By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Meeting for the last time of the school year, the Bowling Green Board of Education had a lot of students to recognize.
A few will be among the 217 seniors who will graduate Sunday at 2 p.m., and others are in the early stages of their school careers.
The recognition started, though, by recognizing four professional women who volunteer with the Girls Who code program. Jodi Anderson, secondary curriculum coordinator, said this was the club’s first year at the Middle School. It encourages girls to explore computer and other technology careers.
Lexi Marshall, Sarah Beamer, Jami Sunday, and Laura Johns were honored for spending 90 minutes a week working with middle school students and being role models as women with careers in technology.
Next up were the participants in the model UN introduced by Mary Kern, the club’s advisor. Members recognized were: Hannah Bowlus, Kerica Bucks, Alison Cramer, Bob Walters, Matthew Fyfe, Jesse He, Dawson Wohler, Cameron Froemming, Eddy Becker, Elijah Poetzinger, and Dana Kleman.
The team competed in three conferences, including sending eight members to Harvard for an international event. The team took the top prize at a Model UN event at Ohio Northern, and did very well in the concluding event at Ohio State University.
Seventh Grade science teacher Paula Williams introduced four students who decided to activate their learning. Adam Brian, Jacob Baumgardner, Benjamin Bates, and Zachary Hartman were part of the class that went out to test water on the Portage River. Afterward, they wanted to do something to promote water quality.
Jacob and Adam designed t-shirts to promote the issue. Ben and Zach decided, since plastic shopping bags are seen as a scourge on the environment, to design and sell reusable shopping bags with the school’s mascot on them. They even had them for sale at the meeting.
Williams also presented seventh grader Emma Ferguson who created an award-winning billboard design in a contest sponsored by the county Solid Waste Management District. Her billboard urged people to be clean water superheroes.
Seven students from the Penta DECA program and the marketing class taught by Cara Maxey were recognized for qualifying to attend DECA’s International Career Development Conference. That included Sean O’Donnell and Jake Stucker who took second place at the conference for their idea for a water filtration system. (See story. http://bgindependentmedia.org/bg-deca-students-runoff-filtration-idea-cleans-up-at-international-conference/)
Five other students competed at the international conference including Makai Ruffin, Kloe Atwood, Alyssa Lang, Trisha Stichler, and Ayla Arrington.
Ruffin, the BG DECA president, said that traveling to Atlanta for the international conference was a great experience because they got to meet people from around the country and around the world.
Maxey said 50 percent of 46 students from BG who competed at the district level earned a trip to the state conference.
Laura Weaver, coordinator of gifted services, had the largest group. She introduced 26 students in the P.A.C.E. Enrichment program who participated in the Perennial Math Competition that takes place November through February. Students must do more than compute. They have to use logic to dissect a problem to figure out how to come up with the answer using algebra and geometry.
The tests are given in three levels: rookie, for 3rd and 4th graders; intermediate for 5th and 6th graders; and advanced for 7th and 8th graders.
Because some students compete in teams above their grade level, they can be on multiple teams.
Students are honored based success within the field of more than 14,000 students worldwide.
Gold medalists perfect scores or top scores for their grade level were:
- Rookie – Arianna Chung, 4th grade, Roger He, 3rd grade, and Maralissa Waterfield, 2nd grade.
- Intermediate – Isa Wan, 5th grade, Robert Stygles 4th grade, and Roger He, 3rd grade.
- Advanced — Isa Wan 5th grade.
Others honored for silver medal performances (top 10 percent of all competitors) were: Umi Horiuchi, Liam Rogel, Zoe Brujic, Rebekah Center, James Bates Charlotte Mullins Ella White, William Newlove, Alice Walters, Alexander Sands, Brandt Beaverson, Owen Householder, Simmi Gandhi, Jocelyn Loe, Drew Erekson, Mason Konesky, Nathan Cavanagh, Evan Meyer, Luca Brininger, Lucy Nomaguchi-Long, and Shelby Janes.
All three teams won plaques for cumulative scores in the top 10 percent.
