• Several Fox Chapel Area High School students earned first through 20th places in the Future Business Leaders of America State Leadership Competition and five qualified for the national competition last semester.

Seniors Eric Bukovac, Andrew Karas, and Nathan Rosenstock and sophomore Ahmed Shalaby received first places and sophomore Dale Peterson received second place, and all five qualified for the National FBLA Leadership Conference. The national competition will begin today in Anaheim, California.

Additionally, the following Fox Chapel Area High School students also placed in the state competition last semester: sophomore Alexander Constantino, first-place; senior Elizabeth Conway and sophomore Alexander Constantino, third place.

The FBLA State Leadership Competition was held in March in Hershey. More than 3,500 students from across Pennsylvania participated

• Several Fox Chapel Area High School students won awards at the Pennsylvania Technology Student Association State Leadership Conference held last semester, at the Seven Springs Mountain Resort. First-place winners were seniors Aaron Cichowski and Akansh Murthy. Mr. Cichowski also won a second-place in the state competition. Third-places in the state competition went to senior Akansh Murthy; juniors Casey Domski, Olga Graves, Larissa Lewis, and Catherine Longhini; sophomore Ahmed Shalaby; and freshmen Rohan Meringenti and Arjun Mukherjee. Many of the students who were awarded first through third places advance to the national competition which will be held in Denver, Colorado, next week. The state conference offered more than 70 competitions, many of which were open to the public.

• Shady Side Academy sophomore violinist Lisha Gu, of Marshall, was chosen last semester to perform in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association All State Orchestra concert, held April 22-25, in Philadelphia.

Accompanied by Senior School music teacher Dr. Daniel Brill, Lisha took part in PMEA auditions March 21 at McDowell High School, Erie, Pa.

Lisha also performed at the PMEA Western Region Orchestra, March 19-21, and PMEA District 1 Orchestra Festival, Feb. 5-7.

• Pine-Richland High School ninth-grader Eric Barth and eighth-grader Nicole Chleboski earned awards in the 2008-09 Daughters of American Revolution Essay Competition.

Eric earned first place for addressing a topic that involved five perils faced by Christopher Columbus' expeditions and how his crews overcame them.

Nicole was challenged to explain what message the Gettysburg Address communicated to a war-torn nation in 1863 and how those ideals are articulated in the speech still relevant for our country today.

• Three Fox Chapel Area High School students earned high marks on the 2009 National Latin Exam last semester. Junior Philip McGrath took the Latin IV Prose exam and won a gold medal and a summa cum laude certificate.

In the Latin II exam, freshman Zhihong Xu won a magna cum laude certificate and freshman Rachel Haas won a cum laude certificate.

The National Latin Exam was taken in March.

• Diana J. Petrovich of Shaler, a sophomore last semester at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, won first place and a $500 cash prize in the 14th annual Ragan Poetry Competition at the college.

The award was presented during the spring Honors Convocation on April 22. Her poem was titled "Valentine's Day."

An English major with a minor in psychology, Ms. Petrovich is a 2007 graduate of Shaler Area High School. She is the daughter of Paul J. and Jeanne Petrovich.

• Marisa Floro, a member of the Quaker Valley High School Argument/Rhetoric class won overall first place in a debate tournament held last semester at the University of Pittsburgh's annual College in High School Public Forum and Debate.

The tourney featured top-ranked debaters from seven schools or school districts: Central Catholic, Chartiers Valley, Montour, North Allegheny, Oakland Catholic, Seneca Valley and Quaker Valley.

Marisa went undefeated in each of her three rounds of the debate and earned the highest average in speaker points.

n Seven Kerr Elementary School pupils raised $578 for the World Wildlife Fund through a bake sale last semester.

In the 2008-09 school year, the youngsters raised about $450 and adopted a koala named Frankie.

The students were fifth-graders Christine Anderson, Olivia Molina, Veronica Sacco, Nikki Stumpf, Nicole Susi, Shealyn Viccari, and Maddie Wateska.