Honorable Mentions | April 26 – May 2, 2024
Students bring home awards from central Florida aerospace competition
Marion County students took home a plethora of awards from a capstone project competition as part of NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project Aerospace Academy.
More than 60 students spent over seven months researching to help NASA mitigate the noise for jet engines.
First-place winners from the morning session:
- Peyton Ayala, Belleview High School (BHS) 10thgrade
- Jenna Graham, BHS ninth grade
- Isaac Hildebrand, BHS 10thgrade
- Carson VanDeursen, BHS 11thgrade
Second-place winners from the morning session:
- Ariana Ardiles – BHS, 12thgrade
- Bruce Gamet – BHS 11thgrade
- Bella Paugh – BHS ninth grade
- Christopher Rivera – BHS 11thgrade
Third-place winners from the morning session:
- Robert Blasi – BHS ninth grade
- Ravi Mathew – Vanguard High ninth grade
- Jacob Sanders – BHS 12thgrade
- Orlando Tanon – North Marion High 11thgrade
- Shannen Wynn – BHS 10thgrade
First-place winners from the afternoon session:
- Kason Almonte – BHS 10thgrade
- Teddy Brown – BHS 10thgrade
- Jaykumar Patel – BHS 11 grade
- Nicholas Rivera – BHS 11thgrade
- Second place winners from the afternoon session:
- Nathalie Abdul – BHS 12thgrade
- Serena Coulton – BHS 11thgrade
- Rebekah Martinez – BHS 10thgrade
MCPS public relations director nominated for national award
Marion County Public Schools Director of Public Relations Kevin Christian was nominated for the first-ever National School Communicator of the Year award.
The award recognized outstanding leadership and contributions of active, front-line school communicators.
Christian is one of 27 people nominated in the nation and will be recognized at the National School Public Relations Association 2024 seminar in July.
Four other nominees have already been selected to as finalists for the award.
More than 36 tons of trash removed from Ocala National Forest in April
Marion County Solid Waste, Gambler 500, the U.S. Forest Service and the Central Florida Dog Hunters successfully removed 36.6 tons of trash from the forest in the month of April.
The trash removed included tires, boats and other garbage.
Gambler 500, with a donated WastePro container, removed 6.53 tons. The U.S. Forest Service removed 5.14 tons. The Central Florida Dog Hunters removed 21.45 tons.
Marion Firefighter’s son advances to semi-finals of ‘Master Chef Jr.’
Michael Seegobin, the son of Marion County firefighter Deen Seegobin, advanced to the semi-finals on the “Master Chef Jr.” show after the episode on April 29.
Seegobin prepared a dish of shrimp tortellini with white wine cream sauce, blanched tomatoes and basil oil during the episode.
Seegobin performance earned him immunity on the show and he won an all-expense trip to Mexico for his family.
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