Education

Greater Latrobe Junior High School seventh-grade students Maddy Petruzzi, Robin Reilly and Ben Bradley captured third place at the Student Congress GOAL event on Feb. 26 at Greensburg Salem Middle School. Bradley received third place and also placed fourth in the individual competition. Students researched and wrote about 15 different bills to present arguments to the Student Congress. Read more

Greater Latrobe Senior High School students Deanna Mylant, Alek Gmuer, (back row) Nathan Lemmon, Dom Panichelle, Max Wilson, Katie Ulishney, Breanna Carini and Owen Miele recently welcomed Kennedy Barasa (back row, fourth from left), a Fulbright Swahili teaching assistant at the University of Pittsburgh, to share East African culture with Spanish, German and Global Studies classes, as well as other interested students. A native of Kenya, Kennedy offered a presentation covering myths and misconceptions about Africa, Swahili greetings, everyday life and more. Read more

Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Chad Amond, Westmoreland Community Action Director Mandy Zalich, students Cydney Wierzbowski, Amber Platt, Tamra Schissler, Eli Wigand, teacher Jennifer Welty and Derry Area High School Principal Casey Long honored the four Derry Area students, who took first place at the recent Westmoreland County Census Video Competition. As part of the competition, local school districts, colleges and universities were asked to produce an inviting video stating the importance of the 2020 census within the county. Read more

Derry Area High School students Christian Burdick, Alyssa Main and Andrew Downs auditioned successfully to participate in the PMEA Region I Chorus Festival Feb. 26-28. The festival took place at Hickory High School in the Hermitage School District and was conducted by Dr. Hae-Jong Lee. Read more

DASD students take part in One Room Schoolhouse event Read more

The Greater Latrobe Junior High School Student Council recently sponsored a Random Act of Kindness School Spirit Week and held a backpack supply collection through the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit (WIU). WIU Executive Director Dr. Jason Conway (back row, left) came to pick up the donations from students Brylee Bodnar, Sarah Hoffman, Aiden Kammerer, Jaycee Bodnar, (back row) Mikena Marino, Belle Blossey, Mia Myers, Eric Bisignani, Robin Reilly, Eleri West, Chiara Mongelluzzo, Penelope Wetzel, Brianna Hoffer, Regan Reilly and Louis Amatucci. Students in grades 7 and 8 donated over 600 items that are needed for the WIU backpack drive. Julie Ferrero-Marker also had some students help with the collection for their community service project. Read more

Eleven Greater Latrobe Junior High School students participated in the Westmoreland County Music Educator Association Junior High Band Festivalon Feb. 21 at Wendover Middle School in the Hempfield Area School District, including Abigail Wolfgang, (second row) Molly Holsopple, Sarah Hoffman, Amber Taylor, (third row) Isaac Murgi, Kristen Scranton, Allyson Horner, (fourth row) Landon Shine, Katie Glasser, Abigail Vogelsang and Connor Benyo. Read more

The Greater Latrobe-Laurel Valley Chamber of Commerce has been requesting donations for the Blackburn Center, so children and families from Latrobe Kinder-Schull preschool classes collected donations and the students recently bundled up and delivered their donations to the Chamber. The donations were then transported to the Blackburn Center in Greensburg. Read more

Sixth-grade chorus students from Derry Area Middle School were selected to participate in the WCMEA Sixth-Grade County Chorus Festival on Feb. 28, including Zoe Frayvolt, Brennan Borbonus, Davin Barger, John Kerin, Hermione Lehosky, Kenzington Jones and Liberty Kuhns. The festival took place at Yough Intermediate School, and the guest conductor was Shawn Funk. Read more