Schools

Bangor High School

BANGOR – The Bangor All Sports Boosters will hold their monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, May 14, in the ROTC room, Bangor High School. The public is invited to attend. For more information, call Darlene at 947-6523.

Central High School

CORINTH – Central High School, comprising students from Bradford, Corinth, Kenduskeag, Hudson and Stetson, will hold its fifth annual Spring Arts Festival 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, May 15, at the high school cafeteria and gymnasium. The show’s theme is “Under the Sea,” with student art displayed in an ocean cruise setting.

Those attending will be invited to vote for a favorite piece of student art. A panel of judges will select winners in poetry, sculpture, photography, wood, textiles, drawing and painting. Cash prizes will be awarded.

The middle school and high school bands will perform at 7 p.m. The festival is free and open to the public.

Cushing Academy

ASHBURNHAM, Mass. – Joseph Gagne of Orrington received a varsity letter during an athletic awards ceremony in March. Gagne is a member of Cushing Academy’s varsity boys ice hockey team.

Eddington School

EDDINGTON – Eddington School was one of four schools that received awards recently from Gov. John E. Baldacci for Service-Learning Exceptional Projects.

Eddington School was recognized for its project, “Sun Safety Awareness.”

The schools participated in projects through KIDS Consortium, a Lewiston-based, nationally recognized leader in the service-learning movement.

John Bapst Memorial High School

BANGOR – The John Bapst Memorial High School chess team had a successful year.

The team won the Maine Scholastic Team Chess Championship for the third year in a row.

This year’s team, Murray Bridges of Amherst, Fritz Eyerer of Newburgh, Frank Kessler of Amherst, Zachory LaPierre of Milford and Zachary Smith of Bangor, advanced to the National Finals held April 13-15 in Kansas City, Mo.

At the nationals, John Bapst placed 21st in the Under 1500 section and 23rd in the Under 900 section. The John Bapst chess teams are coached by Robert Solinger.

BANGOR – For the GE Foundation, program manager Cindy Mah of the Institute of International Education has announced that John Bapst Memorial High School senior Erin Keim is a recipient of the 2007 GE STAR Award in the 4-Year Category.

Keim is the daughter of Karen and Scott Keim of Veazie.

In her letter of congratulations, Mah explained, “In addition to a one-time financial award issued to the student, the GE Foundation Program also grants a one-time financial award of $500 to the student’s secondary school.”

Nominated to receive the award on behalf of the school is English teacher John Emerson.

Emerson said, “I am most pleased by the fact that Erin considered the English department. She has been consistently a disciplined, energetic and engaging student. Indeed, she accomplished the monumental when she read for her Authority Project both ‘Crime and Punishment’ and ‘The Brothers Karamazov.'”

BANGOR – The Maine Department of Education, in association with the Advanced Placement Incentive Program, has selected John Bapst mathematics teacher Brendan Murphy as one of six teachers to participate in the Maine Distance Learning Project.

The AP4ALL Program will help bring AP courses to low-income and minority students. Murphy will receive training and design the specifics of the AP calculus AB course he will deliver via technology to 10-15 students around the state during the next school year.

In addition to AP calculus AB, these five courses also will be taught from different locations around the state: AP statistics, AP United States history, AP chemistry, AP Latin-Virgil, and AP Spanish.

Murphy said, “This program is designed to be technologically cutting-edge and break down the conception of traditional learning where students sit behind a desk every day for the same 45-60 minutes. Students may complete their work on their own schedule at home and-or at school.”

Orono High School

ORONO – Emily Balaban-Garber, a senior at Orono High School, was selected to receive the 2007 Principal’s Award in recognition of academic achievement and citizenship. She is the daughter of Drs. Julie Balaban and Alan Garber of Orono.

The award, sponsored by the Maine Principals’ Association, was announced by Principal Bruce Bailey.

“Throughout her years at Orono High, Emily has distinguished herself in the classroom, on the playing field, and as a leader in the school and the community,” Bailey said.

Balaban-Garber is president of the senior class, a member of the National Honor Society, the French and Spanish honor societies, and a delegate to Girls State. She has received Top Student Academic Book Awards in French, history and chemistry. She has been a four-year member of the soccer, softball and basketball teams and was named to the PVC All-Academic Basketball Team.

PowerHouse Teen Center

The PowerHouse Teen Center will hold an open house at 5 p.m. Friday, June 1, at The Salvation Army, 65 South Park St. Live entertainment is planned and refreshments will be available. Community members of all ages are invited to see what the PowerHouse Teen Center has to offer, and hear from the teens about why they feel having a teen center is important.

The event will kick off the center’s ARE YOU ON THE LIST? fundraising campaign for June. The campaign is being held to ensure the continuation of the community teen center program, which offers a safe haven to teens.

A dodge ball tournament fundraiser will take place at the open house. Each team is responsible for raising a minimum of $100 to be eligible to compete. For information, visit www.thepowerhouseteencenter.org, www.youtube.com/thepowerhousetc, or call The Salvation Army at 941-2990.

Robot track meet

CASTINE – Maine Maritime Academy will be the host for the upcoming Northern Maine Robot Track Meet 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, May 12, at the college’s Alexander Fieldhouse. The daylong competition is open to the public for free. Spectators are welcome.

The spring robotic meet marks the beginning of Maine Maritime Academy’s third season as the host of the Maine North/East FIRST LEGO League Tournament held each fall and the complementary spring event, the Northern Maine Robot Track Meet.

MMA hosts the events because they mesh with the college’s outreach efforts to improve college aspirations for Maine youth and stress the importance of math and science skills to future academic and career success.

Sponsored by Maine Robotics, the high-tech competition is one of two track meet-style competitions for children held in Maine this spring. The upcoming meet at Maine Maritime Academy will welcome some 65 elementary and middle school pupils throughout Maine. Teams will be made up of children currently enrolled in grades three to eight.

Teams enter the competition with robots they have constructed to meet the challenges of several prescribed field events. While teams are not limited as to number of members, each team may enter only seven events.

Adhering to a track meet format, competitions are completed by individual team robots with points accumulated toward an overall team score.

The Maine Robot Track Meet is designed to evaluate finished products in the form of robot performance. Events include:

. The slope climber: Build a robot that can climb the steepest slope – up to 80 degrees from horizontal. If more than one robot can make it up the steepest slope, then the fastest to do it wins.

. The table navigator: Build a robot that can move around a table top without falling off. This robot must use sensors to identify the edge of the table. The robot must move around and sense all four sides of the table without falling off. The fastest robot to do this wins.

. The line follower: Build and program a robot to follow a line for about 8 feet and do it faster than anyone else to win.

. The fastest robot: The only goal here is to make a robot that can go straight for 15 feet, pass through a 4-foot goal and do it faster than anyone else.

. The strongest robot: Build a robot that can pull weight. If more than one can pull 50 pounds for 2 feet, then the winner is the one to do it fastest.

. The strongest bridge: Build a nonrobotic LEGO bridge that spans 2 feet. Start loading it with weight until the bridge fails. If more than one bridge can hold equal weight, then the lightest bridge wins.

. Pingpong shot put: Build a stationary robot that can deliver pingpong balls to a 25 centimeter cube container 4 feet away. Deliver as many as possible within 30 seconds.

To learn more, visit www.mainerobotics.org, call 866-4340, or e-mail bickford@mainerobotics.org.

Volunteers interested in helping at the Castine event should e-mail Amy Gutow, director of conferences at MMA, at amy.gutow@mma.edu, or call 326-2283.

Colleges

Beal College

BANGOR – Beal College awarded 90 diplomas and certificates during commencement Sunday, April 29.

The valedictorian was Elaine Draper, a student in medical office management.

The salutatorian was Ghad W. Cooper, a student in law enforcement-criminal justice.

Maine Maritime Academy

CASTINE – Fifty-five crew and 200 students set sail May 8 aboard Maine Maritime Academy’s training ship State of Maine.

The voyage marks the 10th anniversary training cruise of the ship. Ports of call will be at Gibraltar, May 21-24; Odessa, Ukraine, May 31-June 3; Split Croatia, June 8-11; and Halifax, Nova Scotia, June 24-27.

The training cruise itinerary will allow students to transit of some of the world’s most historically significant waterways.

The ship will transit the Aegean Sea, the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara and the Turkish strait “Bosphorus” en route to the Black Sea port of Odessa in Eastern Europe. The visit to Odessa marks the first time a Maine Maritime Academy ship has visited a Black Sea port. The State of Maine will be hosted by the Odessa National Maritime Academy, a fellow member institution of the International Association of Maritime Universities. MMA President Leonard Tyler is chairman of the organization.

Follow the Voyage, MMA’s online ship tracking and interactive Web site coordinated by students and staff, will be published online. Visit www.mma.edu and follow the highlighted hyperlink.

MMA’s 2007 training cruise will be featured in a series of articles to be published in the Bangor Daily News. MMA will welcome aboard staff reporter Eric Russell and photojournalist John Clarke Russ in Odessa, Ukraine. Bangor Daily News staff will sail with the ship to Split, Croatia, filing stories and photos depicting hands-on training, at-sea experiences and port visits.

A parent’s cruise will be offered on the return leg from Rockland to Castine for families of upper class students.

The State of Maine will return to Castine around 6 p.m. Saturday, June 30. Training cruise activity will continue in port through Monday, July 2.

After the cruise the ship will embark for routine dry-docking in compliance with regulations of the American Bureau of Shipping and the U.S. Coast Guard during July and August.

University of Maine

ORONO – Adrienne Given of Bangor received the Sophomore Book Award from the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi in recognition of high scholastic achievement. The presentation was made at the University of Maine Chapter One spring initiation at Buchanan Alumni Center.