Schools

National MathCounts

Pupils from Holden and Orono are among the nation’s top middle-school mathematicians who will compete for the title of National Math Champion during the Lockheed Martin MathCounts National Competition 2006 on May 12 in Arlington, Va.

The nation’s 228 most talented “mathletes,” who won competitions at local and state levels, will use knowledge of math, teamwork and communication skills to vie for the titles of National Champion and National Team Champions.

The National Champion will receive the $8,000 Donald G. Weinert scholarship, a trip to U.S. Space Camp, a notebook computer and other prizes.

These pupils comprise the Maine team:

. Lucas Hubbard, Holbrook Middle School, Holden.

. Henry Chai, Orono Middle School, Orono.

. Ryan Gao, Falmouth Middle School, Falmouth.

. Will Geoghegan, Brunswick Junior High School, Brunswick.

Team coach is Donna Erikson, Falmouth Middle School.

The competition includes two rounds. The written competition tests the students’ ability to solve complex, multistep problems individually and as a team, with the top 12 winners advancing to the Countdown Round. The written competition also determines the team champions.

The Countdown Round is a fast-paced, one-on-one competition where students go head-to-head and put their mathematical expertise to the test.

The goal of MathCounts is to increase enthusiasm for and to enhance achievement in mathematics among middle-school pupils of all abilities.

The founding sponsors are: National Society of Professional Engineers, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and CNA Foundation. National sponsors include Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Co., Texas Instruments Inc., General Motors Foundation, 3M Foundation, Northrop Grumman Foundation and NASA.

Additional information on MathCounts is available at www.mathcounts.org.

Bangor Chinese School

Coming classes at the Bangor Chinese School at Husson College are:

. Calligraphy, painting, the history of Chinese language and characters, and tai qi, 2-5 p.m. Saturday, April 29.

. Lecture on Chinese philosophy, religions, education, arts and tai qi, 2-5 p.m. Saturday, May 6.

. Chinese food, tea, medicines and how to cook Chinese foods such as dumplings and spring rolls, and tai qi, 3-6 p.m. Saturday, May 13.

. Talk by Quanzhen Shi on China’s past, current and future economy, culture, arts, politics and military affairs; tai qi, 2-5 p.m. Saturday, May 20.

Reservations are required. Call 990-0710, or e-mail zhangjing2000@yahoo.com.

John Bapst Memorial High School

BANGOR – During January and February each year, members of the John Bapst Key Club visit second- and third-grade pupils at local elementary schools as part of the Kiwanis Read Around the World project. This year, the Bapst Key Club also donated $880 so that each pupil could order a book.

According to Key Club adviser Elizabeth Wood, the Kiwanis Club initiated the program several years ago, and Bapst students enthusiastically embraced the project.

“We were happy to participate in such a worthwhile effort,” Wood said. “At John Bapst, we also took it a step further by expanding on the existing program. We wanted to make it possible for every child we visited to order a book, and it has proved to be a wonderful experience for all the students involved.”

Key Club vice president Kylie Hopkins is one of the project leaders.

“What’s nice about Key Club is that it’s a student-led organization – that makes it a more personal experience,” Hopkins said. “We practice leadership while we do community service work. The Read Around the World program is fun for all of us. We get to visit with second- or third-grade pupils, read to them from our favorite books, and help each child order a book from a catalog. The second-grade students I met were so enthusiastic about reading, and it was rewarding for us to see that and interact with them.”

John Bapst Key Club secretary Michael Sekera is also a project leader. “The third-graders I read to were very shy and quiet at first, but they seemed very happy that we had taken the time to come visit with them,” he said. “I read to them from one of my favorite books about the rainforest, ‘The Great Kapok Tree,’ by Lynne Cherry.”

Key Club is the oldest and largest service program for high school students. John Bapst has more than 100 members. The group’s efforts also benefit the American Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, Manna Ministries, Unicef, the Children’s Miracle Network and the March of Dimes. The students contribute time and fundraising efforts to help support the Ronald McDonald House.

‘Be Somebody!’ program

HOLDEN – Holden Elementary School will be the host for Rob Surette, the fastest portrait artist in the world, and his “Be Somebody!” cultural enrichment performance at 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 26, in the school gymnasium.

Surette receives regular invitations to perform his Amazing Hero Art worldwide. He has visited more than two dozen countries and was featured on “Good Morning America” twice in six months last year.

In Holden, he will create 10 portraits of greatness on gigantic canvases and screens – a map of the United States, the Statue of Liberty, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, Albert Einstein, Ludwig van Beethoven, Walt Disney, William Shakespeare and Martin Luther King.

The show will be performed for children in kindergarten to fourth grade. Surette speed-paints more than 3,500 paintings each year during his live performances and visits 100 schools.

Last year, Surette’s name was inscribed on the United States Rosa Parks National Wall of Tolerance Monument in Montgomery, Ala., in recognition of his humanitarian work inspiring children to be somebody. To learn more, go to www.AmazingHeroArt.com.

GE Star Awards

Two area seniors will each receive a $2,500 scholarship GE Star Award given by the GE Foundations, the philanthropic arm of the General Electric Co.

. Hogan Marquis, Old Town High School, is the son of Roger Marquis, employed by GE Energy in Bangor. The GE Foundation will grant $500 to Old Town High. Marquis will select a teacher to designate how the award will be used.

. Shane Murphy, Bangor Christian Schools, is the son of Christine Bean, employed by GE Energy of Bangor. The GE Foundation will award $500 to Bangor Christian Schools, and Murphy will select a teacher to designate use of the award.

Winners of the GE Star Award are chosen on academic record, extracurricular activities, community service and personal experiences and goals. The awards are used by the students to help meet first-year expenses at college.

Colleges

Dartmouth College

HANOVER, N.H. – Amelia Potvin is studying French in Toulouse, France, during the spring term at Dartmouth College as part of the school’s Language Study Abroad Program. She is the daughter of Paul and Connie Potvin of Hampden.

Geddes Simpson Award, UM

ORONO – Mary Bird, instructor in science and environmental education in the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development, has received the Geddes Simpson Award for making a major contribution at the intersection of science and history. Bird will deliver the fifth Geddes Simpson lecture at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, April 26, in the Treat Room of the Buchanan Alumni House.

The award is supported by the Geddes W. Simpson Lecture Series Fund, established at the University of Maine Foundation by the family of Simpson. He was a respected UM faculty member for 55 years, chairman of the entomology department and editor at the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station. He retired in 1974.

Bird’s presentation is titled “Living Lessons from a Dead Entomologist: The Educational Legacy of Edith Marion Patch.” The public is welcome.

Bird has sought to explore the complex social contexts in which humans use scientific strategies to make sense of the natural world. This effort has prompted Bird to focus current research on the work of Dr. Edith Marion Patch, an internationally renowned UM entomologist who engaged nonscientists in exploring complex ecological concepts. Bird’s doctoral dissertation on Edith Patch will be completed this year through the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

“I’m deeply honored to be named Simpson lecturer, and I am excited to be given this opportunity to celebrate the ways in which University of Maine scientists have built bridges between science and culture,” Bird said.

“Americans have a fear-hate-love relationship with science, seeing it as the mysterious and threatening source of many of our problems, as well as the cure for these problems,” she said. “Both Geddes Simpson and his predecessor, Edith Marion Patch, realized that by observing and investigating the natural world, we could come to understand better our place in it, our roles and responsibilities toward it.”

Past recipients include David C. Smith, Bird & Bird professor emeritus of American history; Kim Sebold, UM graduate and faculty member at the University of Maine at Presque Isle; Howard Segal, Adelaide C. & Alan L. Bird Professor of History and Susan Brawley, professor of plant biology.

New England School of Communications

BANGOR – Joe Snider of Sunipee, N.H., is a senior at the New England School of Communications in Bangor – for the second time. This time he will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in communications.

Snider was scheduled to graduate in 2005, but duties with the Maine Air National Guard came first. As an Air Guard member since 2001, he was one of five members selected for deployment to Iraq in January 2005, as a vehicle dispatcher-operator, operating out of Camp Spiecher in Tikrit. In Iraq he was a member of the 1058th Gun Truck Division as an administrator, driver and gunner. Snider said he was very lucky in Iraq.

“I was assigned to an office job and did a lot of carpentry work. I made a few convoy runs but nothing compared to the runs made by the other four members from Maine in my unit,” he said. “We didn’t have any deaths, but we did have a few Purple Hearts. Some of our unit had a narrow escape when they dodged an anti-tank bomb while on a mission just before we were scheduled to return.”

Snider didn’t have a great deal of contact with Iraqis, but those he did see seemed very friendly as they greeted the troops with smiles and waves. “But,” Snider cautioned, “they might have been the same ones that plant the [explosive devices] or were shooting at us.”

He returned to the United States last October and returned to NESCom in January to complete his degree. For several months, he found he had difficulty adjusting to a civilian lifestyle. “I would wake up and think I was still in my bunk at Camp Spiecher. And anytime I heard a loud noise, I was looking to hit the deck,” he said.

“I never worked for such a large team before with everyone working for the same thing,” he said. On his return to Maine, Snider was promoted to the rank of staff sergeant. He will graduate from NESCom on May 13.

Alexander Award, UM

ORONO – A national society of social scientists has created a special award in the name of former University of Maine psychology professor Michele Alexander for educators who contribute to the psychological study of social issues.

Alexander was a popular and dynamic teacher who died at age 37 in an automobile accident in December 2003.

The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, an organization of 3,000 social scientists, students and others who share an interest in research on the psychological aspects of significant social issues, created the Michele Alexander Early Career Award for Scholarship and Service.

Alexander maintained a rigorous research program in social justice, prejudice, discrimination and the criminal justice system. She was active in psychology department activities, on university committees and with the society and its affiliated Junior Scholars Professional Development task force, of which Alexander was head at the time of her death.

“This is quite something,” Jeffrey Hecker, psychology department chairman, said of the award. “It’s a national organization. For psychologists, it’s the premier organization” to offer a psychological approach to matters of social justice.

“This award is inspired in memory of Michele Alexander, a talented scholar and dedicated teacher who brought exceptional insight, passion and commitment to social issues research,” a news release from the society said.

The Alexander Award will recognize early career scholars, considered junior scholars, who combine excellence in scholarship and service. Nominees should have received doctoral degrees within five years.

The award includes the opportunity to attend a society-sponsored event with the president of the organization, which provides the recipient with opportunities for networking and mentoring – a special skill and commitment of Alexander’s, according to the society.

Hecker recalls Alexander, a Glenburn resident, as an inspirational teacher and energetic colleague who was immeasurably popular with students. UM created a scholarship program in Alexander’s honor.

The 2006 deadline for the Michele Alexander Award is May 1. Information about criteria can be found at www.spssi.org/MicheleAlexanderflyer.html.

Diversity issues, UM

ORONO – Dr. Gayle Iwamasa, a Visiting Libra Diversity Professor at the University of Maine and an internationally recognized expert on researching psychological difficulties among Asian-Americans, and a full range of other diversity issues, will be on campus for her second Libra visit April 24-26 to speak with several university groups. She also will give a presentation at a colloquium.

The public is invited to the colloquium 3-4 p.m. Monday, April 24, in the D.P. Corbett Business Building. The talk will feature Iwamasa’s National Institutes of Mental Health-funded study examining successful aging among Japanese-Americans.

University of Massachusetts

AMHERST – Kate Baldacci was named to the Phi Beta Kappa national honor society. She is a senior majoring in psychology at the University of Massachusetts. She is a Harry S. Truman Scholarship finalist, Alumni Association Senior Leadership Award recipient and member of Psi Chi.

A graduate of Bangor High School, she is the daughter of Debora and Peter Baldacci of Bangor.