Blue Ridge Fifth Grade Art Club members recently finished two Recycled Bottle Cap Murals in Sarrah Dibble-Camburn's after school art program.  

Pictured (l-r) with the Creativity Mural are: Kaylyn Lewis, Brea Conrad, Jay Grover, Peyton Gelinger, Jenna McCarthy, Destiny Posaski, Lauren Hegedus, Olivia Hessy, Brooke Upright, Samantha Kupst, Aaron Beesley, Josh Hall, Alexia Stone, Cooper Rolison, and Breanna Post.

Pictured (l-r) with the Every Child Is A Artist Mural are: Brandon Findley, Holly Geyer, Dylan Dorunda, Noah Shankman, Angelina Mirra, Olivia Colwell, Marissa Sharer, Makena Slater, Katie White, Ryan Glatzel, Hannah Kline, Olivia Herbert, Sierra Bross, Cassidy Howe, Alexia Stone, Marissa Derreick, Lydia Andusko.

With the entire elementary helping to collect bottle caps for one month, the students were able to create two large murals out of the recycled material.  Both murals will be on permanent display in the school, but one of the murals will be part of the "Revived" exhibit at the Vintage Theater in Scranton, PA. The exhibit features recycled and re-purposed work and will be up April 22nd-May 5th.  Gallery Hours are Thursday to Saturday, 12-6 pm.

The Petroleum & Natural Gas Technology Scholarship is a new scholarship initiated by the Claire Williams O’Neil Foundation. It is being awarded to a Susquehanna Community senior who plans on furthering their education at Lackawanna College’s School of Petroleum & Natural Gas in New MIlford.

Much like the existing Claire Williams O’Neil Scholarship, which is awarded to students who attend four year colleges, recipients of this new scholarship will be asked to give back to their community by promoting this program at Lackawanna College and mentoring future students of Susquehanna Community High School to encourage them to become involved in the Natural Gas Industry.

The first award has been made to Brandon Soden, the son of Brad and Joanna Soden of Thompson, PA. Throughout his high school career, Brandon has been actively involved in athletics. He participated in Cross Country, Track and Field, Basketball, and Baseball. He also volunteered his time by helping to coach little league baseball. Brandon has received several awards for his athleticism throughout the years including going to district competitions for cross country.

Brandon will begin his studies at Lackawanna College (New Milford) in the Natural Gas and Petroleum Field in late summer of 2014.

Claire Williams O’Neil (1928-1980) was a longstanding teacher in the Susquehanna Community School District. The Foundation named after her is a non-profit institution that sponsors educational and charitable initiatives and specifically provides scholarships to recall her belief in the importance of education both to the individual and to the community. These Scholarships are awarded to Susquehanna Community High School students who have achieved a cumulative average of 90% at the end of eleventh grade, who possess a sincere desire to pursue high quality university studies and who have the potential to contribute meaningfully to the community. Students can be awarded up to $80,000 for four years. To date, the Foundation has awarded over $700,000 to previous scholarship winners.

The Claire Williams O’Neil Scholarship has created an incentive for all seniors in our small, rural, and economically disadvantaged school district to look well beyond the typical college options by applying to America’s best colleges and universities. Winning students immediately give back to the community by mentoring existing SCHS students and inspire them also to aim high to achieve their dreams.

This year’s winner of the O’Neil Scholarship is Emily Staros. Emily is the daughter of Stan and Lisa Staros from Thompson, PA. During her high school career at Susquehanna, Emily participated in a variety of sports and activities such as Volleyball, Student Council, National Honor Society, Band, Computer Fair, and Skiing. Through the gifted program, Emily volunteered her time with the Special Olympics on a yearly basis. Emily also volunteered her time during her junior year by working with the elementary students during her study hall. She has also been actively involved with the school and helping to promote events such as homecoming and prom. Emily has already proven to be a positive role model for younger students at Susquehanna Community High School.

Emily plans on furthering her education at Lehigh University where she will be studying Bioengineering.

Sixty-five pre-kindergarten students from Blue Ridge Elementary School recently visited Brant’s Dairy Farm, located near Susquehanna.  The trip was to celebrate completion of the classes’ “In the City, In the Country” unit.  The unit begins by teaching the aspects of country life and farming. The children learn about different types of farms and what they produce. They then learn about cities and how products produced on country farms gets transported to the city for people to buy.

In preparation for the field trip each of the classes were visited by Susquehanna County Dairy Maids Reese Allen and Alexis Parks.  Miss Allen and Miss Parks taught students about where milk comes from and how dairy products are produced.  They also talked about the importance of eating a minimum of three dairy servings daily.  Both Allen and Parks are fourth grade students at Blue Ridge Elementary School.  

Susquehanna County Dairy Princess Mercedes Spickerman (Pictured) talks with Blue Ridge Elementary Pre-Kindergarten students at Brant’s Dairy Farm.

When the students arrived at the farm they were welcomed by farm owners Keith and Pam Brant and their four-year old son, Kyle.  The Brant’s had a variety of helpers to assist with the tour including farm employees Curtis Travis, Lisa Zurn, and Maria Diaz. The Susquehanna County Dairy Princess Mercedes Spickerman and Dairy Promotions Committee Members Michelle Kowalewski and Evie Goff also aided with teaching students and answering many questions during the tour.  During the field trip to the farm they had the opportunity to see how a cow is milked, learn how much cows eat, and see the bulk tank where milk is stored on the farm before it is picked-up.  One of the most popular stops along the tour was visiting the calves that were born at the farm. 

At the conclusion of the tour students got to see the farm tractors and enjoy a yogurt dairy snack provided by Susquehanna County Dairy Princess Mercedes Spickerman.

This is the second year in a row that Mrs. Whitehead and Mrs. Hobbs’ Pre-K classes were able to visit Brant’s Dairy Farm in coordination with their “In the City, In the Country” unit.  According to Mrs. Whitehead, “This field trip is a great life connection for our students to experience.”

David J. Corbin of Hop Bottom, Pa., was selected to participate in Lebanon Valley College's April 10 Inquiry event. Inquiry 2014 coincided with the Council for Undergraduate Research's week-long celebration of student research and achievement. Lebanon Valley College celebrated the scholarly, scientific, and creative achievements of the student body in a variety of academic activities, including a public research symposium in the LVC gymnasium.

Corbin, a graduate of Mountain View High School who is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in biology, represented Secondary Education and presented "An Invisible Thread".

Following is the Elk Lake Elementary School Third Marking Period Honor Roll for the 2013-14 school year.

Fifth Grade High Honors – Davia Adams, Sydney Bell, Gavin Bunnell, Azurae Hall, Catalina Martinez-Cases, Daniel McGee, Douglas Priestner, Sophia Riscavage, Madelyn Slivinski, Molly Smith, Hailey Strohl, Erin Voda, Olivia Voll.

Fifth Grade Honors – Colby Baker, Cayden Bennett, Austin Bonavita, Kyle Bradish, Kayal Brotzman, Ethan Brown, Derek Conboy, Kaylee Conboy, Jeryn Delong, Benjamin Drab, Jared Ely, Emma Fraker, Mariah Heeman, Darien Hurlburt, Charity Kasson, Deisree Marbaker, Caden Maring, Kaleigh Mayer, Taegan Mills, Emily Moore, Benjamin Oakley, Zoe Pickett, Jeremy Quinnan, Matthew Repchick, Ariona Richards, Spencer Saxon, Ethan Sickler, Matthew Sickler, Ryan Simmons, Lanie Sirmons, Stanley Slocum, George Sobeck, Gabriel Spila, Kailey Taylor, Caleb Wilson, Preston Wood, Christopher Woodruff, Rebecca Yanchick, Hailie Zajaczkowski.

Sixth Grade High Honors- Megan Bosscher, Sadie Bosscher, Caitlyn Brown, Sarah Cobb, Amelia Comly, Lauren Herman, Dakota Herne, Emily Stevens, Megan Tewksbury, Brandon Way, Mercedes Zajaczkowski.

Sixth Grade Honors – Noah Atkins, Jaden Baker, Aaron Balli, Marcus Bean, Felicia Bedford, Jason Boyer, Tori-lynn Brinton, Brilee Bryan, Ryanne Coppersmith, Taylah Culver, Jennifer Diaz-Jemenez, Karaya Faigle, Rachel Farnelli, Kobie Garcia, Myra Harshbarger, Allison Hewitt, Noah Johnson, Cheyenne Krauss, Ashton Laudeman, Malinda Maginley, Summer Maginley, Joseph E. Malandri, Mario Mallo, Hailey Newhart, Matthew Orr, Dawson Oruska, Troy Rought, Christian Salsman, Colin Schake, Mitchell Schwarztrauber, Cale Southworth, Noah Staff, Allana Warner.

The following students made Academic Excellence for the third marking period of the 2013/2014 school year at Mountain View Elementary School.

FOURTH GRADE: Cohen Anderson, Travis Bridgeman, Katelyn Bryant, Benjamin Burman, Vy Doty, Avery Fortuner, Lillian Harvey, Ryan Henke, Delaney Hollenbeck, Ciara Hundley, Kathryn Long, Makenzie Lowrie, Emma Master, Andrew McHenry, Stephanie Nichols, Kevin Noldy, Nathan Ofalt, Isaac Penny, Ragan Poplawski, Collin Saam, Owen Sabin, Maressa Salansky, Maura Strickland, Sophia Striefsky, Shannon Toolan, Keila Zick, Megan Zipprich.

FIFTH GRADE: Sydney Barhite, Emory Bewley, Emily Biesecker, Regan Cameron, Benjamin DeMark, Michael DeWolfe, Jacob DiMento, Alan Fortuner, Holly Galvin, Hannah Geron, Jacob Gray, Alycia Harvey, Ashlynd Harvey, Joseph Jumper, Aiden Long, William O'Brien,  Marisa Ostir, Jacob Perez, Peyton Phillips, Zachary Polovitch, Chase Poplawski, Connor Richmond, Katelyn Supancik, Avery Tompkins, Riley Weida, Nathan Wells, Nathan Wilmarth, Meredith Zrowka.

SIXTH GRADE: Olivia Ainey, Kailey Bridgeman, Christopher DeManicor, Michael Fanelli, Tyler Henke, Brianna Hildebrand, Jacob Housel, Isabelle Lemoncelli, Andrea Ofalt, Austin Presley, Tosha Shay, Kathryn Shea, Sofie Swetter, Mackenzie Wilbur, Emma Zipprich.