IN South Fayette Winter 2016 | Page 50

3680 OLD OAKDALE ROAD MCDONALD, PENNSYLVANIA 15057 PHONE 412/221.4542 FAX 724/693.0490 www.southfayette.org Dear South Fayette Township School District Families and Community Members: outh Fayette SO U TH FAYE T TE TOWN S HI P S CH O OL D IS T RIC T NE WS Author Henry David Thoreau states, “I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.” Each school year provides a thankful opportunity Dr. Bille P. Rondinelli for a new beginning. As the Superintendent of Schools District weaves through the fall season, it has been an exciting beginning for our 2016-2017 Operational Theme entitled “Exploration and Inventiveness.” The South Fayette Township School District is genuinely a place where the Board of Directors and the District’s employees strive to provide our students with personalized and innovative learning opportunities. We invite and encourage children to recognize and explore their passions and inventiveness as they pursue present and future goals. Two exciting examples of “Exploration and Inventiveness” in action recently occurred as South Fayette students participated in the White House Frontiers Conference held at Carnegie Mellon University on October 13, 2016, and the Pittsburgh Maker Faire held on October 14, 2016. Three South Fayette High School students represented our District and the Western Pennsylvania region at the White 48 South Fayette House Frontiers Conference on Innovation. Joe Cavanaugh, Parv Shrivastava, and Anish Thangavelu had the opportunity to meet President Obama and listen to several speakers including world-renowned researchers. They discussed local, national, global, and interplanetary breakthroughs in innovation. These students were selected by the White House to represent their team after winning the Infosys Maker Award this year for the BusBudE app, designed to keep students safe while traveling to and from school on the bus. “It’s a great feeling to know there are so many people who care about us and our local area, but also about the country and our world and they’re trying to make it a better place.” —Joe Cavanaugh