Pictured (L-R) are the Blue Ridge Elementary School April, 2017 Student's of the Month:

Row 1- Christopher Kowalewski, Ava Mess, Victoria Calle Tapia, Emma Blenco, Malakai Martel; Row 2- Leah Dibble, Connor Roy, Gianna Callahan, Safia Decker, Ethan Wright; Row 3- Izabella McCrone, Brogen Gunn, Alexandria Allard, Jacob Brown, Michael Smith; Row 4- Emily Gorham, Elijah Dillman, Cody Gunn, McKenna Lankford, Alivia Gerba.

Pictured (L-R) are Students of the Month for Mountain View Jr/Sr High School for April 2017: Skyler Ball, Kaylee Evans, Frank Faber, Rob Presley (Principal).

Melissa Kukowski

Melissa Kukowski was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Program award to South Korea from the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement.

As a Fulbright recipient and a representative of the United States, Melissa will have the opportunity to work collaboratively with international partners in educational, political, cultural, economic, and scientific fields.

Fulbright alumni have achieved distinction in many fields, including 58 Nobel Laureates, 82 Pulitzer Prize winners, 31 MacArthur Fellows, and 16 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients. 

Melissa recently graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience and Psychology. While at Pitt, she was inducted into six honor societies, including the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and she served as the Chapter President of Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society throughout her senior year.

Upon completion of her Fulbright award she plans to attend medical school. Melissa is the daughter of John and Donna Kukowski from Susquehanna.

Claire Williams O’Neil (1928-1980) was a teacher in the Susquehanna Community School District for over twenty years. Because of her dedication to education and the community, the Claire Williams O’Neil Foundation, a non-profit institution that sponsors educational and charitable initiatives on a community level, awards this scholarship to reflect her belief in the importance of education, both to the individual and to the community. The Scholarship is awarded to a Susquehanna Community High School student who has achieved a cumulative average of 90% at the end of eleventh grade, and who also possesses a sincere desire to pursue high quality university studies with the potential to contribute meaningfully to the community. The student can be awarded anything up to about $80,000 for four years. To date, this award has totaled over $940,000.

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.

Evan Haley

This year, Evan Haley has been named the recipient of the CWO Scholarship, in the amount of $40,000.

Evan is the son of Chad and Crissie Haley. Evan has been an active member of the high school baseball team all throughout high school. Additionally, he has been a member of the football team for 3 years. Evan is currently ranked #2 in his graduating class and has been an exemplary student in the classrooms at Susquehanna Community. He has volunteered during his entire high school career by being a student mentor, volunteering at several Parent Involvement Committee events, several community service events, and the local 4-H organization. Also, Evan has been an active member of National Honor Society, Student Council, Envirothon and the Physics Club. During his senior year, he was on the WVIA Scholastic Bowl Team and participated in the Kane Competition.

Evan plans on attending Temple University in the fall majoring in Neuroscience: Cellular and Molecular in the College of Science and Technology.

The Natural Gas Technology Scholarship is sponsored by the Claire Williams O’Neil Foundation, and is fully funded by Bluestone Gathering (a unit of DTE Energy Company). This is the fourth year awarding this scholarship to a Susquehanna senior who plans on attending Lackawanna College in the fall, majoring in the Natural Gas and Petroleum Program.

Shaun Anderson

Shaun Andersen, son of JoAnn Andersen of Susquehanna, PA, has been awarded the 2017 scholarship in the amount of $10,000.

Shaun has been a member of the baseball team and football team throughout his high school career at Susquehanna Community. During his senior year, he served as Captain of the baseball team.

Shaun plans on furthering his education at Lackawanna College School of Petroleum and Natural Gas, majoring in Natural Gas Compression Technology.

Alicia Ross, of New Milford, PA, and a teacher at Blue Ridge High School, will travel to Washington, D.C. this June to attend the prestigious Supreme Court Summer Institute.  After a highly competitive application process, 60 teachers were selected to participate this year. The Institute, open to teachers in the fields of law-related and civic education, is co-sponsored by Street Law, Inc. and the Supreme Court Historical Society.

The Institute offers teachers the opportunity to study recent Supreme Court cases in detail and learn innovative teaching methods for conveying this information to students. Well-known Supreme Court lawyers, reporters, scholars and educators will be among the speakers and instructors for the Institute. Teachers will visit the Court to attend decisions and a reception. A recent evaluation of the Supreme Court Summer Institute found that, after the program, teachers who attended (1) felt much more confident discussing controversial issues and Supreme Court cases in their classrooms, (2) discussed Supreme Court cases and used interactive teaching strategies more frequently, and (3) gained critical knowledge about the U.S. Supreme Court.

Upon returning home, teachers will be available to present workshops on teaching about the U.S. Supreme Court and to meet with media to discuss how the new skills and information will apply in their classrooms.