Traverse City Record-Eagle

Education

October 5, 2010

Education Newsmakers: 10/05/2010

----

• The Zonta Club of Gaylord Area recently hosted scholarship recipients and their families at Bennethumn's Northern Inn. Yellow roses, checks and good luck wishes were presented to the two high school scholarship recipients. Angie Crawley received a $400 scholarship; she will be attending Michigan State University to further her musical education. She was supported by her father, Tom Crawley, and brother, Anthony Crawley. Jessica Dipzinski received a $100 scholarship. Jessica is enrolled at Baker College and intends to pursue an education in the culinary arts. Her mother, Robin Dipzinski, and brother, Robert Dipzinski, attended.

• Kayleigh Schneider, a graduate of Suttons Bay High School, was one of only 10 high school seniors nationwide to receive a 2010 scholarship from Harland Clarke Holdings Corp. Recipients are dependents of employees of one of the three wholly-owned subsidiaries of Harland Clarke Holdings Corp. Schneider now attends Hope College and majors in chemistry. She is the daughter of Karl Schneider, who is employed by Harland Clarke.

• Five local teachers and their classes were named winners of Greening Michigan Classrooms Grants by Energy Works Michigan, a joint project of the Ecology Center and Recycle Ann Arbor. Heather Esterline, a teacher at St. Mary Cathedral School in Gaylord, teaches an environmental science class that will be using the money to raise salmon. Paired with the DNR, this project teaches students about water quality, habitat depletion, and biology, concluding with the classroom-raised salmon being released into the wild. At Traverse City West Middle School, Rebecca Walters will be helping her Family & Consumer Science class learn how to grow micro-greens year-round. Learning to eat locally-sourced foods is critical to reducing our impact on the environment and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Mike Wilson, a teacher at Traverse City West Senior High, will use the funds to purchase solar-powered battery chargers for TI-84 Graphing Calculators for students to understand the importance of renewable energy. Kerri Wosek, also a teacher at West Senior High, will use the grant to buy cameras and video cameras to make the current print newspaper into an online newspaper. A total of 46 grants were awarded in communities across the state for a total of moret han $21,000.

• The Traverse City Central High School Debate Team recently earned several trophies at the Detroit Country Day Tournament in Beverly Hills, Mich. Dylan Cooper was named third-place Varsity Speaker; David Blesh earned fifth-place Varsity Speaker; Kevin Query was named ninth-place Varsity Speaker. The team of Dylan Cooper and Katie Stanton finished with a 5-1 record, bowing out in the Varsity Semifinals.

• St. Mary School in Lake Leelanau recently hosted Rachel's Challenge for the four high schools of the Diocese of Gaylord (Gaylord St. Mary, Manistee Catholic, Traverse City St. Francis, St. Mary, Lake Leelanau). Rachel Scott was the first person shot and killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Eight hundred students and teachers gathered to hear Rachel's father, Darrell Scott, share his daughter's message of kindness and compassion. Mr. Scott gave the students four challenges and elaborated on all: Look for the BEST in others: Dream Big; Write goals and keep a journal; Choose positive influences; The Power of our words Heal or Hurt. After Rachel was killed, her parents found many of her writings that spoke to each of these challenges. Her purpose was to show the world that a small act of kindness can start a chain reaction and change the world.

Text Only