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Coyote Hills student wins district spelling bee

BY GLENDALE STAR STAFF

The Peoria Unifi ed School District held its annual spelling bee on Jan. 27, when top spellers from across the district competed in front of their peers.

The winner of this year’s bee is Ethan Greenwood from Coyote Hills Elementary School. Greenwood won in the 12th round with the word “quinary.”

The seven runners-up include: • Archer Hill from Apache

Elementary School of Peoria. • Jackson McLean from Lake

Pleasant Elementary School of

Peoria. • Brian Fielder from Sun Valley

Elementary School of Peoria. • Aidan Clark from Desert Harbor

Elementary School of Peoria. • Vinh Le from Parkridge

Elementary School of Peoria. • Gerald Sanchez from Oakwood

Elementary School of Peoria. • Julia Bergner from Heritage

Elementary School of Glendale.

These eight students will compete in the Maricopa County Region IV Spelling Bee in February. The winners of the Regional Bee will move on to the state-level Arizona Spelling

Bee in March, followed by the Scripps

National Spelling Bee held in Washington, D.C., in the summer.

Those who were unable to attend the annual district spelling bee may watch the recorded event on the district’s YouTube channel at https://bit. ly/3o6wBWN. Ethan Greenwood from Coyote Hills Elementary School in Peoria won the district spelling bee in the 12th round with the word “quinary.” (Photo courtesy of the Peoria Unifi ed School District)

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Peoria honors school district’s young artists

BY GLENDALE STAR STAFF

Peoria Mayor Cathy Carlat and councilmembers recently celebrated 22 young artists from the Peoria Unifi ed School District, spanning kindergarten to eighth grade, who participated in the 11th annual exhibition of the Mayor and Council’s Young Artists Program.

Covering Glendale and Peoria, these district students were recognized:

• Andrew Fastrup and Xenia Sledge from Apache Elementary. • Daylene Barcelo Barraza and Sawyer

Harris from Cheyenne Elementary. • Jaela Dees and Samantha Machado from Cotton Boll Elementary. • Ali Alroubaiee and Mallory Sardella from Coyote Hills Elementary. • Marissa Walker-Deitzler and

Kiley Webb from Desert Harbor

Elementary. • Lukas Lakatos and Becca McClary from Frontier Elementary. • Ivan Begay and Emilea Rogers from

Ira A. Murphy Elementary. • Dutch Jarrett, Kamden Quijada and Austin Rollins from Lake Pleasant

Elementary. • Fiona Baker, Elic Hinderer and Levi

Martin from Oakwood Elementary. • Kai Beaudoin and Ashley Wudarski from Oasis Elementary.

Students were honored with a certificate of recognition for their creative contributions, and the framing of their personal artwork.

The West Valley Art Museum (WVAM) selected one student’s artwork to have on display near the museum through March. Becca McClary, an eighth grader at Frontier Elementary School, was chosen.

The WVAM is on the fi rst fl oor of Peoria City Hall, located at 8401 W. Monroe Street. The gallery is open free to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and noon to 6 p.m. Thursdays.

For more information, contact WVAM at 623-972-0635 or wvam. org. To experience art in Peoria, visit peoriaaz.gov/arts.

February 3, 2022

Ironwood senior a national scholarship semifinalist

BY SUMMER AGUIRRE Glendale Star Staff Writer

An Ironwood High School senior has been named a semifinalist for the 67th National Merit Scholarship Program.

Glendale born and raised, Cienna Charron is one of 16,000 semifinalists across the country in the National Merit Scholarship competition, which is offering approximately 7,500 scholarships totaling nearly $30 million. Charron said she is excited about her achievement and the potential opportunities as she plans for her future after high school.

“Honestly, it’s just an exciting experience because it just opened a lot of doors for me,” Charron said. “Because, financing college — a lot of my options were open and it made the decision easier. It’s an easy decision to have college almost paid for versus spending a lot of money. … I’m really grateful for the opportunity to be a National Merit Scholar.”

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation was established in 1955 to recognize academically talented youth and encourage them to develop their skills and abilities to their fullest potential, according to its website.

Upon entering the 2022 competition, students must have taken the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in their junior year, a press release disclosed. The semifinalists consist of the highest-scoring entrants in each state, which represent less than 1% of high school seniors in the nation.

Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the finalist round, including a scholarship application submission detailing the student’s academic record, skills and accomplishments, an endorsement and recommendation by a school official, an essay and a high SAT or ACT scores confirming their performance on the qualifying test.

Approximately 95% of semifinalists are expected to continue to the finalist standing, and half of the competition’s finalists earn the Merit Scholar title that accompanies the National Merit Scholarship award.

Charron expressed she has always “downplayed” her achievements and successes.

“I feel like if I win it, it’ll just validate my success and all the steps I’ve taken to push myself into the next phase of life,” the senior shared.

Charron participated in a number of clubs and extracurriculars during her high school career and has made an effort to prepare herself for her future.

She was involved in an engineering club through SkillsUSA, a career and technical student organization, where she refined her skills and worked with others who share an interest in engineering. In her junior year, Charron participated in the engineering program of MET Professional Academy (medical, engineering, technology) and developed professional skills, like public speaking.

Charron changed gears this year, dedicating more time and energy into taking community college courses through Gateway and Glendale community colleges. She is also the team captain of her school’s varsity basketball team, in which she has played on since her freshman year.

“I really tried to strive, especially the last couple of years. I’ve tried to push myself out of my comfort zone and take on more leadership roles because I wasn’t always super comfortable with being a leader,” Charron said. “I would just let whoever wants to be the leader lead, but I found that I can bring a lot to the table if I take charge sometimes when no one else seems to want to.”

Post-high school, Charron will be attending the University of Arizona in Tucson. She said she is looking at an engineering degree for mechanicals or systems engineering but will initially enroll as an undecided major until she determines a concrete path. As part of the National Merit Scholarship Program, Charron will also be enrolled in the university’s Honors College.

Charron said she hopes to continue her involvement in clubs and extracurriculars to expand her reach. She added that she is interested in studying abroad and the ambassador programs for engineering and Honors.

“I feel like that’s something I would really get into, helping the new students and high school students (with) something they’re really interested in and just kind of show them that student perspective as they’re looking into different colleges,” she expressed, adding that she took a tour of the school.

“Because I know that that was super beneficial for me to share a student’s perspective.”

The 2022 National Merit Scholarship finalists will be announced in February. Winners from the pool of finalists will then be announced from April through July, according to a press release.

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