Fleming Island color guard crowned world champions at WGI Games

DAYTON, Ohio – The Fleming Island High school color guard won first place for the Scholastic A Division at the Winter Guard International World Games.
The newly-crowned world champions competed against more than 12,000 performers from around the world.
The Fleming Island team started their season in mid-December. There are 18 students on the co-ed team: three seniors, two juniors, 11 sophomores and two freshmen. Their show was titled “They Will Come And They Will Go,” and they perform to the Stevie Nicks’ song “Dreams.”
The students participated in six regular competitions during their season, including a first-place performance at the Florida State Circuit Championships on March 31. They then boarded a charter bus on April 1 to compete at the University of Dayton. The Scholastic A Division started with 146 teams. Competition was pared down to 66 teams in the semifinals and just 20 in the finals.
Fleming Island’s Winter Guard program is part of the band program that’s lead by band directors Mara Rose and Alex Buck. The instructors are Michael Higbe, Natasha Ballard and Chris Khoshghadami, and they are supported by an amazing team of administrators, led by principal Thomas Pittman.

Clay students win cache of awards at state Science-Engineering Fair

LAKELAND – Clay County students made an impressive appearance at the Florida Science and Engineering Fair last weekend.
Keegan Emanuel (Green Cove Junior) won the Baird Junior Environmental Sciences Award for research in the area of preserving healthy animal populations. He also placed third in the animal sciences category for his project on the endangered Anastasia Island beach mice.
Megan Thompson (Ridgeview High) won the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Award for her project in chemistry as well as a second special award. Brady White (Green Cove Junior) and Serenity Derousie (Ridgeview High) also received special awards.
Brady White (Green Cove Junior) received a recognition award, while Gavin Baker (Fleming Island High) and Sydney Hayes (Orange Park Junior) received honorable mention in their respective categories. Sebastian Kouchakjy (Orange Park High) placed fourth in the category of Biomedical & Health Sciences.
The students competed against more than 800 projects from across the state of Florida. This elite competition consists of the best of the best projects from each county or region. The students scientifically presented the merits of their project to judges, including their hypothesis, procedures, data, analysis and conclusion.
Two Clay County students – Baker and Ridgeview High’s Michael Chen – also will compete in the International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix in May. More thanb 80 countries, territories, and regions will be in attendance to compete for thousands of dollars in prize money.


Five Clay students awarded Merit Scholarship Awards at SJCDS

ORANGE PARK – St. Johns Country Day School this week announced the 2019 recipients of the prestigious Merit Scholarship Award, a selective, merit-based opportunity that recognizes students entering Grades 7 and 9 who demonstrate both outstanding academic promise and a desire to make a significant contribution to school life. Students who will be entering Grades 7 and 9 in August are eligible and this year, five of seven recipients are Fleming Island residents.
In Grade 6, Erik Williams, Caroline Burson and Kelsey Gregson were awarded, and in Grade 8, Reagan Elia and Patrick Walsh received the prize.
In order to be eligible for the Merit Scholarship, a student must maintain a weighted grade point average of 3.5 or higher, earn superior scores on the Independent School Entrance Exam, and complete a
competitive application.
“The criteria for the Merit Scholarship program are intentionally set high,” said Acting Head of School Mary Virginia Fisher. “All of these students are to be commended for leaping over that bar and for the hard work that it undoubtedly took to do so.”

Three initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi

Three local students were initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most-selective all-discipline collegiate honor society.
Elizabeth Coen and Rachel Tavolieri, both of Fleming Island, were initiated at Florida State and Kevin Hoy of Melrose was initiated at Maryland University College.
These residents are among approximately 30,000 students, faculty, professional staff and alumni to be initiated into Phi Kappa Phi each year. Membership is by invitation only and requires nomination and approval by a chapter. Only the top 10 percent of seniors and 7.5 percent of juniors are eligible for membership. Graduate students in the top 10 percent of the number of candidates for graduate degrees may also qualify, as do faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction.