Georgio Legerme of Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory earned the honor of 2011 class valedictorian. Legerme had a 4.876 GPA and participated in the National Honors Society, French Honors Society, Mu Alpha Theta, Science Honors Society, Brain Bowl Team, Marianist L.I.F.E. campus ministry program, Art Club, Chess Club, Improv Club, Tennis Team, Soccer Team and Cross Country Team. He will attend the University of Pennsylvania and major in Biology.

Valerie Villar of Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory earned the honor of 2011 class salutatorian. Villar had a 4.864 GPA and participated in the National Honors Society, Spanish Honors Society, Science Honors Society, Environmental Club, Science Club, Tennis Team and Cross Country Team. She was also a counselor in training at Miami Shores Community Center. Villar will attend the University of Miami, major in Psychology and minor in Business.

Nativity School’s Math Team competed at the Broward County Council of Teachers of Math Competition on March 5 against approximately 300 students. The Grade 6, Grade 7 and Algebra team all placed first in the competition, and the Grade 8 team placed second. In addition, Nativity School students won first place in three of the four individual competitions. Principal Elena Ortiz congratulates the hard work of all the math team students, as well as the team’s moderator, Mrs. Ana Beaumier. Individual results of Nativity students are:
Grade 6: First Place, Brandon Nathasingh; Third Place, Robert Schulte; Fifth Place, Anne Hartman; and Special Recognition, Isabella Toquica.

Grade 7: Third Place, Gabriel Murazzi; Fifth Place, Giovanni DeTorres; and Special Recognition, Camila Luna.

Grade 8: First Place, Jim Koldada; Second Place, Matthew Salas; Third Place, Elizabeth Matthews; and Special Recognition, Veronica Holodak.

Algebra: First Place, Michael Beans; Second Place, Dominic Murazzi; Fourth Place (tie), Christian Hernandez; and Special Recognition, Monica Martelly.

Students from McNicol Middle School recently participated in the 17th annual Wheelabrator Symposium for Environment and Education, a symposium in which students commit to a six-month learning project, identifying an environmental challenge in their community and developing a long-term solution.

Students from McNicol have participated in the symposium three times now. The first year, they initiated an in-house recycling program, and the second year, they expanded the recycling program and branched out into the community and other schools. This year, however, the students worked with a local environmental landscape architect to design a hummingbird habitat for Ruby-throated Hummingbirds that pass by the school on their migrations. Students will also use the space for school-wide outdoor learning.

“The name of our group is G.A.I.A., which is the Greek goddess of earth and also an acronym for Growing Awareness In All,” said Lara Coronel, a McNicol engineering teacher. “We are a small after school group. The students work very hard, but the rewards are huge.”

McNicol, along with other schools in New England, the mid-Atlantic and Florida, received $500 in startup funds and a $1,000 donation from Wheelabrator at the conclusion of the event.

Three Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory art students used their skills with a paint brush to create colorful self-portrait keepsakes for orphaned children in India and Thailand, spending hours of their time to help less fortunate children around the world.

Seniors Raheem Roberson and Chelsea Longsworth and junior Nick Moncy participated in The Memory Project, an international initiative in which art students create portraits for children around the world who have been orphaned, abandoned, neglected or disadvantaged. The goal of the portraits is to provide the children with a special memory of their youth, to honor their heritage and identity, and to help them build a positive self-image, according to the organization’s website.

“I think The Memory Project was an amazing idea,” said Moncy, who painted portraits of a little girl from India and a little boy from Thailand. “The Memory Project opened my eyes and my heart. If I or you were in the position of one of the orphaned children, we would definitely need the love and care kids can’t live without. Knowing this, it is imperative that we reach out to those in need because they are our own flesh and blood. Everyone deserves love, safety and happiness.”

Chaminade-Madonna art teacher Angela Canosa assigned the students the assignment for the second consecutive year because she said the project follows the school’s mission of helping students become caring participants and leaders in the service of community, church and those in need. Both Moncy and Longsworth participated in the project last year as well.

“I think it’s great to help the community, and using the talents of these students showcases their artwork for a good cause,” Canosa said. “It was a very rewarding project.”

Ben Schumaker, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, created The Memory Project in 2004 after volunteering at an orphanage in Guatemala. He explained that he, as well as the kids at the orphanage, didn’t have many personal keepsakes to contribute to his sense of self-identity, and from this, Schumaker envisioned that having portraits made by art students would be a way to connect American youth with kids from other countries in a meaningful exchange of caring. And since the inception of The Memory Project, art students from the USA, UK and Canada have created more than 30,000 portraits for children around the world.

This year, The Memory Project selected several orphanages in India and Thailand (last year was Uganda) and mailed digital photos of each child to the Chaminade-Madonna art class. The students then created painted replicas of the digital photos. Once the students completed the portraits, The Memory Project distributed them to the orphans. The Chaminade-Madonna students received photographs of the orphans holding their self-portraits as a thank you for their hard work. In addition, the organization sent them a video link, so they could see the children’s live reactions.

“I was amazed and I felt good to see the boy I painted very excited holding the portrait I created,” said Roberson, who participated in the project for the first time this year. “It made me want to visit him and help him.”

“One of the adults told me that in India only rich and famous people have portraits of themselves and that the kids never would have imagined having their own,” he said in a letter to the students after delivering the portraits. “You made it happen for them.”

For more information about The Memory Project, visit www.thememoryproject.org.