Great Valley Artists, Athletes, Academics Recognized

Great Valley School District recognized exceptional students and staff at its Monday night meeting.

The recognitions ran the gamut from artistic accomplishments to perfect SAT scores to a championship-winning lacrosse season. Teacher Kaitlin Vailliere was recognized as an outstanding novice by a regional association of math teachers.

The district website has the full list of honorees:

Just prior to its meeting on May 20, the Great Valley School Board recognized students and staff from all levels for achievements made in the 2012-13 school year. Those honored were:

• Great Valley High School senior Samantha Stern earned five Silver Key Awards from the Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership (PAEP).
• Four student artists from Great Valley High School were honored for their achievement in local art shows. At the Chester County High School Art Show, sophomore Aidan Quigley earned The William A. Hirsch Award for Excellence in Sculpture; junior Esther Morgan earned The William A. Hirsch Award for Excellence in Black and WhiteDrawing. At the Yellow Springs Art Show, senior Shannon Ryan earned first place in the show; Senior Alina Maysterchuk took second place.
• Four Great Valley High School students earned their Eagle Scout distinction: Will Herzog (10), Whit Lane (12), and Kyle Ravenfeld (12) attained the rank of Eagle Scout. The scouts are members of Troop 106 of Paoli. Cory Fugale (12), and Thomas Rogers (12), attained the rank of Eagle Scout. The scouts are members of Troop 76 in Frazer.
• 21 students at the elementary level earned distinction at the Chester County Science Research Competition:
  CT: Tyler Yang (4) , Arjun Naageshwaran (5), Stephen Staid (5)
  GW: Madeleine Anderson (4), Rachel Coughlin (4), Abigail Oswald (4), MatthewWang (4), Emily Borger (5), Kathryn Olafson (5), Alea Reilly (5), Riya Tandon(5)
  KDM: Risha Inaganti (4), Aryan Tripathi (4), Rithvik Bobbili (5), Lindsay Gal(5), Rhea Khot (5), Grace McLees (5), Kaity Sweeney (5)
  ST: Ashley Sullivan (4), Grace Feeney (5), Jessica Langlois (5)

• Three Sugartown Elementary students were selected to perform in the District 12 Chorus Fest.The students are Ava Cofiell (5), Bennett Resnick (5), and Jillian Spaeder (4).

• Eight Great Valley students were selected to participate in the Chester County 5/6 Band Fest. The Band Fest is a director-selected honors band comprised of 5th and 6thgraders in Chester County. The Great Valley students selected to perform in the Chester County 5/6 Band Fest are: Katelyn DePaula, Bennett Resnick, Liam Sullivan,Ian Adler, Marc Lussier, Sarah Merriwether, Fiona Shafer, and Evan Search

• Six 5th grade elementary students were selected to perform in the District 12 String Fest.
  CT: Skyler Hiltebeitel, John Li, Kenneth Yang
  GW: Alan Xu
  KDM: Luke Liu
  ST: Jessica Langlois

• Everett Beauregard (GVMS - 8), placed 3rd in the Regional History Bee and qualified for the National History Bee.

• Six Great Valley Middle School students earned awards at the Chester County Science and Research Competition. Two of these students "placed" and earned special award sat the Delaware Valley Science Fair. They are: Rohit Haridas (6), Divya Samant (6), Samir Tandon (6), Rohan Thudmilla (7), Abhinav Vetcha (7), Sanjana Narayanan (8).Tandon and Narayanan also earned recognition at Delaware Valley Science Fair.

• Ten Great Valley seniors were named Finalists in the Merit Scholarship Competition. The Merit Scholarship Finalists are: Alex Dickinson, Daniel Dudt, Jules Dupont, WillGraboyes, Brian Huang, Micaela Suminski, Peter Wang, Jason Xu, Michael Yang, and Danling Ye.

• Two Great Valley High School students received a perfect score of 800 on a section of the SAT.
  Ryan Norris (11) -Perfect Score - Critical Reading Section
  Kevin Arbuckle (12) -Perfect Score - Math Section

• Juniors Ryan Norris and Daniel Witman were named finalists in the Penn State Essay Contest. They were among 17 finalists chosen from over 75 excellent student writers identified by their high schools.

• Three Great Valley High School students earned 1st place honors at the Chester County Computer Fair and qualified to compete in the state competition on May 21.
  Peter Flanagan (11) - First Place- Web Design
  Keenen Jones (11)- First Place -Logo Design
  Kelsey Gleason (12) - FirstPlace - Graphic Design

• Shane Ruhnke (11) earned the title of Ches-Mont Champion in the 138 lb. weight class. He was also named the PIAA District 1 Champion in the 138 lb. weight class.

• The Girls 4X800 RelayTeam won 1st place at the PTFCA State Indoor Championship Track Meet and earned the title of All American at the New Balance National Indoor Track and Field Championship. Members of the team are: Elise Claffey (10), Sarah Hipwell (10), Sarah Kochinsky (12), Crosby Spiess (9), and Anna Willig (9).

• The Boys Basketball Team earned the title of Ches-Mont American Division Champions. Captains of the Boys Basketball team are Michael Gregory (12), Bradley Sherry (12), and Mikal Bridges (11).

• The Girls Lacrosse Team earned the title of Ches-Mont Champions for the second consecutive year.Captains of the team are Jessica Boyle (11),Jaclyn Douglas (12), Brooke Gamble (12), and Kirsten Hale (12).

• The Great Valley Boys Lacrosse Team earned the title of Ches-Mont Champions. Team captains are Gregory Merrill (11), Niall Durkan (12), Noah Joseph (12), and Timothy Lamb (12).

• The Great Valley Boys Track & Field (12) earned the title of Ches-Mont American DivisionChampions. Max Burgess (12) and Michael Yang are co-captains of the team.

• The PA Association of Student Councils (PASC) selected Debbie Spencer, Middle School teacher, as the District 11 Advisor of the Year.

• Kaitlin Vailliere was awarded the Alan Barson Novice Teacher Award. The award is presented to an outstanding classroom teacher (Pre-K - 12) with three or fewer years of experience who has demonstrated effective student-centered teaching grounded in strong mathematical content and pedagogy.