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: 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.
A forum for teen drivers and the adults who care about them will address the topic of “Teens and Driving: Under the Influence” from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 5, at Minnie Howard School, 3300 Braddock Road, Alexandria. The forum also will include a Spoken Word Poetry Contest. Teen poets and spoken word artists are encouraged to showcase their talent for spoken words and rhythms. To participate, submit an on-line entry form before Thursday, April 3. For additional information, contact Karen Parker Thompson at karen.parker.thompson@acps.k12.va.us or 703-824-6639 or Leticia Garcilazo at letymg1990@yahoo.com.
The Higher Achievement Program, in partnership with Alexandria City Public Schools, is recruiting fourth- and fifth-grade students for its Summer Academy 2008. The six-week academy will operate from 7:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. five days a week at George Washington Middle School, 1005 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. Recruitment will continue through May 19. To apply on line, please visit Higher Achievement's Web site at www.higherachievement.org. For more information, call 202-544-3633.
Alexandria Archaeology will be hosting an archaeology camp for kids this summer, and registrations are being accepted now. Campers will learn professional excavating, recording, and artifact-processing methods as they help uncover Alexandria's buried past while protecting historical resources. The camp is open to children ages 12 through 15. There are two one-week sessions, which run from Monday, July 21 through Friday, July 25, and from Monday, July 28 through Friday, Aug. 1. The camp day starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 3:30 p.m., and campers supply their own drinks, snacks and lunch. Camp costs $350 per session and some scholarships are available. Space is limited to just 15 campers per session and a non-refundable deposit of $100 is required to hold a slot. Each camper will receive a commemorative T-shirt. For more information or to register for camp, visit www.AlexandriaArchaeology.org or call 703-838-4399.
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.
NOVA Kids War game Summer Camp makes Civil War history come alive. Through miniature war gaming the campers will learn about strategy, tactics and history of the Civil War. Each child will paint his or her own "squad" of soldiers and use them in a series of war games
 that they will learn based on actual conflicts in Virginia. Camp sessions run Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.–1 p.m. for children ages 10-13. $250/child includes all materials. Need to bring own lunch or snack. Camp runs June 16-20; June 23-27; July 7-11; July 14-18; July 21-25; July 28-Aug. 1; Aug. 4-8; and Aug. 11-15. Located at Mount Vernon Unitarian Church, 1909 Windmill Lane. Registration is due by May 15. Contact James at 571-289-0981 or novawargamecamp@gmail.com
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/ .
Jay Matthews of Alexandria was among a team of students at Davis & Elkins College to be awarded a first place prize of $1,000 from the West Virginia High Technology Consortium (WVHTC) Foundation. Matthews is majoring in computer science and math and is the son of Herbert and Dawn Matthews.
* Anthony Arsta of Alexandria graduated with a Master of Business Administration from the College of Commerce at DePaul University.
Blake Learmonth, of Alexandria, (22305), recently graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Learmonth received a Master of Arts degree in Graphic Design.
Lauren Tesh of Alexandria was named to the fall 2007 dean’s list at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. She is a doctor of pharmacy student.
Macken Lindsay of Alexandria, was recently inducted into the Virginia Tech chapter of Chi Sigma Iota Honor Society.
Jessica Caolo of Alexandria, was recently inducted into the Virginia Tech chapter of Chi Sigma Iota Honor Society.
Christina Shiroma, a graduate of St. Stephen and St. Agnes School and a senior philosophy major at The College of Wooster, received the D. Ivan Dykstra Philosophy Roundtable Book Prize at Wooster’s 38th annual Recognition Banquet on Feb. 22.
Alexandria resident Jackson P. Fitzsimmons, seventh grade student at Browne Academy, has been notified by the National Geographic Society that he is one of the semifinalists eligible to compete in the 2008 Virginia Geographic Bee, sponsored by Plum Creek. The 2008 Virginia Geographic Bee will be held at Shenandoah University on Friday, April 4.
The following local students received honors at Emory College for the spring 2007 semester:
* Anne Patton of Alexandria, daughter of Oliver B Patton and Barbara A Van Gelder, was named to the dean's list of Emory College, the undergraduate, liberal arts college
* Cole Youngner of Alexandria, son of Mr Larry D Youngner, was named to the dean's list of Emory College, the undergraduate, liberal arts college