D.C. Trip Gives Students A Government Encounter West Valley Scholars Learn First-Hand Lessons At Capital

Two West Valley High School students are getting a closer look at the federal government this week.

The students, freshman Philomena Brustkern, and senior Lisa Conners, are joining dozens of other Washington state high school students in a government studies program given by the Close Up Foundation, a citizenship education organization.

Teachers and advisers Cathy Wolfrum, Jeannine Henderson, Stephanie Weeks and Angela Adams accompanied the students.

This is the smallest group Wolfrum has taken to the nation’s capital in the six years WVHS has been participating in Close Up’s program.

The largest group was 15 students, she said.

Central Valley and University high schools also have sent students on the program in recent years.

While in Washington, D.C., the WVHS students will meet with U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt, attend sessions of Congress, visit the Supreme Court and attend cultural activities.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Wolfrum said. “Every place they go, they’re debating, they’re discussing. It’s a real study opportunity.”

The students become “informed stone throwers” said Dick Horton, a spokesman for the Close Up Foundation. They learn how to work within the system to affect change, he said. “They hear time and time again that their voices do matter.”

In one activity, the students are given a federal budget and told to develop a spending plan. It’s rare that a group succeeds, Horton said.

“When they’re done, nobody is satisfied because they all had to compromise,” he said. “And they don’t like it.”

When the Close Up program began in 1970, about 550 students attended. Now, a total of 30,000 students from around the country attend the foundation’s program, on a week-by-week basis, each year.

Freeman, U-Hi take math prizes

Freeman and University high schools won top prizes in a regional mathematics competition last week.

Freeman, which is in the Northeast A League, won first for all A and B league schools in Eastern Washington, said math coach Peggy Jeremiah.

On the team are seniors Jenna Freeman, Kari Mills, and Nathan Ramsey; juniors Ryan Hemingway, Geoff Morton and Jeremy VanVoorhis; sophomores Jenny Burton and Ryan Nottingham.

The regional competition took place at Eastern Washington University on March 15.

University High School took second place for Division 1 schools, said math coach Gerry Manfred. The school has scored in the top two for seven of the past eight years, he added. This year, U-Hi lost first place to Lewis and Clark High School.

On U-Hi’s team are seniors Mike Rands, Greg Rivers, and Scott Santens; juniors Mike Rosa, Jeff Hollenbach and Ryan Spear; and sophomores Stephen McDaniel and Alga Notham.

Rands was the top scorer of the regional competition, Manfred said. Math teacher Jon Barstad also helps coach the team.

Both Freeman and University will advance to the statewide contest on April 22 at Central Washington University in Ellensburg.

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This is a siedbar that appeared with the story: Photography teacher wins A University High School photography teacher won first place for his portrait of a bride in the Professional Photographers of America western states competition last week. Rob Behm won the same prize five years ago. The bride in this year’s photo is former Valley resident Gianna Bean. Behm, who also owns the Valley Studio on Dishman Road, has been teaching at U-Hi for two years. Behm brought two of his students with him to the competition to introduce them to the world of professional photography. Barry Lalonde and Shane Daugherty, both seniors at U-Hi, plan to study photography at Spokane Falls Community College in the fall, Behm said.