School is out for just about everyone for the year, but there is still time to acknowledge some outstanding students from schools in the Route 19 corridor.

• Jennifer Rizzi, of Bethel Park, received a 2008 college scholarship from the New York Women in Communications Foundation. The $2,500 award was announced April 7 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City during the 2008 Matrix Awards, which honor exceptional women in the communications profession.

Ms. Rizzi is a sophomore English major at Bucknell University. Her parents are Ted and Janice Rizzi, of Bethel Park.

• Seven Bethel Park High School juniors won at the Distributive Education Clubs of America, DECA, state career development conference, held this spring in Hershey.

Sarah Lauterbach, Alexis Ponist and Chelsea Scheutz earned first place in the Fashion Merchandising Promotion Plan competition.

Gabrielle Mingrone earned second place in the Advertising Campaign competition.

Anthony Putaro was awarded third place in the Quick Serve Restaurant Marketing competition.

• Three Bethel Park High School students earned honorable mention awards at the 2008 Visions & Values High School Student Show, sponsored by the Pittsburgh Technical Institute in Oakdale.

Junior Natalie Keibler's "Owl Teapot" earned an award in the Ceramics category.

Senior Britney Tucker's "Out of My Head" piece, created on Adobe Illustrator, was honored in the Computer Graphics category.

Senior Karen Zapp was recognized for her mixed media piece, "Secrets of the Mystical Woman," in the Fine Art category.

The students are taught at Bethel Park High School by art teachers Christen Palombo and Mary Stark.

• Bethel Park High School German students earned 10 awards at the 2008 German Day competition at Washington and Jefferson College, sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of German.

For the fifth consecutive year, Bethel Park High School students swept the German Culture Bowl. Sophomore Jeremy Ferlic captured first place, followed by senior Bill Sigmund in second place and sophomore Brandon Rauch in third.

Other first-place awards were earned by sophomores Kelsey Fink in nonfiction writing, and Thomas Phillips in fiction writing.

Senior Tara Helfer earned second place in the German Painting category, and senior Virginia Kreisel, junior Emma Cline, German exchange student Sarina Schiffner and recent graduate Shawn Lucas teamed up to write a play that was awarded second place in the Group Theater category.

Third place awards were given to freshman Justin Fleischmann in fiction writing; junior Ashley Payseure in the German Drawing event and sophomore Kayla Searles in German Folkloric Arts and Crafts.

• Two Bethel Park High School sophomores were top scorers in the region on the National French Exam and placed nationally.

Marcus Dominick placed first regionally on the French IV exam and third nationally. Andy Pfeifer placed first regionally on the French III exam and finished in the 95th percentile nationally.

Last year Marcus was first regionally on the French III exam and third nationally.

More than 100,000 students across the country annually take the national French exams.

Marcus is taught by French teacher Tracy McCoy and Andy is taught by French teacher Ann O'Leary.

• Neily Rosko, of Bridgeville, is one of two Community College of Allegheny County students recently named to the All-Pennsylvania Academic Team in recognition of outstanding achievements in the classroom and the community.

Ms. Rosko, who is studying social work and psychology at South Campus in West Mifflin, was honored in March at the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges, an award program coordinated by Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for two-year colleges, and by the commission.

Recognition is based on scholarship, leadership and community involvement. Awardees are offered free tuition to complete their bachelor's degrees at any of the 14 State System of Higher Education universities.

• For the fifth consecutive year, Saint Thomas More School in Bethel Park has won the Most Winning Entries Award--Intermediate Division at the Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair. This year, the school's students won 27 total awards.

Saint Thomas students also won first place in the Intermediate Division for 3 years in a row.

The 69th annual fair, sponsored by the Carnegie Science Center, was held in April at Heinz Field.

Eighth-grader Adam Sneath won the Carnegie Science Center Award for Excellence, which was presented at a banquet at Carnegie Music Hall last month. He also won first place in Chemistry, and the Collegiate Award.

Other awards went to:

Tyler Warford: first place in Consumer Science, FedEx; Thomas Zielinski: second place in Medicine, Health and Microbiology; Peter Henkels: second place in Behavioral Science: Garrett Devenney: third place in Medicine, Health, & Microbiology and Collegiate; Abby Dadowski: third place in Consumer Science.

Also, Mary Wattick: American Chemical Society, American Industrial Hygiene Association, Air Force, U.S. Metric Association; Peter Frac: Carnegie Mellon University Engineering, University of Pittsburgh Engineering, Michael Baker Corp., Collegiate; Michael Sessa: Allegheny Ludlum, Electrochemical Society, Collegiate; Jillian Lasaca: Army, Navy, American Psychological Association; Elle Schuck: Navy; and Andrew Hennion: honorable mention in Behavioral Science and Navy Award.

• Four Bethel Park School District students earned awards at the 69th Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair held at Heinz Field in April.

Two Bethel Park High School students earned Sponsor Awards: sophomore Andy Pfeifer, from the Pittsburgh Intellectual Property Law Association for his project, "XOR-Secured Password Truncation;" and freshman Manassa Ravi, from the Society of Corrosion Engineers for her project, "Corrosion and Drain Cleaners."

Independence Middle School eighth-grader Will Ament was awarded First Place in the Biology category for his experiment, "What is The Most Important Chemical in Fertilizer?"

Seventh-grader Shannon Fagan won the Sponsor Award from the Chemical Association of Pittsburgh for her project, "Set-In Stains: Can They Be Removed From Carpeting?"

• Bethel Park High School seniors Amy Blanc and Christina DeSantis earned first place gold medals in Entrepreneurship at the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America State Leadership Conference, held recently in Lancaster.

In addition to the medals, the students were presented with scholarships to Johnson and Wales University.

• Three Bethel Park High School and four Independence Middle School students earned medals in six events at the Science Olympiad held in March at California University of Pennsylvania.

High school sophomore Andy Pfeifer took second place in Astronomy, and the team of seniors Ian Harrold and Zach Smith took fourth place in the Physics Lab and the Food Science events.

Middle school students earned three second place medals. Seventh-grader Kyle Barron earned second place in Meteorology.

Eighth-graders Rebecca Kennedy and Sarah Howley brought home second place in the Disease Detective category, and Rebecca teamed with eighth-grader Emily Eiben to earn second place in Anatomy.

• Thirteen students at Hillcrest Christian Academy in Bethel Park placed in the Association of Christian Schools International Math Olympics, held in March.

Winners in computation were Alex Light, Jordan Wiltanger, Nathalie Unico, Lydia Rostosky, Toriana Furlini, and Tyler Fraysier. In Reasoning, winners were first-place medalist Cameron Maxwell, Sam Deffenbaugh, Paige Franjione, Caleb Troy, Jennifer Mikec, Christopher McConnell, and Johnny Kist.

• Second- and third-graders at Our Lady of Grace School in Scott recently participated in the Western Pennsylvania Kennel Association Poster Contest. Entries were to be related to the care, selection, training and humane treatment of dogs.

Third-grader Jessica Gable won First Prize, which netted her a $100 savings bond and tickets for her family to a dog show. Her poster was titled "My Dog Bella."

Second-grader Ava Massetti won Second Prize, which was a $50 savings bond and tickets to the show, for her poster, "Walking My Dog."

The winning posters were framed and displayed at the dog show, held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh in March.

• Fifteen sixth-graders at Our Lady of Grace School in Scott recently had essays accepted for publication by Creative Communications Inc.

The essays, written for teacher Kirstina Popey's English class, were included in the Spring 2008 edition of "Celebrating What's Important to Me," which includes the work of students throughout Pennsylvania.

The student writers include: Rose Amrhein, Luke DeCello, Erin Ferrie, Sam Graeb, Ryan Henry, Emma Hudson, Jacob Kusajtys, Katherine Manolios, Lizzie Musial, Chad Neary, Rebecca Vanek, Cameron Walker, Kyle Westover, Morgan Wangler and Dallas Zuk.

• Katie O'Toole, an eighth-grader at Brookline Regional Catholic, is the first recipient of a new scholarship from The Women of Seton, a newly formed group of alumni from the former Elizabeth Seton High School.

She will receive $1,000 per-year during each of her four years at Seton-LaSalle High School, where she will be a freshman this fall.

The award was presented at an April 27 reception attended by 70 Elizabeth Seton High School alumnae, faculty and friends.

Katie is the daughter of Elizabeth Seton High School alumnae Therese Jones-O'Toole, of Brookline.

• The Pittsburgh Section of the American Chemical Society's 2008 Secondary School Chemistry Contest honored two Mt. Lebanon High School ninth-grade students at a recent competition.

Michael Moody won first place and Connor Brem won second place in the category First Year-Chemistry, Large Schools. High school chemistry teacher Mark Kernion was also honored as the students' teacher.

• Bethel Park resident Peter Croke, a senior at Seton-La Salle High School, has been named the Pennsylvania winner of a $1,500 National Honor Society Scholarship from the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Fifty-three state winners were honored--one from each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and overseas chapters of the society-- from the 150 finalists selected of the more than 6,000 program applications.

He is a member of the Seton-La Salle National Honor Society and plans to attend John Carroll University to study finance.

Mr. Croke also was presented in May with an engraved bronze medallion to signify his selection as a Distinguished Finalist in the 2008 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program, which honors outstanding youth volunteers.

The presentation took place during an awards assembly in the high school auditorium.

He was honored for raising money for several charities benefitting sick and disabled children.

• Mt. Lebanon High School junior Michael T. Muehl was one of two Pennsylvania students, from an estimated 2,500, who took the ACT in February, to achieve a 36, the highest possible composite score. Michael was one of 56 nationally, out of 300,000 students who were tested that month, to achieve this score on the college placement test.

• Mt. Lebanon High School senior Oluwadamilola E. Obaro has been selected as the winner of a $2,500 National Achievement Scholarship.

The National Achievement Scholarship program is conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corp.

She is the daughter of Leah Rubinstein, of Mt. Lebanon.

• A team of 12 sixth-graders at Neil Armstrong Middle School in Bethel Park earned the second place Director's Award at the recent third annual Mister Rogers' Robotics Adventure competition, held at the Sarah Heinz House on the North Side.

The students competed against 17 teams of students between the ages of 8 and 14 from local schools and youth organizations.

Participating for Neil Armstrong were Jarrod Cingel, Kevin Fleischmann, Patrick Gillece, Brandon Hanson, Christian Hokaj, Katerina Kimes, Nick Konyk, Ana Kopriva, Valerie Poutous, Sarah Reiland, Billy Ruschel and Michael Stephenson.

• La Roche College graduate Caitlin Goodwin, of Brookline, received the 2008 Department of Teacher Education Award for Academics and Service Excellence.

Ms. Goodwin, who earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education with a special education certificate in the spring, initiated a campaign that resulted in the college Board of Directors approving a proposal to increase the number of credits students could take before being charged with a credit overload.

Ms. Goodwin is the daughter of David and Susan Goodwin, of Brookline.

• Bethel Park resident Joanna Schupp, who attends Community College of Allegheny County South campus in West Mifflin as a liberal arts and sciences major, was awarded a full tuition Leadership in Honors scholarship for the coming academic year.

She plans to transfer to the University of Pittsburgh in the fall of 2009 to major in wellness with a fitness option.

• Benjamin Hohlfelder is the 2008 recipient of a $4,000 Lt. Terrance Mulkeen Memorial Award, given annually to a senior student-athlete from Mt. Lebanon High School.

Benjamin is the son of Alan and Betsy Hohlfelder, of Mt. Lebanon. He will attend Northeastern University in the fall.

Lt. Mulkeen was a Naval Aviator killed in a 1991 training accident and the award was established in his memory by his 1977 Mt. Lebanon High School classmates.

• Bethel Park High School recently held its Awards and Recognition Night to honor students for outstanding academic achievement during the 2007-08 year. Honorees are as follows:

Kathryn Amrhein, Leaders of Tomorrow Award; Melissa Lorenzi, John Deans Memorial Scholarship; Glenn DeBor, Bethel Park Kiwanis Scholarship; Travis Sears, Ryan Baux and John Martin, U.S. Marine Montgomery G.I. Bill Scholarship; Andy Pfeifer, Katie Duerr, Jessa Koch, Justin Fleischmann and Jean Hooi Lee, Science Club recognition; Rachel Marini, Upper St. Clair/Bethel Park Breakfast Rotary Club "Service Above Self" Award; Blaire Volbers and Kathryn Amrhein, Bethel Park Rotary Club Scholarship;Briana Koenig, Bethel Park Woman's Club Scholarship; Alyssa Kutrufis, Bethel Park Woman's Club Past Presidents Scholarship; Joseph Brooks, Black Association of South Hills (BASH) Scholarship; Jessa Koch, Bethel Park Lions Club Scholarship; Briana Koenig, Frank L.P. Edwards Scholarship; Matthew Kaminski, Ken Waldie Memorial Scholarship; Kathryn Amrhein, William Penn Elementary Rosemary Gainar Scholarship; Andrea Brown and Joseph DeMarco, Ben Franklin PTO Dennis Bucci Scholarship; Nicole Blackmore, Holly Herbertson and Lauren Knuth, Bethel Bakery Scholarship; Lauren Nicholson, Lois Johnson Learning/Child Care Scholarship; Blaire Volbers, Louis Caplan Human Relations Award; Cody Morgan, Josh Hartung and Derek Dmitrzak, Bethel Park Police Law Enforcement Apprenticeship Program; Jean Hooi Lee, Brown University Book Award; Amy Zoeckler and Briana Koenig, Bethel Park Cheerleading Awards.

Also, David Zapp, Ashley Karpa, Britny Tucker, Meredith Buskirk, Devin Dysart, Haley Woodman, Natalie Kiebler, Dania Yu, Karen Zapp, Jessica Palamara, Courtney Kosloff, Sarina Schiffner and Katie Barry, Art Department Merit Awards; Andrew Uhlmann and Courtney McNabb, Bethel Park Golf Boosters Scholarship; Paul Reeping, Robert G. Gallagher Scholarship; Jessa Koch, Best Buy Children's Foundation Scholarship; Blaire Volbers, Comcast Leaders/Achievers Scholarship; Anthony Caruso and Charlotte Brackett, WPIAL Scholar/Athlete recognition; Jessa Koch and Blaire Volbers, Marissa Boyan Scholarship; Timothy Hayes, Perfect Attendance Award; Amy Zoeckler, Andy Lane and Jeffrey Conroy, Principals Advisory Council for Students Scholarships; Adam Schmidt and Matthew Shaffer, South Hills Association of School District Administrators Award; Roma Amin, Valedictorian; Valerie Alstadt, Salutatorian

Roma Amin and Michael Howley, National Merit Scholarship Finalists; Valerie Alstadt, Jane Henkels, Steven Klara and Nels Yehnert, National Merit Commended Students; Joe Timpona and Kathleen Burke, National Merit Special Awards; and Briana Koenig, School Spirit Award.

Additionally, students who received post secondary scholarships were introduced and honor cords were presented to those students whose QPAs are 3.0 or higher.