Elizabeth Vuchinich, of Pine, a freshman at Shady Side Academy's Senior School in Fox Chapel, has been selected to dance with the Moscow Ballet in the "Great Russian Nutcracker" Dec. 8 at Heinz Hall.

Elizabeth was chosen through the Moscow Ballet's Celebrating Children ... The Arts Can Make a Difference educational outreach, which allows local youngsters to audition to perform with the ballet's 132 Russian dancers.

The children are selected by a teacher from the Moscow Ballet at a local audition and rehearse for up to eight weeks before the show with a local dance studio. Auditions for the Pittsburgh area were held in September.

• Fox Chapel Area High School senior Patrick Ross will take part in the second round of the International German Olympiad.

He is one of 18 students from across the United States chosen to participate and was selected based on an online German exam and a written essay.

Patrick will travel to Chicago from Dec. 5 to 7 to participate in the olympiad. Participants will work in groups of three. The winning group will receive a scholarship for a German language course at one of the Goethe Institute's sites in Germany.

The olympiad is sponsored by the Goethe Institute and is supported by the American Association of Teachers of German.

• A team of fifth-graders at Hartwood Elementary School won the Fox Chapel Area School District's Battle of the Books Tournament. Fourth- and fifth-graders from the district's elementary schools participated in the competition Nov. 12. The winning team, which called itself The Revenge of the Reading Chocolate Bars, consisted of Conor Gaffney, Nathan Matisko, Elliott Norman, Brendan Whelan and Matthew Wilk. The group's parent team manager was Terri Wilk.

The tournament culminated 12 weeks of reading and studying books from a selected list. During the competition, the students answered questions about what they read. They also illustrated books on poster board shields, which were displayed around the auditorium during the tournament. The winning team was awarded a traveling trophy that includes the school's name and the year. Hartwood also gets a plaque engraved with the team and students' names.

The Battle of the Books encourages reading and gives recognition to students who enjoy it.

• Five Fox Chapel Area High School seniors were named grand prize winners of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Representative Democracy online video contest called, Voting: The Power of Your Voice.

The group includes Anders Bergren, Thanh Doan, Akansh Murthy, Alexander Radkoff and Charles Wei. The Fox Chapel team submitted a video titled, "Voter vs. Non-Voter," which was a spoof of the Apple vs. PC commercials. It depicts two high school students, a voter and a nonvoter, discussing the important issues facing the nation. It also urged viewers to visit www.VotesPA.com to learn more about voting in the 2008 general election.

The statewide contest challenged students in grades six and above to create a 30- to 60-second video that demonstrates how voting gives power to citizens' voices.

The students and the school will receive a cash prize, which will be awarded during an all-expenses-paid trip to Philadelphia in December that will include lunch with Gov. Ed Rendell, and his wife, Judge Marjorie O. Rendell. They also will appear on the Comcast "Newsmakers" program with Judge Rendell.