“Academic All-Stars: Essex High School (The Burlington Free Press)” plus 2 more

---

• Academic All-Stars: Essex High School (The Burlington Free Press)
• Potomac home schooling champion to head to Scripps' national spelling bee (Gazette.net)
• Home-schooled speller advances to national bee (Potomac Gazette)

Academic All-Stars: Essex High School (The Burlington Free Press) Posted: 17 Mar 2010 03:18 AM PDT Jacob Young Age: 18 School: Essex High School Parents: Doug and Lisa Young Hometown: Essex Top 5 accomplishments: Received the RPI Medal for excellence in math and science; adapted to public school from homeschooling; president of the Christian Youth Outreach, a school club; National Merit finalist; survived public speaking class. In the community: I volunteer on the student leadership team in my church youth group; with that same youth group I have taken three, week-long mission trips. Favorite spare time activity: Playing the piano. After graduation: I would be thrilled to attend Cornell University. Career plans: Research physicist. Your bedroom in one word: Hopeless. Dead person to meet: Thomas Jefferson, to discuss his perspective on the American Revolution and the modern United States. Your biography title: "Um ... Let Me Think About It" Three "luxuries" on a desert island: A Bible, a telescope and a piano. Personal motto: "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" -- 1 Corinthians 10:31 Katrina Kunker Age: 17 School: Essex High School Parents: Ken and Toni Kunker Hometown: Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Top 5 accomplishments: Earning my black belt in kempo karate; learning to live with my autoimmune disease and managing something that changed my life so drastically; keeping my grades up throughout the years; growing as an artist -- I've been practicing photography, painting, and piano for years; getting accepted into all the colleges I applied to. In the community: I volunteered at the Martial Way Self Defense Center's children karate camps for two to three years; volunteer every summer at Essex Alliance Church's Summer Kids Week program as a leader-in-training; volunteer at Partners in Adventure program's camps. Favorite spare time activity: Kempo karate or photography After graduation: University of Vermont for a double major in psychology and physical therapy and a minor in studio art. Career plans: I hope to become a licensed physical therapist and hope to practice in Vermont. Your bedroom in one word: Cluttered Dead person to meet: I would love to meet Beethoven -- his pieces are some of my favorites to play on the piano, and it would be fantastic to be able to watch him play and ask him how he writes such masterpieces, even when he was deaf. Your biography title: "Unwritten" Three "luxuries" on a desert island: I would want to have a canvas, a set of paints and a set of paint brushes to be able to capture the scenery around me. Personal motto: "Don't worry, I'm OK!" Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Potomac home schooling champion to head to Scripps' national spelling bee (Gazette.net) Posted: 17 Mar 2010 02:22 AM PDT Streusel. Diphthong. The elementary and middle school students who stumbled on the spellings were out. But those who remained on stage were a step closer to the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington. Televised nationally, the event determines the country's top speller and launches the winner into the national spotlight. The county competition came down to a tall, lanky eighth-grader, Lanson Tang, and, to some surprise, a fourth-grade Cold Spring Elementary student, Karis Ryu. Four years younger than many of her competitors, Karis, 9, was so small she had to pull the microphone down each time she took the stage. Speaking the letters slowly and distinctly, she rarely paused to ask for a definition or a language of origin. Karis had left nearly all her competitors in the dust — until, more than 30 rounds deep into the competition, she mistakenly used an "i" instead of a "y" as the last letter of the word "polygamy." The audience gasped. "I'm sorry, that's incorrect," said the announcer, television commentator and columnist Cal Thomas. The win went to Lanson Tang, the individual homeschooling champion from Potomac who will represent the county at the national bee. He correctly spelled constituent and pestilence to take the regional title. "I sound [the words] out in my mind, and I see it in writing — I visualize it, sort of," Lanson said of his winning strategy. And while Lanson described spelling as relaxing, when it comes to competing at the national level, he admitted, "It doesn't look easy." Lanson beat out competition twice as stiff as last year, when the regional bee launched. The competition, which pits winners of spelling bees at schools throughout the county against each other, was organized for the first time in the county last year by the Fourth Presbyterian School in Potomac. Prior to that, while schools may have hosted their own bees, there wasn't the opportunity to advance onward to compete at the national level. Because officials at Fourth Presbyterian weren't able to organize the regional competition until just a few weeks before the deadline to enter, many county schools didn't participate. This year, however, there was plenty of time to get organized, and participation nearly doubled to around 40 schools. It was also the first year a bee was organized for home-schooled children, according to John Murray, headmaster at the Fourth Presbyterian School. Some of the words seemed to be tougher than others, said Norwood School eighth-grader Aaron Ellsworth. A veteran spelling champion, it had been the last chance for Aaron, who lost out on the word "springbok," to advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. "Part of it is just luck of the draw," Aaron said. Jamie Ryu said that she thought her daughter, Karis, might return to the regional competition to compete. "She's very confident in herself, and she's not afraid to be on the stage." With four more years left to compete, Karis Ryu said she hoped for another chance at spelling glory. "I still feel good about getting runner-up," Karis said. "I hope to achieve my goal next year." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Home-schooled speller advances to national bee (Potomac Gazette) Posted: 17 Mar 2010 02:32 AM PDT It was down to two spellers at the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee on Saturday. A nervous tension had settled over the crowd gathered at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, watching as the group of spellers on the stage was gradually whittled down. Patriarch. Streusel. Diphthong. The elementary and middle school students who stumbled on the spellings were out. But those who remained on stage were a step closer to the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington. Televised nationally, the event determines the country's top speller and launches the winner into the national spotlight. The county competition came down to a tall, lanky eighth-grader, Lanson Tang, and, to some surprise, a fourth-grade Cold Spring Elementary student, Karis Ryu. Four years younger than many of her competitors, Karis, 9, was so small she had to pull the microphone down each time she took the stage. Speaking the letters slowly and distinctly, she rarely paused to ask for a definition or a language of origin. Karis had left nearly all her competitors in the dust — until, more than 30 rounds deep into the competition, she mistakenly used an "i" instead of a "y" as the last letter of the word "polygamy." The audience gasped. "I'm sorry, that's incorrect," said the announcer, television commentator and columnist Cal Thomas. The win went to Lanson Tang, the individual homeschooling champion from Potomac who will represent the county at the national bee. He correctly spelled constituent and pestilence to take the regional title. "I sound [the words] out in my mind, and I see it in writing — I visualize it, sort of," Lanson said of his winning strategy. And while Lanson described spelling as relaxing, when it comes to competing at the national level, he admitted, "It doesn't look easy." Lanson beat out competition twice as stiff as last year, when the regional bee launched. The competition, which pits winners of spelling bees at schools throughout the county against each other, was organized for the first time in the county last year by the Fourth Presbyterian School in Potomac. Prior to that, while schools may have hosted their own bees, there wasn't the opportunity to advance onward to compete at the national level. Because officials at Fourth Presbyterian weren't able to organize the regional competition until just a few weeks before the deadline to enter, many county schools didn't participate. This year, however, there was plenty of time to get organized, and participation nearly doubled to around 40 schools. It was also the first year a bee was organized for home-schooled children, according to John Murray, headmaster at the Fourth Presbyterian School. Some of the words seemed to be tougher than others, said Norwood School eighth-grader Aaron Ellsworth. A veteran spelling champion, it had been the last chance for Aaron, who lost out on the word "springbok," to advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. "Part of it is just luck of the draw," Aaron said. Jamie Ryu said that she thought her daughter, Karis, might return to the regional competition to compete. "She's very confident in herself, and she's not afraid to be on the stage." With four more years left to compete, Karis Ryu said she hoped for another chance at spelling glory. "I still feel good about getting runner-up," Karis said. "I hope to achieve my goal next year." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

You are subscribed to email updates from Yahoo! News Search Results for Homeschooling To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610