• Holy Innocents' Episcopal School fifth-graders will be a driving force in creating a treehouse for the Chattahoochee Nature Center, and it will go way beyond fun and games. The treehouse will include space for education, camps, and a boardwalk, and students are collaborating on environmental research, creating proposals, soliciting corporate sponsorships, and assisting with design and construction. They will also contact the "Treehouse Masters" TV show to introduce the project and, students hope, persuade producers to feature it on the show. "Our students will come to know the wide diversity of elements that make up their local environment: river, wetlands, soil, wildlife, vegetation and history," said teacher Jim Barton. "They'll be able to research, develop, construct and express the concepts and knowledge of this project through a variety of media, and then feel the importance of being caring and responsible stewards of our fragile environment."
• DeKalb County school Brockett Elementary welcomed some special visitors this month, who delivered a $2,500 art-room grant and an assortment of art supplies as part of Georgia United Credit Union's School Crashers program. Third-grade teacher Brenda Hornaday nominated Brockett for the grant. The school in Tucker has 520 students and was the fifth runner-up grant recipient, among hundreds of applications. Georgia United School Crashers 2015 first-place winner Woodward Elementary won the equivalent of a school improvement sweepstakes when it received the top prize earlier this summer. Georgia United coordinated more than 300 community volunteers and corporate donors to work alongside the DeKalb County school system to complete a long list of school improvement projects. The other runner-up schools will receive their grants and project assistance this fall.
• Three Central Gwinnett High School students have earned the chance to perform with a local theater troupe. Courtni Hill, Austin Moore and Theresa Azemar were selected to participate in Aurora Teen Nation. This new, tuition-free program provides exposure to the world of professional theater. The students will be led by director of education Jaclyn Hofmann, and mentors from the Professional Apprentice Company will help guide them throughout the year.
• University of North Georgia Cadet 1st Lt. Eric E. Gleason of Marietta has been ranked the number eight Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) cadet in the nation from among 5,557 cadets. Cadets are ranked on the national Order of Merit List by achieving superior grade point averages and strong performance in the Army physical fitness test and by proving their worth as exceptional leaders in their college ROTC training and performance in the Leader Development and Assessment Course. Gleason, who has a 3.96 GPA, attends UNG on the state-funded Georgia Military Scholarship and said he wouldn't have been able to pursue higher education otherwise.
• Six seniors in the graduating class of 2016 at McIntosh High School in Fayette County have been named semifinalists in the 2016 National Merit Scholarship program: Lotanna Erinne, John Hamlin, Owen Miller, Amelia Traylor, Joshua Trebuchon, and Laura Wu. They are among the highest scorers in the state on the 2014 Preliminary SAT, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. Their scores also place them in the top one percent of highest scoring U.S. high school seniors. In addition to the six students from McIntosh, Richard Macke of Starr's Mill High is also a semifinalist in the competition.
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