Have you got five minutes and feel like maybe crying a bit? Then check out "One in 13 Million," the national award-winning film by Issaquah High student Isobel Grudin! Isobel's film received an Award of Excellence in this year's National PTA Reflections competition. She was one of only three high school students in the country to receive the award for film. This year's Reflections theme was "Heroes Around Me." Here's what Isobel had to say about her film:
“Becoming a hero does not happen overnight. It is not a job title or something one can vacation from. From the first time a child lays its eyes upon their parents, they see heroes. From then on, for the rest of their lives, parents are striving to be those heroes. When a child has a single parent, that parent works much harder to be their hero. Single parents often go unnoticed for the work they do and the hardships they face. There are thirteen million single parents in the US that selflessly become heroes for their children.
A team of students from Liberty High's Navy JROTC Company won the Kitsap Regional SeaPerch Underwater ROV Challenge April 27! What does that mean? It means they're really good at building and piloting underwater vehicles.
Here's how SeaPerch works: Each team builds an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), learning a lot about science and engineering along the way. The competition first consists of a brief technical presentation where participants explain to the judges how they built their vehicle, how they overcame challenges, and what they learned. Then they put their machines through two underwater competitions in a swimming pool: An obstacle course and a challenge course. This year's event took place at Olympic High School.
In the obstacle course, the pilot must navigate a course as quickly as possible through hoops and other obstacles. In the mission course, they carry out a simulated search and rescue operation. This year's contest was inspired by the efforts to rescue the group of boys trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018. When the scores were all tallied, Liberty's Patriot Company team came out on top, beating out 17 other high school teams! They also managed to win an optional extra event, where they had to use the ROV to pick up rings from the bottom of the pool.
By winning the regional competition, Liberty's team qualified for the National SeaPerch Challenge coming up June 1-2 in Maryland. Congratulations, and good luck Patriots!
The team members are: Timothy Caole, Faith Ellis, Dominic Ogino, Evan Rosenfelt, Kaitlin Lew, Mathea Caole, Sofia VanHuss, and Carson Tucker
Students across the Issaquah School District are being recognized for their artistic talents, both by the Issaquah School District PTSA and the Washington State PTA via the annual Reflections competition.
The Reflections Program is a National PTA and Washington State PTA cultural arts competition with the purpose of providing students with an opportunity to use their creative talents by expressing themselves through their own original works. Young artist get involved through their local PTA or PTSA. A student may submit an entry in any of six arts areas (Visual Arts, Photography, Literature, Music Composition, Dance Choreography, and Film Production). Only original works of art are accepted. This year’s theme was “Heroes Around Me.”
State results were released in mid-March. The follow students from the Issaquah School District were recognized:
The following students were recognized in January at the District-wide Reflections Reception at Issaquah High School.
For more information on the annual Reflections Program, please visit https://www.wastatepta.org/events-programs/reflections/
*Pictures courtesy of the ISD PTSA – taken at the ISD District-wide Reflections Reception
Maple Hills Elementary second grade teacher, Emily Sonneland, spoke with her class this year on how they could make the world a better place. After brainstorming ideas, the class decided that they could help improve the world by spreading kindness, so they created The Kindness Project. The students created, designed, and wrote Kindness Cards for every single student and adult at Maple Hills and delivered them to each person. Ms. Sonneland heard about a newspaper in London that only focuses on The Happy News and she sent in their story. The Happy News loved it and Ms. Sonneland’s class was featured on the front page of The Happy News London paper! Maple Hills second graders are famous and kind citizens!