• For the fifth consecutive year, judges named Pine-Richland High School as the 2008 Overall Winner of the 17th Annual Drafting Competition and Technology Fair at Butler County Community College. Local engineers, designers and CAD operators evaluated student work in manual architectural drafting and machine drafting, AutoCAD 2007 2D Mechanical, AutoCAD 2007 3D Mechanical/Inventor, AutoCAD 2007 Architectural/Desktop, and two software programs, Solidworks 2006 and Revit. Contestants had about three hours to complete their assigned problem.

Students who placed individually included: Nathan Irwin, first place, Architectural Drafting by Hand, $75; Stuart Monske, second place, Architectural Drafting by Hand, $50; Lauren Novak, third place, Architectural Drafting by Hand, $25; Scott Simpson, first place, Mechanical Drawing by Hand, $75; Shelby Merilli, first place, Architectural Desktop/Computer, $ 75; Gabrielle Conlon, second place, Architectural Desktop/Computer, $50; Phil Marchetti, third place, Architectural Desktop/Computer, $25; and Julien Legendre, third place, Solidworks, $25.

• The National Council of Teachers of English Promising Young Writers Program has recognized two Pine-Richland Middle School students as Outstanding Writers in 2008: Branden Glass and Jonathan Marks.

Their names will be published in a book recognizing other national winners.

Both state honorees have been recognized for their outstanding writing this year by other organizations.

The Masons honored Jonathan as its winner in the "What My Family Means to Me" essay contest.

Branden has been honored as national eighth-grade winner of the Daughters of American Revolution essay competition. He will travel to Washington, D.C., in July to receive his award.

In addition, Branden has been recognized for his winning entry in the "Month of the Young Adolescent" essay contest sponsored by The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency and the Pennsylvania Middle School Association. He wrote an essay addressing the topic: How will your education contribute to making Pennsylvania smarter? A representative from PHEAA visited the middle school to present the school with a $1,000 check and to honor Branden for his essay with a certificate and gift. He also was named by NexTier Bank as winner of the essay competition, "Why Saving Money Is Important."

Branden also has been recognized for oratory. He was named by the DeMolay organization as winner of the "What Is Right with America" oratorical competition and will participate Tuesday in the National DeMolay Public Speaking Competition at an international session in Anaheim, Calif.

• The North Allegheny Junior Classical League has won its 11th consecutive state championship.

The Latin 2 Quiz Bowl team won first place. Its members were sophomores Andrew Adam, Jenna Mulligan, Sean Rademacher and Megan Doerzbacher.

The Advanced Level Latin team of 2008 graduate Nate Carlin and juniors David Tobias, Mike Sinko and Al Wang placed second.

Ninth-grader Jason Chen received a trophy for being the top academic champion at the competition.

• Eighth-grader Kaitlin Hudok placed first in the state for her poem "Darkened Halls.".Hudok's poem will appear in the annual Pegasus anthology of winners. She received $25.

PRHS Student Earns First Place in Drafting Competition.

• Lauren Novak, a 2008 graduate of Pine-Richland High School earned first place in the Association of Women in Construction Architectural Regional and Local Drafting Competition. In addition to those awards, she earned second place in the nation.

At the local level, Shelby Merilli earned second-place and Evan Hunter earned third place. Each student earned a monetary prize, and the high school Technology Department was given $175.

Students in teacher Jeff Maple's class created designs for a dentist office and entered them in the competition.

• The North Allegheny Science Research Team won more than $25,000 in cash and scholarships this year. In May, team members made their final research project presentations during the 74^th Annual State Meeting of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science, where they received six first-place awards and one second-place.

Shivani Mehta, a 2008 graduate of North Allegheny Senior High School, received a first place award for her Computer Science research, "Differences In Age-Related SWD's During Motor Arrest in Rats." Shivani's accomplishments this year also include a a second-place award in Senior Division Computer Science and two Sponsor Awards from the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and the University of Pittsburgh Department of Neuroscience at the Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair.

Jon Lin, a junior, received took first place for his microbiology research, "Sunscreen Effectiveness Against UV Radiation in E. Coli." Junior Katherine Luo, won second place for microbiology research, "Tea Signaling."

Jay Seghal, a sophomore at North Allegheny Intermediate, received a first-place award for his medical research project entitled: "Scaffold Degradation."

Richard Gayler, a freshman, won first place, perfect score, and the Zappa Junior Award for physics with "Maximizing Solar Panel Output."

Richard's accomplishments this year also include a First Place award at the PJAS Regional Competition and he also won a second-place award in Senior Division Physics, two Sponsor Awards from the Eaton Corp. and The Technology Collaborative, and one Affiliate Sponsor First Place Award from the U.S. Army during the Pittsburgh Science and Engineering Fair.

Freshman Julie Wu received a first-place award, perfect score, for cancer research with "Potential Anti-Obesity Drug Effects on Bile Duct Cell Growth." Julie had previously won a First Place award at the PJAS Regional competition. She also won a first-place award from the U.S. Air Force during the Pittsburgh Science and Engineering Fair.

Skanda Koppula, a seventh-grader at Ingomar Middle SchoolIMS, won a first-place award for computer research with "A Study of Inter-Robot Communication." Skanda had previously received a First Place award at the PJAS Regional Competition.