The Westminster Schools in Atlanta debate team won the 2014 Heart of Texas Invitational, a national tournament held at St. Mark's School in Dallas. The competition hosted 76 teams from across the country and took place Oct. 18-20 2014. Upper School senior Naman Gupta was named top speaker for the competition. Senior Saul Forman was recognized as third speaker. Senior Evan Katz and sophomore Harrison Hall advanced to the octo-finals, making Westminster the only participating school to have two teams advance to that round.
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Sequoyah High School junior Mackenzie Joy achieved a perfect score of 36 on the ACT, a college entrance and placement exam. On average, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of students nationally who take the ACT earn the top score.
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Khorkie Tyus, a senior at Holy Innocents' Episcopal School, earned the Girl Scout Gold Award thanks to her "Warm Love" project for cancer patients. Tyus assembled and distributed "chemo kits" to patients to help make treatment easier. The Gold Award is the highest achievement in girl scouting and recognizes high school girls who demonstrate extraordinary leadership.
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The Smyrna Rotary Club awarded a $4,500 grant to Griffin Middle School in Smyrna. The funds will purchase calculators, LEGO Mindstorm kits and other science-related tools. The school's principal is Mark Trachtenbroit and the club president is Scott Auer.
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Kayla McCloud, a 10th-grader from Creekview High in Cherokee won first-place in the fire safety essay contest. Contestants were required to reflect this year's theme, "Working Smoke Alarms Save Lives: Test Yours Every Month."
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Alpharetta High School was selected as the only high school in the state to be a "Georgia Grown Test Kitchen." The program puts the school nutrition program and the Department of Agriculture together to create healthy recipes using locally grown ingredients. The recipes are tested with students during the 2014-15 school year. The principal is Shannon Kersey.
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The Marietta City Schools' school nutrition program received the "Golden Radish Award" for its farm-to-school program. The statewide award recognizes school districts that include curriculum, support for the local economy, an emphasis on fighting childhood obesity and more local food served to students. Cindy Culver is the district's school nutrition director.
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Isaac King, 2014 graduate from North Atlanta High, was selected to embark on an eight-month fellowship with Global Citizen Year, an organization that places graduates in different countries to serve communities for a year before attending college.
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