Education notebook: Riverside High sophomore Makenzie Jones earns six-week study-abroad trip to Spain

Makenzie Jones, a sophomore at Riverside High School, is one of 15 students announced earlier this month by Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib to be selected for this year’s Washington World Fellows Cohort. The other 14 students were from Western Washington.

This is the second year of the program, which was developed by Habib as a statewide fellowship program to provide students with study abroad and college support opportunities. The program is sponsored by private donations as well as revenue from Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Mariners specialty license plates.

Selected from nearly 200 nominees, this year’s winners will be provided a six-week study-abroad trip to Leon, Spain, during the summer between their sophomore and junior years of high school. Students earn college credits in Spanish language classes as well as experiencing language immersion by living with local families. The cost of airfare, housing and tuition is covered by the fellowship program.

The study abroad will be followed by two years of college-readiness preparation including SAT/ACT test prep and an opportunity to participate in the state’s Senate Page Program, in which students learn about the legislative process by performing a variety of administrative tasks for the state Senate. In the summer before their senior year, students can participate in college visits across the state and receive assistance with applications.

Jones was accepted after an extensive application that included several essays and an interview. The program is part of her larger goal of becoming a linguist after graduating college.

Lakeside students place

at Destination state meet

Several teams of students from Nine Mile Falls School District recently placed in the Destination Imagination state tournament.

Destination Imagination is a global educational nonprofit that facilitates project-based team challenges where students put their creative problem solving and teamwork to the test. It was founded in 1999 and offer challenges for students in Pre-K through the university level.

Lakeside High School’s team, the Fabled Five, placed first in the senior level Service Learning Project in the Outreach Challenge. They had the highest Instant Challenge score and received a Renaissance Award for discussing human trafficking in the accessible form of a fairytale. They advanced to the Global Finals which will be held in late May in Kansas City, Missouri.

At Lakeside Middle School, the eighth-grade team, the Sassy Sisters, took fourth in middle level Scientific in the Medical Mystery Challenge. The seventh-grade team, the Boot Weasels, placed third in middle level Fine Arts in the Game On Challenge.

From Lake Spokane Elementary, the 7 Gucci Games team placed fifth in elementary level Fine Arts in the Game On Challenge. Team Strike 5 placed fourth in the same category and also received the DaVinci Award for their effective trouble-shooting.

Student named

Chase Choice honoree

West Valley High School student Halle Jones was the recent winner of the Chase Youth Commissioners Choice Award, which recognizes students for meeting a community need through action and advocacy. Jones is the creator of West Valley’s “Gather and Give, Bite to Go” Food Bank and Pantry.

Nonprofit aims to set world record in car wash

The West Plains Angles, a nonprofit, and the Cheney Napa store are hosting a car wash fundraiser aimed at breaking the world record for most cars washed in an eight-hour period. The current record is held by Repco Australia and New Zealand with 6,277 cars washed across 89 stores in Australia and New Zealand set in 2012.

Funds raised will go to the four local wash teams, Medical Lake Junior ROTC, Medical Lake Robotics Team Circuit Breakers, Medical Lake Drama Class and Cheney Community Team Awanas’s.

Bene’s, a breakfast and lunch cafe in Cheney, will be at the event selling pizza, hot wings and nachos.

The car wash will be April 27, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at NAPA Cheney, 20 Simpson Parkway, Cheney.