Blue Ridge Elementary School held its annual oral spelling bee for fifth grade students on Friday, June 1st, 2018. Seventy fifth graders chose to take the written qualifying test that was held on May 24th. After the qualifying round, twenty fifth graders placed to compete in the oral bee, in teams of four creating fun names that included team written spelling rounds.

Blue Ridge 5th Grade Spelling Bee Game Show winners, The Fantastic Phonetic Spellers, pictured (l-r) are: Maliya Lee-team captain, Janna Weed, Savannah McCracken, Madison Halstead, Isabella Shea.

At the conclusion of ten wacky rounds, a winner was declared. The team named the Fantastic Phonetic Spellers took the trophy. The top spellers were Maliya Lee (team captain), Janna Weed, Savannah McCracken, Madison Halstead, and Isabella Shea. Congratulations to the winners and all of the fifth grade students who competed!

Pictured (l-r) are the Blue Ridge High School 2018 Students of the Year for grades 9, 10 and 11: Eli McArthur, Katelyn Bowyer, Seth Anderson, Lydia Andusko, William Clauson, Megan Sommer, Principal Supko.

Congratulations are extended to several Spanish students from Susquehanna Community Jr/Sr High School who attained national recognition for excellent performance on the 2018 National Spanish Examinations.

Students from SCHS earned a total of one silver and one bronze medal, along with six 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 over 150,000 students participating in 2018." Twenty five students participated from SCHS this year.

Pictured (l-r) are: front row - Kaylee Landry, Kilye Towner, Jaycie Conklin; back row - Chloe Tinklepaugh, Taylor Huyck, Airyll Rockwell, Rachel Day, Emily Fremberg.

Students from SCHS have a long history of high achievement on these exams and were taught by Spanish teacher, Mrs. Jennifer Rockwell.

The National Spanish Examinations are sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.

Sarah N. Serfilippi, Thompson, PA graduated from the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) and received both a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology at the commencement ceremonies held on April 29th, 2018. Sarah is the daughter of Steven and Laurie Serfilippi.

While at Pitt, Sarah was a member of the Alpha Phi Omega Service Fraternity, Executive Board Member of Plant to Plate Gardening Club and Psi Chi Psychology Honor Society. She also worked as a research assistant for the Department of Psychiatry at Pitt for two academic years and co-authored two posters, one on the topic of team entrainment and the second exploring social emotional regulation. She plans on pursuing a Master of Counseling degree at Arizona State University in the fall of 2018.

Prior to attending Pitt Sarah graduated as salutatorian in 2014 from Susquehanna Community High School.

Sarah was among approximately 6,000 students receiving undergraduate degrees from the University of Pittsburgh campus in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh.

Pictured (l-r) are the Blue Ridge High School May, 2018 Students of the Month: Mitchell Clinton, Alison Marshman, Matthew Glatzel, Isabelle Morris, Christian Igoe, Breanna Post, Brandon Gentile, Principal Supko. Absent from the photo was Kelsey Gentile.

Kelsey Twining, Thompson, PA, graduating with a B.S. in Biology/Ecology, Conservation and Environmental has been recognized as a Provost Scholar at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Provost Scholar status is achieved when students complete a minimum of 45 semester hours at IUP and have a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or higher. Provost Scholar recognition is given only once during a student's time of study at IUP.

A total of 1,621 students have been named to the Dean's List at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania (ESU) for the Spring, 2018 semester of the 2017-2018 academic year, according to Joanne Bruno, J.D., provost and vice president for academic affairs. Students eligible for the Dean's List are those who have attained a 3.50 quality point average or better and are enrolled full-time. The letter grade "B" earns 3 quality points per credit, and the grade "A" earns 4 quality points per credit.

Local students qualifying for the honor were as follows: Dane Barhite, an Early Childhood Educ (PreK-4) major from Clifford Township; Courtney Bognatz, a Special Education/Early Child major from Clifford Township; Amber Dubanowitz, a Comm Sciences & Disorders major from Susquehanna; Kayla Mecca, a Special Education/Early Child major from Hop Bottom; Lucas Nevins, a Hotel Rest and Tourism Mgmt major from Browndale; Jesse Roeske, an Earth and Space Science major from Kingsley; Anja Whitehead, a Digital Media Technologies major from Susquehanna.

Austin French, of Susquehanna, PA graduated Cum Lauda with a BS in Business Administration as Susquehanna University closed its 160th academic year with annual commencement exercises on May 16. A 2014 graduate of Blue Ridge High School, he is the son of Larry and Margie French.

More than 2,000 high-achieving students have been named to the Dean's List for the spring semester at Northampton Community College. The honor is reserved for students who have completed a minimum of 6 credits and achieved at least a 3.5 grade point average on a 4.0 scale in the spring 2018 semester.

Luke Wildenstein, Media Production student of Forest City, has been named for the honor.

Genevieve Barchak, Vandling, graduated from Clarion University of Pennsylvania May 12, 2018 with an MS Speech Language Pathology degree.