THE VICKSBURG POST
SCHOOL & YOUTH WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2010 • SE C TI O N B W W W.4KIDS B3 | COMICS B4 Karen Gamble, managing editor | E-mail: newsreleases@vicksburgpost.com | Tel: 601.636.4545 ext 137
BULLETIN BOARD We welcome items for Bulletin Board. Submit items by e-mail (schoolnews@vicksburgpost.com), postal service (P.O. Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182), fax (6340897), or delivered in person to 1601-F N. Frontage Road by Monday for publication Wednesday. Be sure to include your name and phone number.
ACHIEVEMENTS • Vicksburg students who are part of the Hinds Community College HiSteppers precision dance team are Emily Emerson, Callie Rankin, Samantha Linzy and Chandria Murrell. • Brooke Edwards has been named a student of excellence in honor roll and leadership by the U.S. Achievement Academy. A Vicksburg Christian Home Brooke School stuEdwards dent, her name will appear in the academy’s yearbook. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James V. Edwards Jr. of Vicksburg. She is the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Waters Sr. and Deserie Edwards, all of Vicksburg, and Mr. and Mrs. V. Edwards of Memphis. • Ann Avery Burrell is one of 141 high school seniors to be selected as a 2010 U.S. Presidential Scholar. The students are chosen based on academic Ann Avery achieveBurrell ment, artistic excellence, leadership, citizenship, service and contribution. Those selected will be honored in Washington, D.C., in June. Burrell is a senior at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Ridgeland and was named a Mississippi All-STAR scholar. She will pursue pre-med at Columbia University in the fall. She is the daughter of Jack and Virginia Burrell of Vicksburg.
Head Start workers get on their feet to fight fat ‘We can beat this obesity thing,’ Picayune director says By The Associated Press JACKSON — Head Start worker Sylvia Mark wore strappy sandals with fourinch heels Tuesday as she high-stepped, lifted a weighted ball and ran through obstacles on the concrete floor of the Mississippi Trade Mart. She said the 10-minute workout energized her and gave her plenty of ideas to help the preschoolers at the
Family and Community Partnership Head Start Center in Picayune. “There’s a possibility that we can beat this obesity thing,” Mark, the center’s director, said with a big smile as beads of sweat broke out on her forehead. She was one of nearly 250 Head Start employees from across the state who traveled to Jackson Tuesday for a Healthy Living and Eating Summit.
The event was hosted by Gov. Haley Barbour’s Mississippi Head Start Collaboration Office, the Mississippi Head Start Association and dairy, catering and produce companies. It came a day after a new federal study that shows Mississippi has the highest rate of childhood obesity in the nation, with about one in five children ages 10-17 considered obese. See Obesity, Page B3.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Head Start workers make their way through a fruit line Tuesday at the Mississippi Trade Mart.
The race is on Vicksburg Intermediate fifth-grader Marissa Peterson rushes to fill her class’s can with water in the SpongeBob SquarePants race during field day. Marissa is the daughter of Norma Peterson.
IN ATTENDANCE • Kaci Holdiness of Vicksburg and adviser Donna Cook of Hinds Community CollegeVicksburg Warren campus attended the International DECA Conference in Louisville, Ky. Kaci competed in sports and entertainment marketing. She is a sophomore at Warren Central and first-year marketing student.
SCHOLARSHIPS • Austin White and Steven Hugley, both of Vicksburg, have received Jeff Ross Capwell Scholarships for instrumental music education at Delta State University. • Winners of the 2010 Joe and Feeney Elliott Scholarships offered by the Auxiliary at River Region are Sheridan Melchor and Jay Zhong of Warren Central High School; Fritz Valerio and Ann Sweezer of Vicksburg High School; Victoria Ann Hines and Andrew Gravens of St. Aloysius; and Shelby Wells and Mary Beth Croisdale of Porters Chapel Academy.
MEREDITH SPENCER•THE VICKSBURG POST
First lady to math, science whizzes: U.S. needs you By The Associated Press WASHINGTON — First lady Michelle Obama told middle and high school science teams this week that the nation will need their skills and enthusiasm to prosper. Mrs. Obama visited the Energy Department’s National Science Bowl and read bonus questions during the middle school championship match Monday. “We want young people energized in the way that
you all are, because we know that American brainpower in science and math has always driven this country’s prosperity,” she told the group after the two winning teams received their trophies. “We are going to need you.” Mrs. Obama said that the nation depends on the next generation of innovation. She challenged the students to help build the future of medicine, clean energy and security. During the middle school competition, Mrs. Obama
asked 17 bonus questions of the two finalist teams. Her questions covered multiple areas of science, including potential functions of the appendix, what the letters and numbers stand for in the H1N1 flu virus, the protein content of blood and studies on the San Andreas fault in California. She joked that she had to study just to be able to read the questions. Albuquerque Academy from Albuquerque, N.M., won the middle school bowl. First-time competitors
North Carolina School for Science and Mathematics from Durham, N.C., won the high school competition. Regional science bowl winners from 105 middle and high schools traveled to Washington, D.C., for the national competition. The teams represented 42 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Energy Secretary Steven Chu joined Mrs. Obama, serving as the senior science judge for middle school.
Michelle Obama congratulates the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics for winning the 20th annual National Science Bowl.