Student Spotlights – November 2022

Lighthouse Baptist Church has purchased property at the corner of Nan Grey Davis and Browder Rd. This land brings great opportunity for future growth in both buildings and sports fields. Recently, LBC had a workday to clean up the property as we begin making plans for expansion.

Ms. Dankovic’s Literature Focus at Dunbar Magnet School, is all about narrative story elements such as character, setting, point of view, and dialogue. Each student chose a short story that we have read this quarter and made a foldable organizer. Each strip has a story element on it and underneath, the students connected the term to an example from the short story they picked. We are very impressed at the connections and examples that the students chose!

Cottage Hill Christian Academy’s Scholars Bowl team competed in the University of Mobile Brain Battle. While competing, our Varsity team picked up some very big wins, and our JV team went 5-0! We are proud of the start of their season.

Cottage Hill Christian Academy took time to celebrate the legacy of Mrs. Fran Greenough who has faithfully served the Cottage Hill Community for 29 years. Friends, family, alumni, and faculty gathered to dedicate the Greenough Prayer Garden and share stories of the impact that Mrs. Greenough had on their life. We are grateful to have this area as an outdoor classroom space, gathering spot, and a place to take our cares and concerns before the Lord!

Congratulations to the six Mobile County Public Schools seniors who are semifinalists in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test. These students now advance to the finalist level of the competition, which will be announced in February 2023. The semifinalists are: Bailey Baxter, Shawn Mullen, Ryker Quinones, Lily Stubblefield and Christina Trinh of Davidson High School, and Nathan Wallace of Mary G. Montgomery High School.

On September 29th, Cottage Hill Christian Academy hosted over 500 grandparents to celebrate Grandparent’s Day. We had a blast singing, dancing, and making crafts while celebrating our grandparents and thanking them for their investment in our lives.

Phillips Preparatory’s Lady Pirates had an incredible season, making it all the way to the playoffs. Congratulations to the players and the coaches.

Congratulations to the Grand Bay and Denton Magnet volleyball teams, which won the middle school county championships! Grand Bay won the large-school title and Denton won the small-school division.

St. Mary Catholic congratulates Charlie Heinz, the eighth grade representative chosen as Red Ribbon Leader and Coordinator for the Mobile Drug Education Council. One student from all schools in Mobile and Baldwin County schools are chosen to represent their schools based on the six pillars of character promoted by the Character Counts initiative and the Drug Education Council. These include trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. Charlie will lead Red Ribbon activities for St. Mary during Red Ribbon Week at the end of October. Charlie will also plan a community service project to help his fellow students in building a connection to the community and to encourage healthy lifestyle choices. Photo by Kortnee Acton. Submitted by Marcelle Naman

Congratulations to Amari Yelding of B.C. Rain High School and Robert York of LeFlore Magnet High School13 – Davidson’s 10th Grade EPIC – Engineering Students. They are among 62,000 students nationwide to earn academic honors from the College Board’s National Recognition Programs. These programs create pathways to college for students from underserved communities. Yelding and York earned this recognition by excelling on the PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT 10, and in the classroom.

St. Mary Catholic School Middle School Math Teacher, Stephanie LeGrone, was surprised on September 20, in front of the entire middle school with the “Extra Yard For Teachers” Award presented by the College of Football Play Off Foundation. 2018 Alabama Teacher of the Year, Chasity Collier, presents this award to teachers throughout the state who go the extra mile in teaching! Click here to find out more about this program! Submitted by Marcelle Naman, St. Mary Parish

Davidson High School’s Jimmie Beth Kuntz, Richard Pham, and Hannah Broders were named National Merit Commended Students! There are 34,000 students nationwide who receive this recognition based on their score of 207 or higher on the PSAT. All three are in Davidson’s IB program and were recognized as AP Scholars.

The students and faculty of Phillips Preparatory School spoiled their custodial staff on “National School Custodian Appreciation Day.” We are very grateful for their hard work and the way they care for our campus and our students.

Brooke May, a 7th grader at Clark-Shaw Magnet School, was selected as one of 10 students in the entire state of Alabama for the Broadcom Masters competition. Only 300 students in the nation are recommended for this competition after winning at their regional and state levels. Brooke’s science fair project looked at the effect of traditional soil vs. water beads on the biomass of collard green plants. The goal was to determine if water beads were a good replacement since they are lighter and more easily transported for space or in case of soil contamination. Her project won 1st place in the school-wide science fair, 2nd place in the regional science fair, and 3rd place in the Alabama state science fair in the category of animal, place, computational & bioinformatics sciences. She was also awarded the Auburn University Biological Sciences Award for Outstanding Poster in Animal and Plant Sciences as well as the Auburn University Society of Women in Sciences and Mathematics Achievement Award. Congratulations, Brooke!

St. Mary Parish held the official surprise reveal for donors on September 15 with the big surprise the New Pavilion was named for St. Mary’s beloved St. Mary Catholic School Principal of over 20 years, Debbie Ollis! After a big thank you to our donors and the Cummings Architecture and Withering Construction team, the surprise was revealed. St. Mary thanks pavilion co-chairs Matt Boos and Joe Collins and their volunteer team for making a dream a reality for St. Mary’s! Submitted by Marcelle Naman.

29 DHS Career & Technical Student Organization (CTSO) leaders attended the Joint Leadership Development Conference (JLDC) at the convention center recently. They heard from 3-time USA Olympian Dee Dee Trotter and attended breakout & networking sessions with other schools from our area. We are proud to have active CTSO’s for our Career Tech programs in Drafting, Computer Science, Culinary, NJROTC, Business and Marketing as well as the programs available at the Bryant Career Tech Center.

The University of South Alabama College of Education and Professional Studies and South Alabama Athletics selected 6th grade Clark-Shaw Magnet School teacher, Mrs. Miranda Manley, as one of its Extra Yard for Teachers Classroom Project winners. Her proposal features a book study using Making History Come Alive through Captured: An American Prisoner of War in N. Vietnam (the Jeremiah Denton Story). She received a $250 gift card and was invited, along with a guest, to the Extra Yard for Teachers Jags Football game on Saturday, September 24th, where she was recognized with the other recipients. Congratulations, Mrs. Manley! (She is pictured here with Clark-Shaw principal Mrs. Timesha Taylor-Jackson)

Davidson High School’s IB seniors explored Camp Scoutshire for two days as part of a long-term interdisciplinary project. Students worked collaboratively alongside DHS IB Biology instructor, Dr. Ryan Moody, and DHS IB Chemistry instructor, Robin Stefurak. They assessed water quality in multiple water sources and soil nutrient content from the surrounding area to determine how it affected the local plant communities. Students then reviewed and discussed the implications of these findings on the environment. In addition to this, these dedicated students had picnics, ate smores, and overall enjoyed their time in nature!