Mika Smith began the qualification season with a solid performance at the Pennsylvania High School Speech League District 8 Speech and Debate Championship at Abington Heights High School on February 20.
Smith compiled an undefeated record during the preliminary rounds of Lincoln-Douglas Debate and won the District 8 Championship in LD Debate.
Mika Smith, PHSSL District 8 Champion in LD Debate.
As a result of her win, Smith has qualified to the PHSSL State Championship Tournament April 8-9 at Susquehanna University.
“Mika has worked very hard all season long and this is a well-deserved championship,” commented Elk Lake Forensics Director Keith Brosious.
On March 5, the Elk Lake Forensics Team will travel to Shikellamy High School in order to compete at the Scranton Catholic Forensics League National Qualifying Tournament. The top 5 competitors in each event at that tournament will qualify to the National Catholic Forensics League’s Grand National Tournament in Sacramento, CA over Memorial Day Weekend.
Misericordia University will host the National History Day (NHD) regional competition on Saturday, March 12. More than 300 students from middle schools and high schools in Luzerne (except Hazleton School District), Lackawanna, Susquehanna, Pike, Wayne, Wyoming, Monroe, and Sullivan counties of Northeastern Pennsylvania are scheduled to participate. All presentations and exhibits for the event are free and open to the public.
The daylong event is sponsored by NHD, a nonprofit education organization that offers professional development opportunities and curriculum materials for educators, and yearlong academic programs to encourage students around the world to conduct and present original research on historical topics.
The theme for 2016’s contest is “Exploration, Encounter, and Exchange in History,” which offers students an invitation to look across time, space and geography to find examples in history when people took a risk and made a change, according to national organizers.
Jessica Gardner, M.S.LIS, archivist, and Jennifer Black, Ph.D., assistant professor of history and government, Misericordia University
Students will complete at either the junior-high (grades 6-8) or senior-high (grades 9-12) level and as part of a group or as an individual in four categories: performance, documentary, website and exhibit. Students can also compete as an individual at the junior or senior-high level in the historical paper category.
Students who place in the top two in each of the 18 categories are eligible to advance to the state competition at Millersville University in Millersville, on May 10 and 11. Winners from the Pennsylvania state competition will then compete at the 2016 Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, from June 12-16.
Jennifer Black, Ph.D., assistant professor of history and government, Misericordia University, and Jessica Garner, M.S.LIS, archivist at the Mary Kintz Bevevino Library at Misericordia University, are coordinating the event.
In addition to showcasing the work of local students, the day’s activities will include exhibits from local historical societies, history trivia games, a scavenger hunt and afternoon lectures. Misericordia University Professors Allan Austin, Ph.D., professor of history, and Patrick Hamilton, Ph.D., associate professor of English, will present the talk, “World’s Finest? : Superman’s WWII Campaign Against Japanese Americans.” Drs. Austin and Hamilton will engage students in a discussion of two WWII Superman cartoons and their racial stereotyping of Japanese Americans.
Margo Azzarelli will present “Preserving Local History in the Wyoming Valley,” and Gail Marshall will offer “Wyoming Valley Nurses in World War II.” There will also be presentations by living history actors Gina Aleo, portraying Mrs. Thomas Jefferson, and Regina Drasher, portraying “Big Mary” from the Lattimer Massacre.
Exhibitors will include Julie and Wendy Esty, on 19th-century funeral and burial practices; Ron Faraday, director, Greater Pittston Historical Society; Amy Kirpatrick, Lackawanna Historical Society, and John Fielding, Anthracite Heritage Museum.
Artists Renee Emanuel and Bill Teitsworth, whose work is currently featured in the Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, will give gallery talks throughout the day.
Registration will begin at 8 a.m. with a continental breakfast outside Sandy and Marlene Insalaco Hall’s Dudrick, Muth and Huntzinger Rooms 216-218. Lunch will be provided free for students and subsidized at a discounted rate for parents in the John and Mary Metz Dining Hall in the Banks Student Life Center.
Students most commonly compete with their schools, but are welcome to apply independently. Students who compete in the contest are encouraged to use the resources at the Mary Kintz Bevevino Library at Misericordia University.
For additional information about NHD, including registration instructions, please visit http://libguides.misericordia.edu/NEPAhistoryday. A detailed schedule of events will be posted on the site by March 8. Questions may also be directed to Dr. Black at jblack2@misericordia.edu or at (570) 674-1491.
Dr. Alice M. Davis, Executive Director of the Susquehanna County Career and Technology Center (SCCTC), is proud to announce the, SCCTC’s “Students of the Month” for January 2016.
SCCTC January 2016 Students of the Month- (L - R) front- Olivia Ely, Searria Nester, Caitlyn Lutkowski, Alivia Dunton, Logan Cleveland, Dr. Alice M. Davis; back- Dakota Gulick, Ashley Weidow, Jack Bishop, Brenden Tobin, Nick Wilmarth, Kyle Day, Kyle Roman, Tyler Bongiorno.
Good things are happening in the Carpentry & Cabinetmaking program at the Susquehanna County Career & Technology Center. For the State Level Skills USA Competition, three students led a community service project where student-made dog houses were donated to the True Friends Animal Shelter in Montrose. Students also collected food and other items to donate. Friday, February 19, 2016 was the date the students presented the donations to Dory Browning, Executive Director of the no-kill shelter. “Beau” the Rottweiler also came along to thank the students.
Front Row- Instructor Bruce Castelli, James McIntyre, Keaton Smith, Chris Meaders, True Friends Executive Director Dory Browning with Beau, Kiera Merritt, SCCTC Executive Director Dr. Alice M. Davis; Back Row- Griffin Bunnell, Hunter Sherwood, Matthew Loch, Collin Scott, Dustin Denby, TJ Tyler, Jesse Bender, Alex Payton, Joe McLeer, Isaiah Sincavage, Aubrey Heise, Cesar Gonzalez-Cuevas, Ms. Robyn Welch.
SCCTC Carpentry and Cabinetmaking Instructor Bruce Castelli said, “This project allows our students to give back to the community. Our goal is to instill a sense of pride that will lead them to community service well into adulthood."
Dr. Alice M. Davis, Executive Director of the SCCTC added, “This is the ninth year that our students have made and donated dog houses to the shelter. It is an honor for us to give to the community in this way.”
The student-made dog houses are available to the public in exchange for a donation to the True Friends animal shelter in Montrose. Contact the shelter for details.
The following local students made the Dean's List at Rochester Institute of Technology for fall semester 2015-2016. Degree-seeking undergraduate students are eligible for Dean's List if their term GPA is greater than or equal to 3.400; they do not have any grades of "Incomplete", "D" or "F"; and they have registered for, and completed, at least 12 credit hours.
Konstantinos Konstas of Montrose who is studying in the computer engineering program.
Benjamin Maitland of Lenoxville who is studying in the computer science program.
Binghamton University has announced the Dean's List for the Fall 2015 semester. This honor recognizes students who have achieved a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher.
Students who qualified for the honor from our area were:
Mindy Barnes, Sidney Earley, Kathryn Stranburg, all from the Montrose area. Gabrielle Button, Danielle Nash, Ian Robinson, all from the New Milford area.
Wilkes University student Sarah Nichols of New Milford, Pa. was honored for academic excellence with induction into the Alpha Lambda Delta honor society on Feb. 6. Eligible students with a GPA of 3.5 or higher during their first term or year of college while enrolled full time are invited to join.
Robert Perry of Uniondale,PA a doctor of pharmacy student, has been named to the fall 2015 Dean's List at University of the Sciences. Selection for this award is based on completing and passing all assigned courses with no grade below a "C" and attaining an academic average of at least 3.4 for courses taken in the fall of 2015.
