By Tamas Mondovics
Kiss The Pig Event Supports FishHawk Creek Elementary Relay For Life Effort
FishHawk Creek Elementary School students, staff and parents gathered last month to celebrate a successful campaign to raise money for this year’s Relay for Life. The effort included a Kiss the Pig event, which raised $5,600. The center of attention (the pig to be kissed) came from R&R Ranch in Lithia. All of the money is going to FishHawk Creek – Relay for Life Team.
Nominate An Outstanding Young Hillsborough County Resident For The YEA! Awards
The Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners are now accepting nominations to recognize local student-leaders through the Youth Excellence and Achievement Awards (YEA! Awards). The YEA! Awards were created in 2010 to recognize Hillsborough County students for making a difference in their community.
Students honored show initiative, innovation, and a commitment to themselves and others, while pursuing excellence in a leadership capacity demonstrated in academics, community service, athletics, performing arts, conservation, or other areas.
Nominations can now be submitted through 5 p.m. Monday, April 4, for both middle and high school students in each of the following categories:
• Leadership – demonstrating a positive impact on others in an ongoing endeavor, such as sports, academics, or the arts.
• Success Despite Difficult Odds – overcoming tremendous personal difficulty to attain success and to make a positive impact on others.
• Volunteer or Community Service – allocating discretionary time to help others or complete a project that has improved our community.
The YEA! Awards will be presented by the Board of County Commissioners in May. The nomination form can be submitted online at www.HillsboroughCounty.org/YEA, or printed and mailed. Nominations will be reviewed by the Commission on the Status of Women.
Journalism Teacher Among Rising Star Award Winners
East Bay High School teacher Ashley Clark was one of 13 journalism teachers and media advisers to receive the Rising Star Award in 2016. According to The Journalism Education Association (JEA), this year’s winners will be honored during a luncheon of the JEA/NSPA Spring National High School Convention in Los Angeles in April.
“Every day I get to help students tell their peers’ stories that will actually be published in a keepsake that will be shown to children and grandchildren,” Clark said adding that in the process, her staff gets to learn life lessons: how to talk to people, how to present information, how to make decisions, how to meet deadlines and how to be part of a team. “It feels validating to have this day-to-day process and my part in it recognized. It’s empowering to know that the Journalism Educator’s Association sees value in the opportunities I create for my students and the products that result from that process.”
The Rising Star Award honors scholastic student media advisers who have completed five or fewer years in the profession. A total of 109 advisers have been honored since the award’s inception, and many have gone on to greater involvement in local, state and national scholastic journalism organizations.
For more information, visit www.jea.org.
