• More than 300 people caught the community and volunteer spirit at citywide day of community service on Nov. 1 when The Epstein School organized the event to benefit charity organizations including Children's Healthcare of Atlanta,the Atlanta Humane Society and many more.
• Woodward Academy sophomore Neel Edupuganti and junior Will Horton each won third place at the first Jiangsu Cup Chinese Speech Contest for Georgia High School students on Oct. 31 at Emory University. More than 20 students from nine local high schools competed in three levels.
• The Career and Technical Student Organizations at Sandy Creek High School in Fayette County rolled up their sleeves and led the way in organizing and promoting a blood drive. CTSO officers and members and students throughout the school took part as volunteers, donors, or both. Organizations involved included Healthcare Occupations Students of America (HOSA), SkillsUSA, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), and Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA).
• State Farm Insurance has awarded Lanier High School a $15,000 grant for the school's Center for Design and Technology to improve the way students learn software engineering. Lanier High was selected based on its reputation as one of the top schools in the nation for student performance with products such as Autodesk Engineering & Entertainment software, as well as student performance in numerous computer science and robotics competitions. "The passion for learning generated by the Center for Design and Technology at Lanier High School is changing lives," said Victor Montgomery, an IT Analyst with State Farm. Mike Reilly, a Lanier teacher who helped create the Center for Design and Technology, said, "Students in this program are passionate about learning and can't wait to get in the lab … Once students grasp the basics of software and hardware, and understand that it is not just for engineers, they are hooked. These tools are for aspiring programmers, designers, builders, movie makers, inventors, and more. From there we turn the students loose to use their imagination to link their work to core subjects."
• A Fayette County parent is among the 30 statewide selected to serve on Georgia School Superintendent Richard Woods' 2015-2016 Parent Advisory Council. LaVesta Washington, parent of a student at Fayetteville Elementary, is one of eight new members of the council. All were nominated by their school districts and selected by a committee of Georgia Department of Education representatives based on their responses to questions on engaging parents and building parent capacity to ensure student success. They will meet three times during the school year with Woods to discuss public education. Their primary focus will be increasing parent and family engagement to foster academic success for students, particularly in Georgia's Title I schools.
• Voting is underway for the 2015 Quaker State Best in Class Challenge, in which Gwinnett County's Maxwell High School of Technology is competing. Ballots can be cast at www.popularmechanics.com/qsbestinclasschallenge until 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 22. Maxwell is one of five schools from around the nation in the six-week competition involving high school auto shop classes. Students will restore, tune, and customize a used car into a showroom-ready, creative representation of their school. Each high school team will compete for not only bragging rights, but a custom spread in Popular Mechanics, the opportunity to attend and participate in the Dec. 11, 2015 Mecum Auction in Austin, Texas, and prize money and scholarships for their high school.
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