Send announcements to the Alexandria Gazette Packet, by e-mail to gazette@connectionnewspapers.com. Deadline is Friday at noon for the following week’s paper. Photos are encouraged. Call Rebecca Halik at 703-917-6407 with questions.
The Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) Special Education Parent Resource Center and Children Together are holding a workshop series on behavior. "Dr. Becky Bailey’s Conscious Discipline" will teach the basic skills of discipline. Sessions will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. on the following Tuesdays: March 11 and April 8, 22 and 29. The location is Jefferson-Houston School for Arts and Academics, 1501 Cameron St., Alexandria. All parents, teachers and other school staff can benefit and are invited to this free series. Although the sessions are sequential, you need not attend all to benefit.
To register, call Anne Lipnick at 703-706-4552 or 571-274-2866 or e-mail alipnick@acps.k12.va.us.
Bishop Ireton seniors Paul Fox and Mary-Catherine Ross have advanced to Finalist standing in the 2008 National Merit Scholarship Program competition.
The Alexandria City Public Schools Offices of Secondary Programs and Student Services seek community input on improving school counseling services for grades 6-12. Surveys in both English and Spanish are now available online at http://www.acps.k12.va.us/studentservices/guidance/survey.php . The deadline to complete the survey is Wednesday, March 26. For more information, please contact Margee Walsh, Executive Director of Secondary Programs, at 703-824-1531.
The Alexandria City Public Schools English as a Second Language office is sponsoring a workshop series that will run from March 4 through May 21. The schedule and topics can be viewed online at http://www.acps.k12.va.us/news2008/nr2008022701.php. Spanish interpretation will be available at all of the workshops. Interpretation in other languages will be provided upon request as well as assistance with child care and transportation. Requests must be made in advance. For more information, contact Margaret Lorber, Bi-Lingual Parent Liaison, at 703-461-4084.
The T.C. Williams High School project has been selected as a winner of a 2008 Aon Build America Award in the Design-Build New category. Judges of the prestigious construction industry competition, sponsored by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), selected 17 Build America Award winners and seven Merit Award winners.
The City of Alexandria's Jerome "Buddie" Ford Nature Center, located at 5750 Sanger Ave., will offer a weeklong nature day camp for youth ages 7 to 10. The camp is scheduled from March 17-21, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily. Campers will participate in fun, nature-based learning activities, including woodland hikes, live animal exhibitions, journaling, story time, and nature games and crafts. Campers may be dropped off at 8:30 a.m. The camp fee is $275 for City residents ($300 for nonresidents) for the entire week. Registration is ongoing, and advance registration is required for all campers. For additional information or to register, call the Naturalist staff at 703-838-4829.
Two local students were selected by the Rotary Club of Alexandria to compete in the Rotary’s 2008 regional music competition to be held at the Homestead Resort on April 5, 2008. Annie Trimber, a flutist and a junior at West Potomac High School, and Albert Yan, a violinist who is a senior at Episcopal High School, excelled in the competition which was judged by Maestro Kim Allen Kluge, Music Director of the Alexandria Symphony, and three area high school music directors. Yan and Trimber were awarded the Rotary Club of Alexandria’s Gold performance awards and the two will now move on to compete in the Regional competition for the $5,000 in music scholarships awarded each year by Rotary District 7610.
While Trimber and Yan took the top Gold honors, Silver performance awards went to Michael Brandon, a senior jazz saxophone player at T. C. Williams High School, and Jonathan Knox, a vocalist at Mount Vernon High School. Bronze performance awards went to Sasha Denisin, a saxophone player who is a T. C. Williams senior; Anna Kalil, who plays the French Horn and who is also a senior at TC Williams; and Sara Neilson a violin player likewise at T.C. Williams.
The following Alexandria residents graduated from Virginia Tech in December:
* Marylee Worley received a Bachelor of Science degree (cum laude) in biochemistry from the College of Science.
* Anna Antonini received a Bachelor of Science degree in apparel, housing, and resource management from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.
* Ronald Claros-Cano received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree (summa cum laude) in electrical engineering from the College of Engineering.
* James Luby received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.
* Dahan Chen received a Bachelor of Science degree in apparel, housing, and resource management from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.
* Kennedy Kyei-Mensah received a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering degree in civil engineering from the College of Engineering.
Margaret Taylor, daughter of Elizabeth and George Taylor of Alexandria, was named to the merit list at Kenyon College.
Charles L. Keller of Alexandria was named to the dean’s list at Lynchburg College.
Nine Bishop Ireton High School students were selected by competitive audition to participate in this year’s All-District Concerts held at local high schools in January and February. Allen Derina (clarinet), Andrew Hickman (euphonium), Amanda Howells (clarinet), Audrey Hueg (clarinet), Zachary Martini (clarinet), and Cassandra Poulos (percussion) performed with the 58-member 2008 Wind Ensemble. Mary Keegan (percussion) and Geneva Auduong (clarinet) performed with the 104-member 2008 Senior Symphonic. Tim O’Brien (bass) was the sole Bishop Ireton representative at the All District Jazz Band Concert.
T.C. Williams High School art student Songserea Wood is one of 30 finalists in the third annual Lucerne The Art of Dairy "Cows & History" Contest, sponsored by Safeway. Wood is the only Virginia student among the finalists, selected from nearly 6,000 nationwide entries submitted by students ages 12 to 19. Wood’s entry, drawn inside a blank template of a Lucerne Cow, features a design based on the development of a vaccine for small pox, which originated from cow vesicles. Her design challenge consisted of finding a creative combination of a historical event and the dairy industry. As a finalist, Wood received a life-size, white fiberglass cow sculpture – delivered on Feb. 19 to Art Teacher Holly Langenfeld’s classroom – along with $250 to buy painting supplies. Wood, with the help of other T.C. Williams art students, will paint her cow based on her winning design.
Students at John Adams Elementary School observed the Chinese New Year on Feb. 7 in a very special way. Thirty third- and fifth-grade students, who will perform an abridged version of Puccini’s opera "Turandot" in May, held their first rehearsal with opera singers Kari Paludan and Peter Burroughs on Feb. 7 to emphasize the Chinese culture included in the opera’s story line. The opera performances, free and open to the public, will take place at 1:30 and 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 28, at the school, 5651 Rayburn Ave.
Jeana McGowan of Alexandria, received a bachelor of arts in education from University of South Carolina.
Volunteer Fairfax and the ExxonMobil Foundation selected 60 Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., nonprofit organizations as participants for the 2008 ExxonMobil Community Summer Jobs Program (CSJP). The ExxonMobil Community Summer Jobs Program provides full-time, undergraduate-level college students with an eight-week, paid internship to experience operations in a nonprofit community environment. College students interested in the ExxonMobil-funded internship may visit the Volunteer Fairfax Web site, www.volunteerfairfax.org, to obtain a list of participating local agencies, internship descriptions and agency contacts. Interested college students should apply directly to the selected agencies.
Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) elementary schools are holding open houses and/or school tours designed primarily for parents of rising kindergartners and other new ACPS students. If you are not sure to which school your child is assigned, please call 703-824-6710 or refer to the on-line Attendance Zone Locator at www.acps.k12.va.us/enroll/zonelocator.php. Call the individual school if you have further questions about visiting or enrollment.
Here are the scheduled events, listed by school:
* Charles Barrett Elementary School, 1115 Martha Custis Drive, 703-824-6960 – Tours take place from 9-10 a.m. on Wednesdays.
* George Mason Elementary School, 2601 Cameron Mills Road, 703-706-4470 –1 p.m. on March 28. Tours are given at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesdays.
* William Ramsay Elementary School, 5700 Sanger Ave., 703-824-6950 – Tours take place at 9 a.m. on Wednesdays.
* Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School, 435 Ferdinand Day Drive, 703-933-6300 – Tours take place at 10 a.m. on Thursdays.
Because all Alexandria City Public Schools were closed Friday, Feb. 22, due to inclement weather, the day will be made up Monday, April 28. April 28 is built into the school calendar as Make-up Day #1 and would have been a day off for students and staff if it wasn't needed as a make-up day. ACPS calendars can be viewed online at http://www.acps.k12.va.us/calendars/ .
Manuel Gomez, a Radford University senior psychology major from Alexandria, will present research at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research.
The following Alexandria residents graduated from Boston University: Laura K. Donovan, Master of Science in Human Resource Management; Stephanie A. Koss, Bachelor of Science in Communication; and Whitney L. Cumpson, Master of Criminal Justice in Criminal Justice.
Christina Shiroma, a graduate of St Stephens & St Agnes School, has been named to the Dean’s List for the fall semester at The College of Wooster. Shiroma, a senior philosophy major from Hilton Head Island, achieved a grade point average of 3.5 or above.
Alexandria Friends High School's next open house will be on Friday, March 7, from 9 a.m.-noon. Join for refreshments and learn how a Friends ("Quaker") education can help transform a high school student. 703-461-7222 to reserve your spot, and visit www.afriends.org for more information.