Fort Bend Lifestyles and Homes Magazine Jun 2009: Fort Bend Campus News 2

Southminster Students Attend Regional Science Fair - Twenty-four Southminster School students attended the ACSI Regional Science Fair at Clear Lake Christian School in Houston. Southminster students begin participating in the school-wide science fair beginning in the second grade. The winners of the school science fair move on to the regional competition. These students were entered in grade-level categories including experimental and non-experimental life and physical sciences.

A total of 81 students from five different schools competed in the third- to 12th-grade categories. Southminster students competed at the third-, fourth- and fifth-grade levels. Eleven of Southminster ’s second-graders competed at the third-grade level. At the end of the day-long competition, Southminster students earned 15 medals and every student from Southminster received a Superior ribbon.

First-place winners included Francisco Ruiz, second grade; Cameron Reed, second grade; Meagan Mehrdad, second grade; Marcus White, second grade; Morgan Pahl, third grade; Molly Federwisch, fourth grade; and Riley Overstreet, fourth grade. Second-place winners include Anu Cherukara, second grade; Sarah Wang, second grade; Kevin Taylor-Jarrell, third grade; Taylor Knight, third grade; and Nathan Correll, fourth grade. Third-place winners include Matthew Clark, second grade, Riana Saha, third grade; and Nicholas Tong, fifth grade.

Girl Scouts Enjoy Lock-in at Fun Tiki and Provide Games for Women’s Shelter - The Junior and Cadette Girls Scouts from Rainbow Stars Service Unit enjoyed a lock-in at Fun Tiki – Family Entertainment Center in Missouri City. At the all-night event, the girls enjoyed action arcade, miniature golf, inflatable play and go karts, but the event was not all about fun.

The Junior Girl Scouts earned the Puzzlers badge and the Cadettes earned the Games for Life Interest Project. As part to the IP, the girls had to examine careers that involve games. The owner spoke to the girls about how he got into the family entertainment business.

As part of the registration for the event, the girls were asked to bring a board game that will be donated to the Fort Bend County women ’s shelter. More than 80 games were collected.

Two Fort Bend ISD Departments Partner to Promote Talkline - Fort Bend ISD’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools Department and the Transportation Department have formed a partnership to promote Talkline, an anonymous hotline for students to share confidential information and receive free advice and encouragement on dealing with issues in their lives. The Talkline is staffed by trained professionals who are available to students 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To remind students of the service, each school bus has a Talkline sticker displayed. The Talkline number is 281-240-TALK or 281-240-8255.

Terry Senior Honored With President’s Award for Volunteer Service -Terry High School senior Mosope “Tom” Soda was honored for his exemplary volunteer service with a President’s Volunteer Service Award. This award recognizes Americans of all ages who have volunteered significant amounts of their time to serve their communities and country, and is presented by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program on behalf of the President ’s Council on Service and Civic Participation.

Soda earned this award through his volunteer work including building park benches at Williams Elementary, giving out gifts to the needy during the holidays and distributing supplies at the Sunny Side Center in Houston.

Cornerstone Christian Academy Participates in Statewide Art Contest - Cornerstone Christian Academy competed in its first ever statewide art contest under the direction of art teacher Kathy Rowe.

Academy third-grader Nathan Matthys received Honorable Mention recognition in the Texas State Junior Duck Stamp Design Contest for his oil pastel/watercolor piece.

The National Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design contest is a dynamic art and science program developed to teach young people about environmental science and habitat conservation, and to exercise their artistic skills. Nathan received one of 64 Honorable Mentions from the state of Texas.

St. Laurence Seventh-grade Team Wins St. Laurence Invitational Tournament - After a slow start to their season, the seventh-graders reeled off 10 consecutive victories to end the year, which was highlighted by winning the competitive St. Laurence Tournament. This turn-around was attributed to the hard work, practice and persistence of each team member.

Lamar CISD Students Compete in Chinese Speech Contest - Five Lamar CISD students participated in the Chinese Speech Contest sponsored by the Global Federation of Chinese Business Women in the Southern U.S.A.

Terry High School’s Bryson Baugus was one of the eight finalists in the competition. Also competing were Heather McBride, Jonathan McBride and Lien Ai Cao of Lamar Consolidated High and Jeliany Hernandez of Terry High.

The students are all currently taking Chinese I, but competed against Houston-area students taking their second or third year of the language. This is the first year for Lamar CISD to offer a course in Chinese. Suling Shih is the teacher for all five of the Lamar CISD students.

Texas State University SIFE Team Wins at Regional Competition - Erika Stultz, a 2006 graduate of Stephen F. Austin High School, was a member of Texas State University ’s winning SIFE team. She has been an active member of SIFE for a year and is now an officer of the Free Enterprise City program, which is educating elementary school students about the business world. The former Sugar Land student is majoring in marketing at Texas State University.

The Texas State University Students in Free Enterprise Team returned to San Marcos as winners after participating in the Dallas SIFE USA Regional Competition in April. The event was one of 16 SIFE USA Regional Competitions held across the United States in March and April. A live 24-minute audio-visual presentation outlining each program ’s results determines the winners.

In addition to winning the regional competition in their league for the 12th straight year, Texas State also took home top honors by being named a top 20 finalist for five of the seven content-based Individual Topic Competitions, including: Entrepreneurship Competition; HSBC Financial Literacy Competition; Waste Management Environmental Sustainability Competition; Campbell ’s/Sealed Air Business Ethics Competition; and GE Consumer and Industrial Program Sustainability Competition.