IN Ross Township Summer 2014 | Page 41

and demonstrate outstanding leadership abilities and a strong commitment to volunteer work. Marciniak serves as National Honor Society president, North Hills Board of Education student representative and senior class president and is a member of SADD, Hands for Service Club and Spanish Club. He has been elected as class president for all four years of high school. He has been recognized with the Trib Total Media Outstanding Young Citizen Award for the past four years and with a bronze President’s Volunteer Service Award. Throughout his high school career, he has volunteered with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, assisted athletes at Special Olympics events and participated with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Light the Night Walk. He also organized and co-hosted the “It’s a Hockey Night in North Hills” fundraiser to aid the homeless in Pittsburgh through clothes donations and the Mario Lemieux Foundation through financial gifts and initiated a “Pennies for Malaria” change collection to purchase mosquito nets for those in danger of contracting malaria in Africa. Marciniak recently was named a North Hills High School Volunteer of the Year as part of the 2014 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program that recognizes outstanding community service by young Americans. North Hills Student Advances to National Art Competition N orth Hills High School students have been honored for their artistic achievements in the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers competition for the Pittsburgh region. In coordination with the nationally known Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the competition recognized 14 North Hills artists for their photography and digital art entries. Their artwork was on exhibit at La Roche College’s Zappala Center in the Cantellops Art Gallery. Sophomore Brandon Falcona won the Gold Key Award, the competition’s highest honor, for his digital art piece titled “Something in the Fields.” His piece advanced to the 2014 National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition where his artwork will be judged alongside the best student artwork in the United States. More than half of the entries into the competition were not selected for the show and less than half of the pieces accepted into the competition were recognized as award winners. A panel of 12 local artists, art educators and art professionals judged the entries. Silver Key Awards were given to senior Kate Baginski, freshman Amber Kerekes, senior Abigail Majetich and junior Maura Sarazen, and freshman Brooke Dumas, sophomore Brandon Falcona, senior Lindsay Feltz, senior Michael Joos, freshman Allison Kenny, freshman Michael Knochel, junior Maura Sarazen, sophomore Regan Schell and freshman Emily Uhl were selected for Honorable Mention Awards. Each student is a member of the school’s Photogra