Pine-Richland High School sophomore Adam Janssen went to the Pennsylvania All-State Band in Hershey in April.

He auditioned and earned first chair trombone in the state, which qualified him for All East Honors Band.

"We are very proud of his accomplishments," said his teacher, Brian Scott. "Very rarely does a sophomore from any district advance this far in the PMEA honors program. Our last representation at All East band was in 1994."

• Students from North Allegheny School District captured 14 first-, second- and third-place finishes at the Technology Student Association State Conference. They are:

Douglas Bauer, first place in CAD animation architectural; Sara Lutty, first in the Digital Photography Challenge and third in PA-CAD;

Brenna Thorpe, second in extemporaneous presentation; Clarissa Costa-Lima, second in CAD animation architectural; Joel Mackay, second in CAD animation engineering; Mariah Vaglia, second in imaging technology and third in CAD architectural 2D;

Clayton O'Connor, third in CAD engineering 3D; Taraneh Manesh and Sara Lutty, third in Challenging Technology Issues; Erin Bishop, third in PA-CAD; Christopher Chang, Cullen Minahan and Samuel Rutan, third in system control technology; Skanda Koppula, Tareneh Manesh and Emily Wu, third in the Manufacturing Challenge; William Dignazio, Adam Majewski and Shane Smith, third in the Technology Bowl.

• Creative Communications has named two Pine-Richland Middle School pupils among the top 10 student poets in the state.

Poems by eighth-graders Erich Barth and Nigel Halliday were selected from thousands of entries as among the top 10 in their grade division. Erich's poem is titled "Heroes," and Nigel's is "Magic Carpet."

English teacher Susan Frantz said both will be recognized in the poetry anthology, "A Celebration of Young Poets." They will receive a complimentary copy of the anthology and a $50 savings bond.

• Jenna Nelson, an eighth-grader at Pine-Richland Middle School, won first place in the "There Ought to Be a Law" contest sponsored by state Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless.

Jenna won for suggesting that restaurants be required to hang posters describing the Heimlich maneuver. The honor included an invitation to Jenna and her parents to tour the state capitol in Harrisburg.

• Pine-Richland High School students earned several top awards at the Pennsylvania Future Business Leaders of America Competition in April in Hershey.

The following students won in these categories: seniors Tyler Grubbs and Nate Blandino, first place in Management Decision Making Team; seniors John DeLacio and Phil Rader and junior Alan Boyd, second place in Entrepreneurship Team; and juniors Cory Lammie, Joe Kwon and Nick Capitano, third place in Management Information Systems Team.

The Management Decision Making Team and the Entrepreneurship Team qualified to attend the national competition this month in Atlanta.

• Several members of the North Allegheny Senior High School Forensics Team recently competed in the Pennsylvania High School Speech League's State Tournament and won honors. They were:

Victoria Lopez and Gregory Vose, first place in public forum debate; Stacey Chen, first in extemporaneous speaking; Yilu Zhang, first in radio announcing; Douglas Kulchar, second place in commentary; and Gwyn Agnew, third in humorous acting.

Members of the team also competed in the Kentucky National High School Tournament of Champions in Lincoln-Douglas, Policy Debate, Public Forum and Student Congress at the University of Kentucky.

Participation in that tournament is by invitation only to students who have had exceptionally strong results in several other national competitions.

The North Allegheny Senior High School team of Claire Kairys and Naz El-Khatib finished in first place as tournament champions.

Greg Vose and Vicky Lopez also competed as a team, finishing the tournament in third place.

• A Pine-Richland High School ninth-grader took the top award in a national poster contest.

Natalie Ficco won first place in the "Make Sense of Your Makeup" Braincake design contest and earned a $250 scholarship.

The contest was part of the Girl, Math & Science Partnership through the Carnegie Science Center, an initiative intended to educate girls to succeed in math and science.

• Dorseyville Middle School eighth-grader Ameline Lagasse was a state finalist in the national Doodle 4 Google contest, one of six students chosen as a finalist from grades seven through nine in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

In addition, she was one of two students from Pennsylvania to be named a state finalist in the grades seven-nine age group.

Ameline received a Google art kit and a certificate in recognition of her accomplishment.

• Butler County commissioners recently recognized two Seneca Valley seniors for their work on behalf of Autism Awareness Week. New graduates Ryan Slack and Andrew Fornadel were presented recognition proclamations in April for their senior projects.

Mr. Slack was host to the annual "Bowling for Autism" event and raised more than $8,000 for the Autism Society of Butler County.

Mr. Fornadel raised $1,061 for the Autism Society of Butler County by holding a basket raffle at the bowling event.

• Six Pine-Richland High School students have been selected to participate in the 2008 Governor's School of Excellence.

The governor's schools are a set of residential summer programs held on college campuses.

Students are selected on the basis of their artistic or academic talent and are mentored by professionals in each field.

Named to the Governor's Schools were:

Emily Wobb, visual arts; Holly Belkot, global entrepreneurship; Patrice Zigrossi, health care; William Miller, Information, society and technology; Alexis Gutshall, international studies; and Hannah Staiger, teaching.

• Two North Hills seventh-graders earned top honors in the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science statewide competition held May 18-20 at Penn State University.

Earning first-place honors was Miranda Pavelle in the physics division for her project titled, "The Aeordynamics of Cars." Rachel Gmys finished second in microbiology with her study of "Aloe Vera vs. Ampicillin."

Both are members of the North Hills Junior High Green Team.

• A group of students representing the Seneca Valley Intermediate and Senior High schools returned with top awards after competing in the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science state competition at Penn State University last month.

Sophomores Jess Glas and Alexandra Fortunato received a first-place award. Freshmen Adam Lovette and D'Ann Schneider earned a second-place award.

Adam Dobson, a 2008 graduate, earned a first-place award for the fourth consecutive year.

• Three Seneca Valley Senior High School students have been selected to participate in the 2008 Pennsylvania Governor's Schools of Excellence.

Bruce A. Frederick was chosen to attend for agricultural sciences, and Josh Smith and Christine Wehr were chosen for music.

• Students from Pine-Richland High School earned third place overall in the individual Spanish language division at the 23rd Annual Slippery Rock University World Language Competition.

The students also achieved first place in the overall individual German II competition and an honorable mention in the overall individual German IV and Spanish V competitions at Slippery Rock.

First-place winners were: Ed Misback, German IV; and Danny Nigh, German Vocabulary Level II and German Grammar Level II.

Emily Smith earned second place in Spanish II Grammar and an honorable mention in Spanish II.

Zach Dionise earned third place for German Culture Level II and an honorable mention for German Grammar II.