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School News
0407SN-CenterPoint
Hall County students Tristan Wimpye, Mariana Latimer, Ruth Vasquez and Bailey Armour along with adviser Judy Brownell at the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety during the 2014 Youth and Young Adult Leadership Conference in February.

Georgia Boys State Program finds new home at Riverside

Riverside Miliatry Academy will host the Georgia Boys State summer program in June following a visit from the Department of Georgia Boys State Director Phil Youngblood and the program’s dean, Bob Beauchamp.

"2014 will mark our first year partnering with Riverside Military Academy," Youngblood said. "Georgia Boys State is excited about this partnership. We look forward to our experience in Gainesville."

The Boys State program was founded by the American Legion in 1935. It’s a comprehensive weeklong leadership action course in state and local government for rising male seniors who qualify for the selective program.

Georgia Boys State attendees are instructed on political history, the law and court system, and parliamentary procedure. They learn the political process by organizing a mythical 51st state which is managed by peer-elected representatives.

 

Gainesville student group competes in STAR events recently

The Gainesville High School FCCLA competed in Region STAR on Feb. 22 in Loganville.

First-place winners included:

Savannah Hecht for food innovations "Easy Zucchini Muffins."

Iridian Pacheco and Sara Brown for environmental ambassador project "Efforts to Protect Drinking Water."

Areli Albarran and Gabriela Martinez for life event planning event "Quiero mis Quince."

All first place winners advanced to the state finals.

Others advancing were:

Alexandra Salgado and Lexis Wallace for advocacy event "Raising Awareness of the Effects of Alcohol and Drug Use on Maternal and Fetal Health and Nutrition."

Sammy Lara and Alondra Casanova for advocacy event "Bringing an End to Homelessness in Gainesville and Hall County."

Mikyria Maeweathers won third for her Teach and Train event from Centennial.

 

Cleveland student attends mediation tournament

Melanie Frances Fain of Cleveland participated in the 14th annual International Intercollegiate Mediation Tournament from Oct. 31-Nov. 2 at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. The Brenau University senior is majoring in conflict resolution and legal studies.

Fain was a member on the three-person team representing Brenau, which placed third out of 42 teams at the tournament. Each team member individually earned All-American Honors.

The tournament, a regional program regarded as a limbering up for teams that participate in national competition each November, featured representatives from Gainesville State, Georgia State University, Middle Tennessee State University, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Western Carolina University, Clayton State University and Brenau.

 

Local students attend Young Adult Highway Safety Conference

Students from Center Point joined the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety during the 2014 Youth and Young Adult Leadership Conference in February at the Macon Centreplex in Macon.

Hall County students Tristan Wimpye, Mariana Latimer, Ruth Vasquez, Bailey Armour and adviser Judy Brownell attended the conference, which was designed to bring together student-advocates of highway safety and focus on new ways to communicate life-saving ideas to high school and college students. It was kicked off with the nationally recognized Ford Driving Skills for Life program, an initiative started by the Ford Motor Company Fund and the Governors Highway Safety Association to teach newly licensed drivers beyond the traditional driver’s education courses.

"We were happy to include Center Point in this year’s conference," GOHS Director Harris Blackwood said. "This conference lets us appeal directly to the students to brainstorm new ways of saving young lives. We lose far too many teens to traffic deaths every year, and these students can help change that."

GOHS launched the annual conference concept 10 years ago to spread the messages of buckling up, slowing down, not drinking and driving and eliminating driving distractions.

With a theme of "Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow," this year’s conference included hundreds of students from Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) chapters all over Georgia.

The conference lines up local and national motivational speakers and presented workshops targeted specifically for high school and college students. Special exhibitors were also on hand to help spread the targeted message of safety to all participants.