Yahoo News County students participate in music and education events
Feb. 19—Students from the Wilmington, Neshannock Township, Mohawk and Laurel school districts were recognized for participating in concerts and academic competitions.
Wilmington
Junior Lauren Erson participated in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association District Orchestra Festival from Feb. 7 to 9 at Hickory High School. Chase Martineau won first in the impromptu category and third in the extemporaneous speaking at a forensics competition at Slippery Rock University. Zoë Wilson won first in demonstration speech and third in impromptu.
Students in grades two to six competed in an equations competition. The team of Ethan Johns, Quinlan Cathcart, Jason and Zachary Stuart and Lucas Mikulski won second place in the grade 3-4 division, while Mikulski, Johns and Josie Spieuzza won undefeated awards.
In the January PMEA District 5 Chorus Festival at Mercer High School, Erson and junior Collin Buckwalter earned third chair each and qualified for the region chorus.
There was an equations competition in January for grades five to eight.
Zachary Rolli and Patrick Tennant won undefeated awards and had perfect scores.
In the January PMEA District Band Festival at Hopewell High School, Casey Lukacs, Gavin McCurdy and Gabrielle Kobbe participated. Lukacs was first chair bass clarinet, McCurdy was first chair trombone and Kobbe was third chair flute.
In a January Presidents competition at Slippery Rock University, Cooper Krantz won his second undefeated award, which qualified him for the National Academic Games competition in Atlanta.
Neshannock
In the orchestra festival, Tripp Johns and Lena Grossman participated. They played violin and flute/piccolo, respectively.
In the choir festival, Grossman, Allison Geary and Madeline Ubry participated. Geary earned fourth chair soprano one, which qualified her for the regional concert in March.
In the band festival, Grossman and Mia Perrino participated. Grossman played the piccolo and Perrino percussion.
Twelve Neshannock Elementary students participated in the recent Lawrence County Elementary All Star Band Festival at Shenango High School.
These students were Sydney Arrow, Hyde Bober, Leigha Corner, Sydney Karns, Michael Magusiak, Scarlett Metz, Maddox Nuzzo, Andrew and Joseph Parsell-Rzodkiewicz, Danica Rickell, Grada Siciliana and Mia Solo-Pacheco.
Mohawk
In the chorus festival, Alex Chapman, Gracecyn Pastore and Savannah Telshaw participated.
Connor Contreras, Mark McKinney and Trey Gangone qualified for the PMEA District Band. McKinney later qualified for the PMEA Region 1 band.
Sophomore Aiden Tanner qualified for the PMEA District 5 Jazz Band in January. Tanner became the first student to qualify for Mohawk in over 13 years.
In the equations competition, the seventh and eighth grade team won first place, a freshman and sophomore team won first and second and one junior and senior team won first with Lakeview.
Laurel
During a recent Academic Games competition, elementary students Parker Benson and Carson Mahoney went undefeated in the presidents and linguistics competitions, respectively. If the students get one more undefeated score in one of their remaining competitions, they will qualify for nationals.
LCCTC
The February Pride and Promise Award for the Lawrence County Career and Technical Center was given to history teacher Leah Cozza and English teacher Lyn McVicker-Shaffer.
They were honored during Thursday's joint operating committee meeting for their work in helping the RISE program in helping students prepare for graduation and their future career paths.
Shaffer is the advisor for the school's SkillsUSA opening and closing team, the morning announcement stream and social media posts.
Cozza is a class advisor that organizes dances, banquets and other events in the school.
Union student wins in Special Olympics
Union Elementary student Cayden Ritchie recently won the silver medal during a Special Olympics regional bowling tournament.
