Great grads
The Timber Creek High School 2011 senior class earned more scholarship dollars than any previous class in the school’s history with a grand total of $3.6 million. They also raised tens of thousands of dollars for the community, including $120,000 during Relay for Life and $20,000 during March Madness, which was raised to enhance technology with the school. Roughly two-thirds of the class graduated with honors and 106 graduated as AP Scholars who completed 6 or more advanced placement courses.
Young star
Avalon Middle School student Tanuja Krishna was selected for the Metropolitan Area Youth Symphony Orchestra.
New Valencia campus
Valencia College broke ground on its new Lake Nona Campus. The three-story, 83,000-square-foot building — the first of four to make up its campus located in the medical city — will open in August 2012. Learn more at valenciacc.edu/lakenona/
Top linguist
Ashley Neumeister, a recent Timber Creek High graduate, was selected as the 2011 Student Ambassador for the state of Florida by the Florida Foreign Language Association. This is the highest state honor for a student of world languages. Ashley began studying Chinese while still in eighth-grade, continuing to AP Chinese as a senior and has also studied Latin, Russian and Arabic. She will be attending Tulane University.
Avalon Middle’s metals
Avalon Middle School was awarded the Florida Department of Education's Golden School Award, which means the school showed it values the contributions that ADDitions School Volunteers and Partners in Education brought to its students. The school also earned the DOE’s Silver School Award, which recognizes the school for motivating its students to give back to the community.
Special needs kids graduate
With the help of UCP of Central Florida, more than 150 children with special needs, some from the East Orlando campus, graduated on Friday, June 10 with the skills necessary to move into a kindergarten classroom.
Waterford’s dollars for kids
Waterford Elementary raised several thousand dollars from their school store and donated $2,500 of the proceeds to New Hope for Kids, an organization that supports both terminally ill children as well as children grieving the loss of a loved one. For more information, contact Marla Sullivan at 407-331-3059 or Kory Thibodaux at 407-249-6410.
Full Sail excels in distance learning
Full Sail University received the 21st Century Best Practices in Distance Learning Award, the school’s Chief Information Officer Isis Jones received the Outstanding Leadership by an Individual in the Field of Distance Learning award and Course Director Kathy Craven received the Silver Award for Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching. Distance Learning Awards reflect extraordinary results through the use of online, videoconferencing, satellite, and blended learning delivery technologies.
Top producer
For the second year in a row, Valencia Community College ranks first in the nation in the number of associate degrees awarded by a community college. The ranking was published by Community College Week.
Student of the Year
Kiwanis of Avalon Park celebrates area Student of the Year recipients last month. The winners were Avalon Elementary’s Conor McGrath, Camelot Elementary’s Camille Warren, Castle Creek Elementary’s Aleah Becker, Stone Lakes Elementary’s Lisa Aberg, Timber Lakes Elementary’s Miles Varnedore, Avalon Middle’s Emma O'Halloran, Lake Nona High’s Milagros Chavira and Timber Creek High’s Garrett Thompson.
Creative writing for the community
UCF is hosting creative writing workshops for teens and adults this summer to teach members of the community how to brainstorm story ideas, structure stories and analyze their own writing. Registration is $150, which will help fund UCF’s Literary Arts Partnership. For more information, visit www.ce.ucf.edu/Program-Search/1367/Creative-Writing-Workshop
East Orlando schools make the list
Orange County had 13 high schools in the Washington Post’s national ranking, including two East Orlando schools. University High was No. 345 and Timber Creek High was No. 932. This is the sixth year OCPS high schools have made the list, previously released by Newsweek magazine.
Call for playwrights
The Valencia College East Campus theater program is accepting plays from Florida playwrights for its annual Florida Playwrights Competition. The deadline for entries is Sept 15. The winning play will be staged in April, as part of Valencia’s regular subscription series. Scripts should be sent to Valencia’s Artistic Director Julia Gagne at jgagne@valenciacollege.edu. For more information and entry rules and requirements, call 407-582-2296.
Full Sail nabs GameDay intro
Full Sail University was host to the tapping of ESPN’s College GameDay intro for the upcoming 2011 college football season. This year marks the 25th season for ESPN’s College GameDay.
Sunrise soars in math
Sunrise Elementary was the No. 6 school in the nation for First in Math usage and No. 1 in Orange County. Top 5 First in Math students were: Amanda Elliot, Zachary Sally, Zion Chang, Alexia Pineda and Jack Gonder.