Brookwood Elementary School has been busy raising money to provide assistance to the people of Haiti. The first donation to the school’s “Half Dollars for Haiti” came minutes after the red buckets from the Salvation Army arrived.  Three students, Meg Flynn, Aly Vyfvinkel, and Nicky Lu Vyfvinkel, also raised $285 selling hot chocolate. On Monday, the girls presented the Salvation Army with a check for the total amount raised by Brookwood students — $3,638.63.  At the event, which was a fundraiser organized by the Brookwood PTA, the fifth grade played “We Shall Overcome” on recorders.  The fifth-grade students were under the direction of Miss Katie Dewey.

Many students want to go to college, but how to get there?  Mount Jordan Middle School’s Student Success Night will lay out the steps students – particularly first-generation college students and those for whom English is a second language – can take to prepare now for college and careers.

Student Success Night, scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 11, at 6:30 p.m. at Mount Jordan (9360 S. 300 East),
offers parents and students six mini-workshops on basic study skills, college entrance test information, recommended high school courses, help for parents to track student progress via technology, college scholarships and grants, and career-oriented courses offered through the Canyons Technical Education Center.

Each of the workshops will be offered in English and Spanish in hopes of boosting the number of first-generation college students in Canyons District. The public is invited to attend.

“There are many different career paths, yet I’m not sure if students really understand that until a last-ditch effort in high school. Unfortunately, by that time, it’s too late to start preparing,” said Mount Jordan Middle School Principal Misty Suarez. “We want to step up and make sure our students have the tools to become college- and career-ready today.”

The event is part of a week’s worth of career- and college-readiness and awareness activities, including teachers talking about their college experience, students wearing the colors of their desired colleges, “Jeopardy!”-styled college trivia games, and students signing a banner stating where they want to go to college or what they want to be when they grow up. It dovetails with Canyons School District efforts to start preparing students for college and careers as early as kindergarten, and was facilitated by the school's PTA.

A Hillcrest High School senior was one of 300 seniors from 175 schools across the country who earned a spot as a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search 2010.

Albert Lingfeng Cui, a diploma candidate in the International Baccalaureate Program at Hillcrest, was selected based upon his research, “Demonstration of Planar Plasmonic Waveguides Using Structured Metal Films.” He was one of two Utah students to earn semifinalist status.  

Phil Talbot, an Advanced Placement/IB biology teacher at Hillcrest, also was named a Teacher of Merit for his mentoring and guidance of Albert’s project.

As America’s oldest and most prestigious pre-college science competition, the Intel Science Talent Search, a program of the Society for Science & the Public, brings together the brightest young scientific minds in America to compete for $1.25 million in awards. Each semifinalist receives a $1,000 award, with an additional $1,000 going to his or her school.

The Intel Science Talent Search encourages students to tackle challenging scientific questions and develop the skills to solve the problems of tomorrow. Projects submitted for consideration cover all disciplines of science, including biochemistry, chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering, behavioral science, and medicine and health.

The list of semifinalists was selected from 1,736 entrants.  They hail from 37 states and the District of Columbia. In March, the 40 finalists will gather in Washington, D.C., to compete for more than $630,000 in awards from the Intel Foundation.

“We believe that fostering a passion for math and science in today’s youth is imperative for America’s future success as a leader in innovation,” said Shelly Esque, vice president of Intel’s Corporate Affairs Group.  “The 300 Intel Science Talent Search semifinalists recognized exemplify what is possible when young people are encouraged to apply math and science to solving today’s most challenging problems.”

Six outstanding students at Hillcrest High School have been named finalists in the 2010 National Merit Scholarship Program. They join 16,000 others nationwide who have met he requirements to advance past the semifinalist round.

The selection of some 8,200 Merit Scholarship winners is now in progress. Winners of the scholarship will be notified in March. Offers will be sent their home addresses and confidential notices will be forwarded to high school principals.

Congratulations to the six National Merit Scholar finalists at Hillcrest. They are:

• Jeffrey R. Bennett
• Albert L. Cui
• Rachel C. Edwards
• Blake L. Ellsion
• Xueyou Wang
• Anna C. Wright

More than 1.5 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2010 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screening of the program entrants.  The nationwide pool of the semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.

Shelley Allen, a Midvale Middle School National Board Certified P.E. teacher and International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme coordinator, was spotlighted by the State Board of Education on Friday, Feb. 5, 2010, for her achievements and contributions to education.

Shelley is an energetic and bright teacher as well an asset to Midvale Middle School and Canyons School District. Shelley, who is in her sixth year of teaching at Midvale Middle, has taken the lead to bring the prestigious International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme to the school. As Midvale’s IB coordinator, Shelley has been working tirelessly to prepare the school, staff, and faculty to host the academically rigorous program in a community with high numbers of students in poverty and who are English Language Learners. She has headed up staff training initiatives, penned necessary applications and worked closely with IB leaders to establish a firm foundation for the program. The IB Middle Years Programme, in pilot form, will be offered as a magnet program at Midvale beginning next fall. It will be the first of its kind offered in Salt Lake County, and only the fourth in Utah to service middle school students with an eye on a uniquely rigorous academic program and ultimately, an International Baccalaureate Diploma.

Shelley coordinated preparations for Midvale’s IB Middle Years Programme at the same time she earned National Board Certification, and is the first Utah educator to earn National Board Certification in physical education.