Pictured are EL Forensics Team PHSSL District 8 Champions: Mika Smith – 1st Place in Parliamentary Debate; Haley Skinner – 1st Place in Parliamentary Debate; Matthew Horvath – 2nd Place in LD Debate; Austin Cohen – 1st Place in LD Debate; Kenneth Brittingham – 1st Place in Parliamentary Debate.

Elk Lake brought five debaters to the Pa High School Speech League District 8 Championship at Abington Heights HS on February 23 and qualified all 5 to the PHSSL State Championship Tournament.

In the process, the team brought home two District Championships and a Runner-Up in debate.

Leading the team in Lincoln-Douglas Debate was senior Austin Cohen who went undefeated by defeating debaters from Southern Lehigh, Meyers and Abington Heights HS and placed first in the tournament.

Teammate senior Matthew Horvath also went undefeated by defeating debaters from Southern Lehigh and Abington Heights HS. Horvath placed second to Cohen as a result of median speaker points. He will also qualify to the State Championship.

The EL Parliamentary Debate Team, composed of freshman Kenneth Brittingham, freshman Mika Smith, and sophomore Haley Skinner, earned Elk Lake’s second District Championship of the day by beating teams from Meyers and Abington Heights HS and going undefeated on the day.

This was the first time Elk Lake has ever entered a Parliamentary Debate Team in the PHSSL District tournament.

All five team members of the EL Forensics Team will now travel to the Pa High School Speech League State Championship Tournament at Susquehanna University on March 22-23.

As a result of his wins, senior Austin Cohen is now 61-3 on the season.

He also maintained his victory streak. He has won every tournament that he has competed in all season.

“This was the culmination of a season of hard work for the seniors in LD. I am also extremely proud of how the underclassmen on the Parli team really stepped it up over the last few weeks to prepare for districts and it really paid off today,” commented EL Forensics Director Keith Brosious.

The team was to travel to Dallas HS on March 2 to compete at the Scranton Catholic Forensics League’s National Qualifier. The top 4 competitors in each event qualify to the National Catholic Forensics League’s Grand National Tournament in Philadelphia over Memorial Day weekend.

The following are the February "Students of the Month" at Elk Lake Elementary, for the 2012-13 school year.

Pictured are: Front (l-r) - Joseph Malandri, Taylah Culver, Colin Schake, Bionca Bolles, Jason Boyer; back - Dylan Fernald, Destinie Pellew, Chris Maslyar, Kylie Smith.

Scranton, PA – Lackawanna College is pleased to announce that it will establish the School of Petroleum and Natural Gas in its New Milford, Pennsylvania location, and will offer two (2) Associates of Science Degrees in Petroleum and Natural Gas Technology and Natural Gas Compression Support Technology. Due to an increased need for graduates with petroleum and natural gas technology-specific science degrees not only locally, but across the Appalachian Basin and nationally, the College has decided to transform the New Milford Center location to a dedicated Petroleum & Natural Gas Education Center. The Center will continue to offer general education and business courses as well as continuing education programming that serve the needs of the residents of Susquehanna County and beyond.

These competitive two-year programs offer specific petroleum and natural gas industry courses on a campus dedicated to the growing oil and natural gas industry. The educational experience at the School of Petroleum and Natural Gas boasts intimate class sizes, individualized attention to the needs of each student and delivers all required courses for graduation at the New Milford site. Major oil and gas companies located in the region, including Anadarko, Cabot Oil & Gas, Chesapeake Energy Corp., Williams Midstream and Southwestern Energy support the School of Petroleum and Natural Gas and hire many of its students upon completion of the two-year degree programs. Graduates are afforded a diverse selection of petroleum technologist and technician careers in the oil and natural gas industry. The School of Petroleum and Natural Gas will also offer continuing education courses including subject materials in compression technology, field handling of petroleum and natural gas, and more.

Richard C. Marquardt Jr. will serve as the School’s Executive Director. Richard has B.S. Degrees in Petroleum Engineering and Management, and has worked as an Engineer, Area Engineer, Production Engineer and Consultant. Over the course of his career he has been employed by major oil and gas production and service companies including Tenneco Oil Exploration & Production and Halliburton. He has also held senior engineering management positions for high tech manufacturing operations.

Lackawanna College’s School of Petroleum and Natural Gas is located off the Gibson exit on Interstate 81. For further information about new programs or to register for classes, phone 570-465-2344 or visit www.lackawanna.edu.

Jamie Roe, daughter of Donald and Paula Roe, Brushville, PA graduated Fortis Institute, Scranton, PA January 25, 2013, as a Practical Nurse. Jamie passed the state nursing boards March 4 and is now a Licensed Practical Nurse working at Regional Hospital of Scranton.

Jamie is the granddaughter of Alice Roe and the late Karr Roe, Susquehanna.