineering (Lewis and Clark)

National Merit $2,500 Scholarships:

Abraham C. Bae, Roosevelt High School, Education (College Professor)

Jian H. Chu, Garfield High School at Lincoln, Medicine

Adam C. Hesterberg, Garfield High School at Lincoln, Mathematics

Corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarships

Shelly K. Najjar, Ballard High School, Dietetics (Boeing)

Nigel R. Peltier, Nathan Hale High School, Science/Engineering (Boeing)

Alexander N. Rudee, Garfield High School at Lincoln; Wildlife Conservation (Boeing)

Students from Chief Sealth High School, Denny Middle School, and Gatewood Elementary School team up
to revitalize the Pelly Place ravine in West Seattle as part of Project Earth Care.

Seattle schools team up to improve environment
Chief Sealth High School's Sports and Events Marketing Class created a unique environmental project called Project Earth Care, in which Sealth students work with Denny Middle and Gatewood Elementary school students on a project to improve the environment. The pilot project focuses on the revitalization of Pelly Place ravine, a natural area in West Seattle. Upon completion, the Pelly Place ravine will be a key link to future trails, pedestrian greenways and boulevards – complementing and connecting features of the Green Crescent, both within Morgan Junction and to other West Seattle neighborhoods.

Ballard students’ videos win student television awards
Two productions by Ballard High School video students have been selected for honors by the Regional 2007 National Student Television Awards. The awards serve to promote the best in television production in a variety of categories. The students were also honored at an award presentation in June at the Northwest Regional Emmy Awards Ceremony. The productions are:

"Bittersweet" by Coburn Erskine, Becca Rice, Devan Sizemore and George Westberg, which won the Writing category; and
"Ave Rats" byClinton Carucci, Ian McKagan, andMixtli Zavaleta, which received an Honorable Mention in the Documentary category.

View Ridge Declared Global Reading Champion for 2007
After winning a very exciting and extremely close Global Reading Challenge city final in April, the View Ridge “Killer Dolphins” went on to win the championship at the Global Reading Challenge Video Conference May 11 at the John Stanford Center. The team competed against teams from Kalamazoo, Michigan; and Coquitlam and Langley, British Columbia. Team members were: Elizabeth Cox, Eric Huynh, Jeff Kelly, Menaka Narayanan, Carter Nelson and Cassidy Shamseldin.

Student Original Cards for sale at the Fremont Market

Students at the Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center
sell original art cards at the Fremont Market. Sales
benefit the SBOC scholarship fund.

Secondary BOC students create, run art-card business
Students at the Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center are learning how to speak and write English while running their own successful business. The students, using a program designed by Junior Achievement, make and sell beautiful art cards designed by fellow students. All proceeds go to the school’s scholarship fund to help needy SBOC graduates start their own small businesses. The students sell the cards at the Fremont Market and at the school.

Northwest High School Film Festival honors Ballard producers
Students from the Ballard High School Video Production Program won 15 awards and honors at the 9th annual Northwest High School Film Festival on May 5. For the third year in a row, Ballard High students walked away with more awards than students from any other school: seven top prizes (Awards of Excellence) and eight Honorable Mentions. A list of Ballard winners:

Awards of Excellence

Anti-Ad
Taylor Halbett, Steven Nansel, Tommy Nast
"Anti-Tag," Lars Kaldestad, Doyle McCarthy, Marissa Neroutsos
"Anti-Steroids,"
Commercial
"Crash Landing Pizza," Justin Amorratanasuchad, Sami Kubo, Cedar Scarlett-Lyon
Dramatic Narrative
"Bittersweet," Coburn Erskine, Becca Rice, Devon Sizemore, George Westberg
"Nice Touch," Alec Maclurg, Ben Steiner, Kevin Vitz-Wong
Documentary
"Belize: The Potential of a Nation in Need," Riley Heckel, Cedar Scarlett-Lyon
Music Video
"Hey, You!" Michael Gore, Sami Kubo, Kyle Seago, Jordan Stead

Honorable Mention

Commercial
"Don’t Waste Your Life at the Bus Stop," Michael Gore, Mike Hipp, Evangeline Spracklin
Comedic Narrative
"Chasing Game," Matt Hess, Graham Milgate, Jordan Stead
"A Good Knight’s Sleep," Marina Bambans, Elizabeth McCallum, Marissa Neroutsos
Dramatic Narrative
"Blindside," Dylan Pharoah-Whitney, Kyle Seago, Jordan Stead
"Like Father, Like Son," Justin Amorratanasuchad, Mike Hipp, Cedar Scarlett-Lyon
Music Video
"Frontier Psychiatrist," Riley Heckel, Audra McCafferty, Ben Steiner
News Feature
"The Gymnast," Audra McCafferty, Scott Miller
"Sean Daley: Male Cheerleader," Hannah Kreimer, Lena Takamori, Paul Wilson

Broadview-Thompson fifth-graders are published poets
Several fifth-grade students from Broadview-Thompson Elementary School will have their poems published in the National Anthology of Poetry. Students whose poetry were honored include: Ross Allan, Jacob Etelamaki, Emma Fillingham, Zachary Geer, Duncan Greeley, Shannon Horst, Katrina Kuo, Alejandro Ramirez-Velasquez, Daniel Rhee, Taylor Sherman, Connie Si, Ryan Smith, Nathanial Solum, andAnna Von Ravensberg from Ms. Solberg’s class.

John Rogers classroom wins ‘Junk is Good’ contest
John Rogers Elementary School students in the first-grade classroom of Lair Showalter won the classroom division of the "Junk is Good" contest sponsored by All for Kids Bookstore. Students brought in junk from home, then brainstormed and collaborated to build a land/water vehicle, using an old baby seat, foam packing blocks, corks and wheels.

Essentially Ellington top prize goes to Roosevelt High jazz band
For the second time in five years, the Roosevelt High School Jazz Band has won first place and a $1,000 prize at the prestigious Essentially Ellington jazz competition in New York. Other outstanding soloist acknowledgements from Seattle Public School students:

Carl Majeau (Garfield), clarinet;
John Cheadle (Garfield) and Logan Strosahl (Roosevelt), alto saxophone;
Joel Gombiner and Devin Mooers (both of Garfield), tenor saxophone;
Benjamin Hamaji (Garfield) and Scotty Bemis (Roosevelt), piano; and
Reed Ferris (Roosevelt), banjo.

Roosevelt also picked up four "outstanding" acknowledgments for its reed, trombone, trumpet and rhythm sections. Roosevelt student Alex Dugdale won this year's Essentially Ellington writing contest, in which students were asked to submit a 500-word essay describing an experience that led to their love of jazz.

Stevens Elementary students produce Spanish-English music CD
As part of Stevens Elementary’s centennial celebration this year, teacher Justin Maggart led a musical CD project called, "La Escuela Stevens canta asi! A Celebration of Songs in Spanish and English." The CD features original and traditional music from Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, and the United States.

Roosevelt High student awarded $500 scholarship
Loung Dang, a Roosevelt High School student, was awarded a $500 scholarship from the Seattle Association of Educational Office Professionals to use for future education.

Garfield student scores third highest in linguistics Olympiad
Adam Hesterberg, a student at Garfield High School, scored third in the nation in the first-ever North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad held in March. Hesterberg has been invited to be one of the four U.S. team members to compete at the International Linguistics Olympiad in St. Petersberg, Russia this summer. Other Seattle students who were honored are:

Qui Nguyen, Washington Middle School – 12th place
Rachel Hinman, Garfield High – honorable mention
Andrew Kennard, Garfield High – honorable mention

Three seniors win National Merit Scholarships from The Boeing Co.
Three high school students from Seattle Public Schools have received corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarships from The Boeing Co. The names of the Seattle Public Schools students, their schools, and their possible field of studies are:

Shelly K. Najjar, Ballard High School, Dietetics
Nigel R. Peltier, Nathan Hale High School, Science/Engineering
Alexander N. Rudee, Garfield High School, Wildlife Conservation|

T. T. Minor fifth-grade student to receive $1,000 scholarship
Syade Shields, a fifth-grade student at T. T. Minor Elementary School, has been named a Carson Scholar and will receive a $1,000 scholarship award for his college education.

Roosevelt senior wins 7th Congressional District art competition
Roosevelt High School sophomore Jim McGowan, a student of art teacher Cecilia Otto, took first place in the U.S. Congressional High School Art Competition, "An Artistic Discovery.” His artwork, a photograph, titled "Bus Stop,” is on display at the Washington State Convention Center and will later be displayed within the Capitol building in Washington. D.C

Roosevelt senior wins 7th Congressional Distrcit art competition

Middle school students recognized
at Math Olympiad
More than 200 middle school students from 12 Seattle Public Schools were recognized March 28 at the Annual Middle School Math Olympiad. The Olympiad is an important tool to engage students in math and raise achievement in this critical subject area. The students competed in small groups in five events: Number Sense; Geometry and Measurement; Algebra; Problem Solving; and Statistics and Probability.

Hamilton students look at war through the eyes of children
More than 100 sixth-grade students at Hamilton International Middle School considered the theme of "Looking at War through the Eyes of Children,” as they gained additional skills in reading, writing, and oral presentation. The students read the novel "Under the Sun,” by local author Arthur Dorros. A compilation of the student’s poems and artwork will be organized into books that will be sent to the iEARN conference in Egypt for display, and then distribution to school children in war-torn countries.

The culinary arts team from West Seattle High School, from left, Nyana Blume,
Michelle Wong, Chadd Tripp, Stephanie Vincent andMalia Shaker, placed fourth in state.

West Seattle ProStart Culinary Arts Team places fourth in state
The West Seattle High School ProStart Culinary Arts Team placed 4th out of 27 teams statewide in the annual Boyd's Coffee ProStart Hospitality Invitational held March 24-25 at South Seattle Community College. Two teams competed in the invitational:

a Knowledge Bowl/Case Study team which demonstrated their knowledge of the hospitality industry through a jeopardy style game and case-study presentation, and
a Culinary Arts team that demonstrated cooking and knife skills in a culinary competition. They made a four- to five-star, three-course meal in one hour.

Team members included Nyana Blume, Emily Cook, Maia Mercer, Sean Mierz. Malia Shaker, Chadd Tripp, Jena Vasseur, Stephanie Vincent and Michelle Wong.

Mercer student's winning artwork featured on posters, billboards
The artwork of Kyesha Martin, a student at Mercer Middle School, was featured in posters and billboards around the state as part of the Washington Poison Center’s recognition of National Poison Prevention Week, March 18-24. Kyesha created the winning entry while she was a fifth-grader at Dunlap Elementary School. Her artwork was featured on 31 billboards throughout Puget Sound, including Bellingham, Yakima, Ritzville and Spokane.

Students from 3 schools to perform with prestigious string octet
The Young Eight, a critically acclaimed African-American string octet, will end their two weeklong residencies at three Seattle schools with a concert performance with the students. The T.T. Minor Violinists, Washington Middle School Orchestra, Meany Middle School Orchestra and the Young Eight will perform in a "Night of Strings" April 20 at Rainier Beach High School. The Young Eight is the only professional African-American classical octet in the world and is dedicated to exposing various communities to the arts through classical music.

Seattle students help set record in Penny Harvest collection
Students, families and staff from 25 Seattle Public Schools helped set a record last year by collecting about 285 sacks of coins for Penny Harvest, a philanthropic program in Seattle. With each sack weighing approximately 30 pounds, Seattle collected around 8,550 pounds of coins. Seattle Public Schools is part of a group of 40 King County schools participating in the Penny Harvest that collected a total of 10,000 pounds of coins worth about $40,000. The previous year, students in 16 King County schools collected $14,964 and made 23 grants to various nonprofit organizations.

18 Middle School students selected for Mayor’s Scholars Awards
Mayor Greg Nickels will present 18 Seattle Public Schools students with the Mayor’s Scholars Awards, along with a mayor’s scholar letterman’s jacket, at a reception at 5:30 p.m., May 30 in City Hall. This year’s award recipients from Seattle Public Schools are:

Lizajade Berg, 6th grade, Whitman Middle School
Cleressa Brown, 8th grade, Denny Middle School
Keano DeBari, 6th grade, African American Academy
Latisha Evans, 8th grade, Madison Middle School
Desiree Grsos, 7th grade, Madison Middle School
Meron Gurmu, 7th grade, Eckstein Middle School
D'nique Harris-Welch, 8th grade, Madison Middle School
Jymaika Hutson, 6th grade, African American Academy
Chantell Jackson, 8th grade, African American Academy
Mandy Kwan, 8th grade, Asa Mercer Middle School
Sarah Maguire, 8th grade, Hamilton International Middle School
Van Phan, 8th grade, Eckstein Middle School
Malik Prince, 8th grade, Hamilton International Middle School
Daniel Ryan, 6th grade, Whitman Middle School
Manuel Segura Garrido, 7th grade, Denny Middle School
Rasha Shaibi, 8th grade, Hamilton International Middle School
Desiree Vann, 6th grade, African American Academy
Jeremy Villars, 7th grade, African American Academy

Seattle students win awards in Letters About Literature contest
Ten Seattle Public Schools students won semifinalist and honorable-mention awards in the Letters About Literature contest and will be honored in a ceremony April 6 in Olympia. The contest encourages students in Grades 4-12 to write letters to their favorite author, explaining how his or her work shaped their perspective on the world or themselves. State judges have selected the three finalists for Washington, who will advance to the national competition. Letter writers competed at three levels: Level I (Grades 4-6); Level 2 (Grades 7-8); and Level 3 (Grades 9-12). One letter from each level from each state is entered into the national competition.

The semifinalists from Seattle Public Schools are:

Tamryn Aalvik – Salmon Bay School (Level 2)
Therese Bui – Sacajawea Elementary (Level 1)
Luc Carlin – John Stanford International (Level 1)
Elizabeth Keyser – Sacajawea Elementary (Level 1)
Daniel Perlmutter – Salmon Bay School (Level 2)
Brenna Sullivan – Salmon Bay School (Level 2)
Jing Xu – Sacajawea Elementary (Level 1)

Students who won honorable mention awards are:

Sierra Anderson – Sacajawea Elementary (Level 1)
Melissa Carter – Washington Middle School (Level 1)
Mack Shumway – Sacajawea Elementary (Level 1)

Seattle students advance to finals in Robotics Competition
Team XBOT – a competition robotics team with students from Franklin and Cleveland high schools, The Center School, and Technology Access Foundation – won two major awards March 17 at the Silicon Valley Regional competition in San Jose, Calif. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a nonprofit organization founded to inspire young people’s interest in science and technology, sponsored the competition. It awarded Team XBOT the Engineering Inspiration Award and the Regional Finalist Award at the FIRST Robotics Competition. Team XBOT now advances to the 2007 FIRST Championship April 12-14 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, where the team will compete against robotic teams from around the world.

Ballard students win awards in FBLA regional conferences
Several Ballard students took home awards at the Future Business Leaders of America West Central Region conference held Feb. 13 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue. The organization is a nonprofit educational association of students preparing for careers in business and business-related fields.Students who won awards were:

Jillian Goodreau - 1st place Job Interview
Jillian Goodreau - 5th place Economics
Kenichi Sato - 4th place Business Calculations

Eight seniors earn prestigious Washington Scholars Awards
Eight high school seniors from Seattle Public Schools were selected this week to receive full-ride scholarships through the Washington Scholars Program. The students will receive state grants worth thousands of dollars to attend an in-state college or university of their choice. Three high school seniors were selected from each of the state’s 49 legislative districts. Scholar winners from Seattle Public Schools are:

Student	High School	Major	Legislative District
Nicholas Madore-Girouard	Ballard	Pre-Law/Political Science	#36
Sheida P. Aalami	Ballard	Environmental Science	#36
Timothy J. Willis	Garfield	Mathematics/Fine Arts	#36
Trang H. Tran	West Seattle	Pharmacy	#37
Jennifer T. Gee	West Seattle	Pre-Dental	#37
Shelly K. Najjar	Ballard	Dietetics	#43
Pranoti G. Hiremath	Garfield	Pre-Medicine	#43
Willa P. Zhou	Garfield	Anthropology	#46

In addition, fourth-ranked candidates in each legislative district are designated Washington Scholar Alternates. They become eligible for the grant only if one of the three Scholars in the same legislative district forfeits the award within one year. Alternates from Seattle Public Schools are:

Student	High School	Major	Legislative District
Devin A. Keyes	Chief Sealth	Cinema	#11
Lauren C. Redfield	Roosevelt	International Relations	#36
Charles S. Mostow	Summit K-12	Political Science	#37
Alison K. Ikeda	Roosevelt	Biomedical Engineering	#46

Pathfinder unicyclists show skills at KeyArena half-time show
The unicycle team at Pathfinder School showed off their basketball skills while riding on unicycles as part of the halftime entertainment Jan. 26 at KeyArena. The students performed at the game between the Seattle SuperSonics and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

B.F. Day team advances in national toy and game design contest
A team of five B.F. Day Elementary School students have passed the preliminary rounds of a national toy and game design competition and has been invited to compete in the TOYchallenge Nationals at the San Diego Air and Space Museum April 21-22. The team was selected from hundreds of teams of students from across the country. At the Nationals, 5th-grade teacher Laurella Boren will lead students Maleah Champagne-Hicks, Kelsey Machado, Emily Perry, Tristan Federspiel-Smith and Joey Uyema, known collectively as Justagroup. About 150 preliminary round finalists were invited to advance to the April competition.

26 Seattle students win awards in Student Biotechnology Expo
Twenty-six Seattle Public Schools students won awards March 5 during the 7th annual Student Biotechnology Expo at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue. Five students took home first-place awards in their categories.

The five Seattle students who placed first were:

Kelsey Gilman, Ballard High – Creative Writing, 'Life Goes On (Long QT Syndrome)'
Andrew Kennard, Garfield High – Journalism Writing, 'A Lease on Life: The Epilepsy Condition'
Jamie Li, Garfield High – Web site, 'Biodiesel'
Lenda Nguyen, Garfield High – Art, 'Forensics: Every Crime Story Waiting to be Told'
Adrienne Perry, Ballard High – People’s Choice, 'Synesthesia'

Other Seattle students who won awards were:

Katherine Acosta, Ballard High – Teaching (Honorable Mention), 'Autism – An Enigma'
Jordan Berry, Ballard High – Genomics (Honorable Mention), 'A Forearm for Marfan’s'
Matts Calgren, Ballard High – Music (Third Place), 'Fragile X Syndrome'
Roxanne Glick, Ingraham High – Art (Honorable Mention), 'The Mechanism of Muscular Contraction'
Octavia Graham, Ballard High – Career/Industry (Honorable Mention), 'Graham and Humphrey Sickle Cell Research Center'
Philmon Haile, Garfield High – Multimedia (Honorable Mention), 'Prader-Willi Syndrome: My Life with Locks'
Philmon Haile, Garfield High – Geonomics (Third Place), 'Prader-Willi Syndrome: My Life with Locks'
Shannon Humphrey, Ballard High – Career/Industry (Honorable Mention), 'Graham and Humphrey Sickle Cell Research Center'
Ryan Lau, Garfield High – Web site (Honorable Mention), 'Vaccines'
Kathryn McGillvray, Ballard High – Multimedia (Second Place), 'The Miracle of Life Redefined: In-Vitro Fertilization'
Angela Meyer, Ballard High – People’s Choice (Second Place), 'Special Staining of Canine Tissue'
Lenda Nguyen, Garfield – People’s Choice (Honorable Mention), 'Forensics: Every Crime Story Waiting to be Told'
Eli Rumpf, Garfield – Multimedia (Honorable Mention), 'Avian Influenza H5N1*'
Natalie Schlappi, Ballard – Multimedia (Second Place), 'The Miracle of Life Redefined: In-Vitro Fertilization'
Ryan Schooley, Ballard – Music (Second Place), 'The Struggles of Marfan'
Kyle Seago, Ballard – Journalism Writing (Second Place), 'Autism: The Pervasive Disorder'
Lena Takamori, Ballard – Multimedia (Second Place), 'The Miracle of Life Redefined: In-Vitro Fertilization'
Marcus Timo, Ballard – Music (Second Place), 'The Struggles of Marfan'
Nick Trimnell, Ballard – Music (Third Place), 'Fragile X Syndrome'
Natalie Trongtham, Ballard – Web site (Third Place), 'Hemophilia A: A Fatal History, a Hopeful Future'
Roy Wang, Garfield – Web site (Honorable Mention), 'Bubonic Plague: Then and Now'
Maya Weltens, Ballard – Multimedia (Honorable Mention), 'Turner Syndrome'
Kayla Williams, Ballard – Creative Writing (Honorable Mention), 'Dear Diary'

The Northwest Association for Biomedical Research presented the expo with the volunteer efforts of students, teachers, and biomedical research scientists from leading local institutes.

Sonics Players Damien Wilkins and Earl Watson join Dunlap Elementary students at Key Arena

Sonics players Damien Wilkins, far left, and Earl Watson, far right, join Dunlap Elementary fifth-grader Larentae Sanders and Courtney Strickland, a Wilson High 10th-grader from the Tacoma School District, at the KeyArena center court. The players congratulated them for winning the grand prize in their contest categories. Photo on far right is Larentae’s winning entry for the 2007 Black History Heroes Challenge.

Dunlap student wins grand prize in Black History Heroes Challenge
Larentae Sanders, a fifth-grader at Dunlap Elementary School, won the grand prize at the elementary school level for his entry in the 2007 Black History Heroes Challenge. Larentae was recognized at the KeyArena center court on Feb. 26 at the Seattle Sonics vs. Portland Trailblazers game. He also watched the game in a suite with his family and teacher; won an autographed Sonics jersey and miniature basketball; and received a family pass to MOHAI and four Sonics tickets to an upcoming game. Larentae’s artwork is displayed on the Sonics Web site. His art teacher is Donna Amira.Wing Luke Elementary School was also honored the same night for being the elementary school to submit the most eligible contest entries with 43. The school was recognized at the center court before the Sonics game and received a 2007 Seattle Sonics Black History Challenge commemorative plaque.

Franklin High students receive grant for safe driving campaign
Franklin High School teacher Judy Griffin and the Black Student Union received a $2,500 grant March 8 for their 'Stay Alive When you Drive' safe driving campaign. At the check presentation, State Farm Insurance highlighted the student team and their campaign.

Seattle students named finalists in PTSA Reflections program
Twenty-nine Seattle Public School students were named finalists in the 2006-07 Reflections Arts Program sponsored by the Seattle Council PTSA. The theme of this year’s contest was "My Favorite Place."

The following are the categories, names of the finalists and students’ schools:

PHOTOGRAPHY

Elise Kopta – North Beach Elementary School
Esther Chien – Bryant Elementary School
Anna Rose Keenan – Bryant Elementary School
Luisa Chan – Whittier Elementary School
Erik Strandoo – Eckstein Middle School
Catherine Williams – Nathan Hale High School
Pranoti Hiremath – Garfield High School

VISUAL ARTS

Jessica Flynn – Daniel Bagley Elementary School
Eloise Glickman – Loyal Heights Elementary School
Joni O’Reilly – Alki Elementary School
Lena Owens – Bryant Elementary School
Beni Ranson – Whitman Middle School
Alana Magraw-Mickelson – Franklin High School
Ellie Stephens – Garfield High School
Joey Shaw – Garfield High School

FILM/VIDEO

Eli Bloch Garcia – Daniel Bagley Elementary School
Thomas Huston – Garfield High School
Tim Willis – Garfield High School

LITERATURE

Isaac Kim – Lowell Elementary School
Anna Carlson-Ziegler – Lowell Elementary School
Julia Christensen – Stevens Elementary School
Katie Van Koevering – Bryant Elementary School
Amber Girtch – Nathan Hale High School
Arouna Taylor-Kamara – Chief Sealth High School
Christine Lo – Garfield High School
Jesse Rodriguez – Chief Sealth High School

DANCE

Koki Atcheson – Lowell Elementary School

MUSIC

Georgia Royer – Bryant Elementary School
Miran McPoland – Garfield High School

Seattle Public Schools students win 'Scary Story' contest
Four Seattle Public Schools studnets won the 'Scary Story' contest and a chance to meet horror author Steven King in November. McClure Middle School sixth-graders Tess Schooler-Reed and Natalie Spitters; Center School ninth-grader Kate Heylman; and Ballard High School junior Sara Murphy won the tickets to see King at Benaroya Hall.

UW women’s basketball signs
Roosevelt standout Mackenzie Argens
University of Washington women's basketball signed Roosevelt High standout Mackenzie Argens, a 6-3 forward, to a national letter of intent. Argens is ranked 15th among the top Western region prospects.

Arts foundation recognizes Ballard students
The National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts recognized Ballard High School students Kyle Seago and Mixtli Zavaleta for a portfolio of their work entered in the Film and Video category of the association’s Recognition and Talent Search competition. Seago received a Merit Award and Zavaleta received an Honorable Mention.

Madrona third-grader chosen to attend MLK memorial groundbreaking in D.C.
Holly Jean Dow, 8, a third-grader at Madrona K-8, was a guest in Washington, D.C. for the Nov. 13 groundbreaking of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. Holly was chosen after submitting an essay on what Dr. King’s dream for a better America meant to her.