IN Cranberry Spring 2016 | Page 54

C ITNYE C SE OAF VAL MC KE L EES Y SC POR HO T OL NE WS D IS TR IC T NE WS eneca Valley NATIONAL SCHOLASTIC ART AWARDS Eleven Seneca Valley students visited New York City after winning Gold Keys in the 2016 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Competition. Gold Key winners include Alex Lecce (six Gold Keys), Dennis Adams, Micah Schirra, Cara Mastrostefano, Rhea Kudtarkar , Ciarra Hegadorn, Julia Milo, Megan Piotrowski, Kelly Campbell, Sophia Becker and Zofia Chrzanowska. The Seneca Valley Silver Key winners were Dennis Adams (three Silver Keys), Cara Mastrostefano (six Silver Keys) Carly Weigel, Riley Bell, Bailey Geyer (two Silver Keys) Kelly Campbell (two Silver Keys) Shelby Crispin, Micah Schirra, Sarah Foster (two Silver Keys) Caitlin DeVries, Kristen O’Brien, Chloe Young, Brenna Stubenbort and Taylor Wright, Lucy Geronime, Sydney Long, Zofia Chrzanowska and Olivia English (two Silver Keys). Also, several students from Seneca Valley High School received Honorable Mentions for their entries including Sarah Foster, Shelby Crispin, Dennis Adams, Jared Nocera, Taylor Wright, Serenity Sproat, James Faber, Sarah Foley, Lucy Geronime (four Honorable Mentions) , Hung Ha (two Honorable Mentions) Joanna Valentas, Erin Piotrowski , Lindsey Ocheltree and Isabella Moosa. All Seneca Valley students were honored at a special ceremony of the Pittsburgh Arts Region of The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards at the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) North Campus on Feb. 20. At this event, two seniors received additional awards in art. Alex Lecce was awarded $200 for his portfolios in the Emma Munson Memorial Scholarship and Cara Mastrostefano won $50 in the Pittsburgh Arts Region Special Recognition Award. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards has grown to be the nation’s longest-running, most prestigious recognition initiative for creative teens, and the largest source of scholarships for young artists and writers. SV DECATHLON TEAM TRIUMPHS IN COMPETITION The Seneca Valley Academic Decathlon team recently competed at the Pennsylvania Academic Decathlon regional 52 Cranberry competition, earning third place overall in the large school division which carried with it automatic qualification to the state competition at Penn State University, Main Campus Mar. 11-12. Team members include seniors Colton Botta, Zachary DeDionisio, Bryce Hrivnak and Darpun Kohli; juniors Kyle Cindrich and Emily Kastroll; and freshmen Sydney McGahey and Rishin Sharma. USAD is a privately funded, independent organization devoted to enhancing the quality of education. Through the efforts of its board and membership, USAD provides students of all learning levels the opportunity to excel academically through team competition. Although USAD works to achieve this in several ways, to students, teachers, and family members across the country, the USAD is primarily thought of as a competition. From local “heats,” to regional, then state, and finally an annual national competition, USAD recognizes outstanding achievement on the part of individuals and schools in ten different academic fields of endeavor: mathematics, language and literature, art, music, economics, speech, interview, essay, Super Quiz, and social science or science alternating depending upon the Super Quiz topic. S n(