Slew of Awards and Recognitions For York High School

Slew of Awards and Recognitions For York High School - A number of York High School students have earned recognition for high academic achievement. And the school itself has earned a couple of recognitions, too.

National Merit Finalists

Six York High School students are among 16,000 semifinalists who have met the requirements to advance to finalist standing in the National Merit Corporation scholarship competition.

Named National Merit Finalists are Karen Altergott, Caroline Dierksheide, Evan Fabry, Emma Fisher, Ushasi Naha and Matthew Wilbur.

A Certificate of Merit was presented to them at a recognition breakfast earlier this month. Finalists will be considered for National Merit Scholarships to be offered in 2013. Scholarship winners will be announced in four groups:

•     Corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners – April
•     National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners – May
•     College-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners – July

About 1.5 million students entered the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Program; about 16,000 were named semifinalists. They were designated in proportion to each state’s percentage of the national total of high school graduating seniors. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, semifinalists must submit a detailed scholarship application and present a record of very high academic performance. (see HERE)

These students are competing for "a significant amount of scholarship money," District 205 Superintendent David Pruneau said at Tuesday's School Board meeting.

"It's exceptional to have six finalists from one high school," he said. "They are proudly representing Elmhurst."

Skills USA State Qualifiers

York students also qualified for state competition in SkillsUSA and will compete in Springfield April 11-13. SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry with the goal of creating world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens. The following students were recognized:

• Adobe Photoshop Design: Hannah Kopach, Anna Hovorka, Elizabeth Gordon
• Automotive Service Technology: Chris Taylor, Cody Schau
• Collision Repair Technology: Chase Peterson, Christian Craig, David Byrne
• Power Equipment Technology: Steven Knopf
• Principles of Technology: Nicole Juarez
• Screen Printing Technology: Emma Baubly, Breanna Stubbs
• Technical Drafting CAD: Anthony Cano, Jake Pulver, Alec Hein, Garret Campbell, Kacia   Cortopassi, Nick Cosentino, Alex Frantzis, Ben Norgle, Tim Stotz

IDEA State Qualifiers

Congratulations also go to the following students for placing in the Top 3 and qualifying for the State Illinois Drafting Educators Association competition.

•     Introductory CAD: Alex Tase, first place, Stephanie Cui, third place
•     Assembly Modeling: Kyle Stevens, first place, and Jake Pulver, second place
•     Machine CAD: Alec Hein, first place
•     Solid Modeling: Nick Cosentino, first place

Science Olympiad

The York High School Science Olympiad team took fifth place at the March 9 College of DuPage regional competition, which included more than 30 teams.

The following varsity team members were recognized:

•     Anna O'Donnell and Colleen Lehrer, second place in Fermi Questions
•     Drew Douglas and Meg Grasse, second place in Forensics
•     Mary Margaret Koch and Jaqueline Nugent, second place in Water Quality
•     Drew Douglas and Matt Niewiara, third place in Gravity Vehicle
•     Ushasi Naha and Matt Niewiara, fourth place in Anatomy/Physiology
•     Anthony Cano and Connor McDermott, fourth place in Robot Arm
•     Chris Watson and Drew Douglas, fourth place in Technical Problem Solving

The following junior varsity team members were recognized:

•     Evan Fabry and Jonathan Senese, first place in Circuit Lab
•     Evan Fabry and Miranda Deane, second place in Boomilever
•     Sarah Eaton and Eric Cummings, second place in Dynamic Planet
•     Miranda Deane and Evan Fabry, second place in Elastic Launch Glider
•     Stephanie Cui and Eric Cummings, second place in Forestry
•     Dona Wilston and Sharon Mathai, third place in Anatomy/Physiology
•     Cameron Brown and Jonathan Senese, fourth place in Materials Science

The York Science Olympiad Team is led by Coach Jeff Drach.

Stock Market Game

The Stock Market Game is an online program that helps teach math, social studies, business, economics and language skills while focusing on the importance of long-term savings and investment. Students in Jim Borel's business class managed "investment portfolios" for three months with an initial virtual investment of $100,000.

The team of Jakob Gratzianna, Eric Hoff, Zaccaria Miller, Niki Passaris and Jack Polte finished the game by earning more than $22,000 on their initial $100,000 investment, outperforming the S&P 500 by 24 percent over the three months. The group came in second place among 541 teams in the state.

The students were recognized by the District 205 School Board Tuesday.

"To outperform the S&P by 24 percent in a three-month period is, by any standard, extremely impressive," School Board President Jim Collins said.

The Stock Market Game is sponsored by the Illinois Council for Economic Education.

York is a Grammy Signature Schools Semifinalist

York High School is in the running for grants for music excellence as a semifinalist in the Grammy Signature Schools program. York is among 129 semifinalist schools across the nation.

The program recognizes public high schools making an outstanding commitment to music education.

Finalists will receive a grant ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 to benefit their music programs.

After the applications are scored, finalists are identified and asked to submit additional documentation, such as recordings of school concerts, sample concert programs and repertoire, which is then reviewed by an independent blue-ribbon committee of top music educators and professionals to determine the schools that merit Grammy Signature School status.

Bright Red Apple Award

Elmhurst District 205 also was awarded the Bright Red Apple Award by School Search. The designation is based on five criteria:

•     academic performance
•     ratio of teachers to students
•     expense per student
•     education level of teachers
•     teacher salary

Out of 866 districts in Illinois, 78 earned the Bright Red Apple. This is the 13th consecutive year District 205 has earned the recognition.

"I think that speaks volumes about the quality of Elmhurst schools," Superintendent David Pruneau said at Tuesday's School Board meeting.

School Search helps relocating families evaluate the quality of various school districts. (see HERE)
Source : http://elmhurst.patch.com/