Charter Academy students scholarship semifinalists
Julian Lemke used choice words when describing himself and his Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy classmates Jake Lauer and Alex Kramar.
“Basically, we’re a bunch of ostracized nerds,” the 17-year-old senior said.
The three are semifinalists for the prestigious National Merit Scholarship, a result of testing in the top 2 percent on the PSAT, a preliminary version of the SAT. Of the 1.4 million students who took the test, only 16,000 were named semifinalists.
The vast majority of semifinalists go on to become finalists; the testing company just looks at their grades and SAT scores to make sure the high PSAT score wasn’t a fluke.
“They just check to make sure you actually deserve it,” Lemke said.
Lemke and Lauer, also 17, have been at the charter school since freshman year. Kramar, 15, has been there since the seventh grade. All dabbled in home schooling and private schools before enrolling at the charter school.
“I was bored of home school because I’d already skipped two grades, because I’m awesome like that,” Kramar said.
None of the boys said they spent much time preparing for the test other than a two-hour test preparation class with standardized testing expert Charles Clock.
Lemke is looking at colleges such as Rice and Princeton; Lauer at Baylor and Whitworth, among others. Kramar has his eyes on Stanford.
Wherever they go, their status as semifinalists, and likely finalists, is sure to help. Not only does it open the door for National Merit Scholarships, but it gives the guys a leg up when applying for other scholarships and to prestigious schools.
Finalists will be announced in February.
Students model UN
Charter Academy students traveled to Missoula last week to participate in the University of Montana’s Model United Nations conference.
The students were assigned a specific country to represent as delegates. All students were assigned to committees of UN groups such as the World Health Organization, and participated in caucuses with other delegates to discuss and vote on resolutions to the many problems with which they were presented.
“We learn about global issues and learn about diplomacy,” said Karen Coughenour, a teacher at the charter school and adviser to the group. The school picked up the conference registration fees; travel, lodging and meals were paid for by the students.
The theme of this year’s conference was overpopulation.
Participating students were Jake Carber, Tess Doumas, Heidi Groover, Aram Hatfield, Justin Horne, Kent Kastning, Heather Kimm, Evan McCarty, Travis Schnider and Bob Schrack.
Kimm and Horne were among the top seniors at the conference, earning $1,000 scholarships to use in the University of Montana’s political science department.
Successful food drive
Students at Lake City High School brought in more than $5,350 and 3,724 pounds of food – including 40 turkeys – in this year’s weeklong food drive.
Sponsored by the high school’s Youth Volunteers in Action council, the donation drive was led by Lake City senior Jesse Bainard.
“It was a great year, and hopefully they do better next time,” Bainard said.
Classes were encouraged to compete to see which could bring in the most money and food. The teachers of the top-three classes are Laura Tolzmann, Gary Haler and Sandy Biondo. Bainard said Tolzmann’s class donated about $500 and 500 pounds of food.
The youth volunteer council gave all donations to the Community Action Partnership’s food bank.
Geography bees
Fourth- and fifth-graders at Fernan Elementary School have four opportunities in the next two weeks to prepare for the school’s Geography Bee on Dec. 15.
Study sessions will be held at the school from 3:15 to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Dec. 12 and 13. Contact the school to find out how to sign up for the session and where they’ll be held.
Other schools are holding similar contests; call to see if yours is one of them.
Geography Bee winners receive plaques with their names on it.
Book fairs
It’s school book fair time! Elementary schools through out the county are preparing for an influx of books, and the parents and students who buy them.
Winton Elementary will hold an assembly Wednesday to kick off its book fair, which runs next Saturday through Dec. 15 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the library.
The Scholastic Corp., provides the books, with proceeds divided between the company and the school. The school’s portion of the money will go to the library.
“They literally bring thousands of books,” said Beth Dane, librarian at Winton. “It’s really a cool setup.”
This year’s book fair is taking on a rain-forest theme. Dane said decorations were already going up this week.
The fair will stay open until 8 p.m. on Dec. 12 for family night, a chance for students and their families to spend time at the school playing games and hanging out with other students and families. Students will read their own poetry that night as part of a poetry slam.
In coordination with the book fairs, collections jars for the schools are located at area businesses. The schools keep all the money, and for every dollar donated, Scholastic buys a book for a low-income student somewhere in the country.