Congratulations to the W.A. Hough High School Army JROTC Husky Battalion, that won the Superintendent's cup. (W.A. Hough High School photo)

Congratulations are due this week to students for all sorts of accomplishments. The W. A. Hough High School Army JROTC Husky Battalion won the Superintendent’s Cup, making it the number one JROTC program in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools district. Meanwhile, St. Mark Catholic School placed 13th overall in the state Science Olympiad, with two students taking first place in their event and several others placing in the top ten. Also, Davidson Elementary’s Odyssey of the Mind team made a strong showing at the state finals, and 56 Cannon School students received national recognition in Spanish. Read below for details.

HOUGH’S JROTC HUSKY BATTALION WINS TOP PLACE IN THE DISTRICT

CORNELIUS - The W.A. Hough High School Army JROTC Husky Battalion won the Superintendant’s Cup, making it the number one JROTC program in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools district. Cadets earned points for the cup by participating in events involving citizenship, academics, leadership, physical fitness and community service. The Battalion won by just three points, edging out 5-year champs Hopewell High School.

Three individuals from each school also received awards for the top student in academics, citizenship and leadership. The leadership award went to Jessie Kocsis, the academic award went to Sean Sabol, and the citizenship award went to Brianna Henry.

Also, the Hough High Army JROTC Booster Club was one of two booster clubs to receive an award from CMS at the ceremony as a top Booster Club of all the JROTC programs.

The JROTC will hold its own awards ceremony this Friday, May 11, to honor the individual achievements of the cadets.

ST. MARK CATHOLIC STUDENTS TAKE 1ST IN N.C. SCIENCE OLYMPIAD

St. Mark Catholic School’s 2012 Science Olympiad team: Bottom row, (l-r): Sydney Puerto-Meredith, Emily Desormeaux, Katie Bruce, Kristy Blough, Faith Morgan. Second row, (l-r): Megan Jackson, Alex Mielcarek, Michaela Schlegel, Arielle Ippolito. Third row (short row on right side of railing l-r): Mary Kiefriter, Juliette Smetana. Top row, (l-r): Evan Hendrickson, Derek Febo, Joseph Hanshaw, Jack O'Malley, Sean-Thomas Saloom, Logan Thayer, Sam Hester

HUNTERSVILLE – Saint Mark Catholic School eighth-graders Arielle Ippolito and Michaela Schlegel took first place in the Reach for the Stars, Division B (Middle School) of the North Carolina Science Olympiad State Tournament April 27 and 28 at NC State University.

In addition to the first place finish, the entire St. Mark’s varsity team competed in 23 events, was awarded nine placements in the top 10, and placed 13th overall.

The school’s Science Olympiad team is comprised of 18 students who began working on their projects in December. The team is organized and mentored by eighth-grade science teacher Kris Lyles. Parent-volunteers then serve as coaches for the teams meeting on average three times a week for five months.

The top 10 team placement awards are as follows:

• 1st place in Reach for the Stars – Arielle Ippolito and Michaela Schlegel
• 3rd place in Towers – Joseph Hanshaw and Sydney Puerto-Meredith
• 4th place in Rocks and Minerals – Arielle Ippolito and Michaela Schlegel
• 7th place in Disease Detectives – Faith Morgan and Sydney Puerto-Meredith
• 8th place in Anatomy – Alex Mielcarek and Jack O’Malley
• 8th place in Mousetrap Vehicle – Joseph Hanshaw and Sydney Puerto-Meredith
• 9th place in Mission Possible – Katie Bruce, Derek Febo, and Evan Hendrickson
• 9th place in Water Quality – Megan Jackson and Juliette Smetana
• 10th place in Crime Busters – Kristy Blough and Megan Jackson

This is the fourth year that Saint Mark has competed in the NC Science Olympiad and the second year qualifying to go to the state tournament. The team competed in the regional competition at UNC-Charlotte in March and was one of the six teams who placed high enough to qualify to advance to the state-level competition.

The North Carolina Science Olympiad (NCSO) is a nonprofit organization with the mission to attract and retain the pool of K-12 students entering science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees and careers in North Carolina. Every year NCSO hosts tournaments on university, community college, and public school campuses across the state. These tournaments are rigorous academic interscholastic competitions that consist of a series of different hands-on, interactive, challenging and inquiry-based events that are well balanced between the various disciplines of biology, earth science, environmental science, chemistry, physics, engineering and technology.

The DES Odyssey of the Mind team. Back row( L-R) Julia Van Epps, Sarah Williams, Jake Heiser, Nathan Kendrick, Oskar Wolff. Front (L-R) Jackie Jewel, Taylor Mock

DAVIDSON ELEMENTARY’S ODYSSEY OF THE MIND TEAM COMPETES IN STATE FINALS

DAVIDSON - The Davidson Elementary Odyssey of the Mind competition team placed 2nd in their division, “Ooh-Motional Vehicle,” at the regional competition held March 3 at Wingate University.

Odyssey of the Mind is a creative problem-solving competition for students of all ages. Teams of students select a problem, create a solution, then present their solution in a competition against other teams in the same problem and division. The team’s problem was to design, build, and operate a vehicle that travels a course and changes to display different human emotions, and uses two different propulsion systems. Their solution was presented in a performance with a team-created theme that incorporated the vehicle traveling to stops and the different emotions.

The Davidson Elementary competition team, consisting of fourth-graders Jackie Jewel and Taylor Mock, and fifth-graders Jake Heiser, Nathan Kendrick, Julia Van Epps, Sarah Williams, and Oskar Wolff, then advanced to the state finals on March 31, where they achieved a seventh-place ranking.

CANNON SCHOOL STUDENTS HONORED FOR EXCELLENCE IN SPANISH

CONCORD – Fifty-six Cannon School students achieved national recognition for excellent performance on the 2012 National Spanish Examinations. The students earned one gold medal, five silver medals and 11 bronze medals along with 39 honorable mentions.

“Attaining a medal or honorable mention for any student on the National Spanish Examinations is very prestigious,” said Kevin Cessna-Buscemi, national director of the exams, “because the exams are the largest of their kind in the United States with 143,641 students participating in 2012.”

The National Spanish Examinations are administered each year in grades 6 through 12, and are sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. The examinations test all aspects of a student’s language knowledge, including listening, reading and comprehension skills as well as vocabulary and grammar knowledge.

The following Cannon School students are recognized for their outstanding performance:

• Gold medalist: Tyler Carson
• Silver medalists: Kelli Baker, Sylvain Bott, Sydney Frankenberg, Matthew Lack, Derek Pace
• Bronze medalists: Rachel Dyl, Noah Edmonson, Anna Estep, Eric Fromke, Ian Hicks, Andrew Manley, Tias Sen, Aidan Smith, Rai Swick, Kendall Thomas, Stephanie Williams
• Commended students: Olivia Andretti, Kate Beckman, Emily Beeken, Daelyn Bentley-Gottel, Annie Collom, Katie Cooper, Ryan Creuzberger, John Dockery, Maryclaire Farrington, Rachel Fitzpatrick, Jake Flynn, Hailey Foreman, Logan Foster, Savana Gandy, Jillian Ghuneim, William Gordon, Grant Gossage, Thomas Harr, Colleen Hurley, Kyle Kays, Alex Lee, Alex Letica, Katie Maness, Lydia Middleton, Ryan Murphy, Madeleine Nagy, Erin Norton, Iliana Ragnone, Burke Riley, Barclay Sparrow, Jake Stewart, Hannah Taylor, Dara Tokunboh, Nicole Voulgaropoulos, Liz Wahid, Darby West, Daniel Wyatt, Will Yoder, Andrew Zelina

This group of students was taught by Spanish instructors Michelle Donah, Corinne Guidi, Teresita Llorens Hurtado, Sylvia Simard-Newman and Haley Todd.