TWHS THEATRE PRESENTS STUDENT OF THE YEAR AWARD - Every year, The Woodlands High School’s four theatre directors honor students who exemplify the kind of person who can always be trusted with an important project, and will produce exceptional work in a timely manner. These highly motivated and efficient students are then nominated for Theatre Department Student of the Year. This year, two students shared the honor, Kristen Conroy and Jessica Trinque. The other nominees were Vic Shuttee, and Katlin Newman.

Conroy’s primary function is as a stage manager, the highest student-held position in a high school main stage show. In addition to stage management, she contributes to every technical aspect of the production. She has worked on at least eight crews and is in charge of scheduling for the TWHS auditorium.

Trinque maintained the department website, served as co-president with Vic Shuttee running the thespian troupe, wrote press releases every month, and designed the programs for all main stage shows. She coached a fellow student to win the Texas Thespian Marketing contest, a contest she herself won the year before.

Shuttee was the Student of the Year for the 2009-2010 season, and devoted more than 900 hours in the 2010-2011 season to performance, technical work, and directing, in addition to writing and directing several plays and winning many personal honors.

Katlin Newman, is not only an accomplished actress performing as Puck in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and was selected as part of the Texas Thespian All State show “Our Town”, but also does directorial and costume work and served as the troupe’s recording secretary.

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COOPER GRAD HEADED FOR WEST POINT - John Cooper School graduate Michael Taylor was presented with an appointment certificate to the United States Military Academy at West Point, class of 2015, by Field Forces Liaison Matt Dossey at the May awards dinner.  A 4-year member of Cooper’s baseball team, Taylor was also involved in the Cooper’s Upper School drama pro­ductions,choir, Quiz Bowl team, SPAM Club (Students Preventing Animal Mistreatment) and SASA Club (Students Against Substance Abuse). He is active in his

church, serving as a student leader in the Young Life program and in church summer camp programs. An Eagle Scout, Michael is the son of Monroe and Pam Taylor of The Woodlands.

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ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA SCHOOL SENDS STUDENTS INTO WORLD – St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School, which serves students through the 8th grade, celebrated its 10th year with a graduation ceremony sending its graduates to high schools both locally and internationally. The graduating class will be attending Houston schools including St. Thomas High School, Incarnate Word Academy, Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart, Strake Jesuit College Preparatory, St. Agnes Academy, St. Pius X High School and Concordia Lutheran. They will also attend Woodlands schools including John Cooper, The Woodlands High School and  College Park Academy of Math and Science; and schools in Alaska, Amsterdam and Mexico.

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PAVILION PARTNERS AWARDS FINE ARTS SCHOLARSHIPS - The Pavilion Partners, the official volunteer organization for The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, has awarded 20 new scholarships to graduating high school seniors and 38 renewal scholarships to college students majoring in fine arts.

Based upon talent and academic performance, the scholarships are available to students in Conroe, Klein, Magnolia, Montgomery, Spring, Tomball and Willis school districts, MacArthur and Carver High Schools in Aldine ISD and private schools within each district’s boundaries.

First-time recipients of the scholarship were awarded $1,000 with the exception of eight students who received $2,000 for having the highest combined scores for academics and talent in each fine arts category. The Pavilion Partners also gives students an opportunity to renew their scholarships after the first year of college if they continue to major in fine arts.

This year’s first-time recipients are:

Tawny Anderson, The Woodlands High School; Elise Baldwin, Spring High School; Aaron Boudreaux, The Woodlands College Park High School; Cameron Champion, Klein Oak High School; Amanda Dolan, Conroe High School; Joseph Dougherty, The Woodlands High School; Sami Eudy, The Woodlands High School; Skyler Harrison, Oak Ridge High School; Caroline Hunt, Oak Ridge High School; Jonathan Jones II, Wunsche High School; Brenden Johnson, Willis High School; Carolena Belle Lara, Klein Collins High School; Nicolas Lopez, Tomball High School; Randal Garrett Nichols, Tomball High School; Molly Sayers, Northland Christian High School; Kathryn Schaible, The Woodlands High School; Vic Shuttee, The Woodlands High School; Augustine Solis, MacArthur High School; Jessica Trinque, The Woodlands High School; and Zachary Turner, Tomball High School.

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TOP SCHOLARS RECOGNIZED AT COOPER AWARDS CEREMONY

- Top scholars for The John Cooper Upper School were recognized at a final awards ceremony held in the school’s Performing Arts Center in May. Freshmen Molly Garrison, Jeremy Mani and Elyse Norman, sophomore Arielle Coughlin, junior Timesh Patel and senior Hailey Juszczak were honored as top scholars for each grade level. Juszczak, who will attend Stanford University in the fall, was  the valedictorian for the class of 2011 and spoke at graduation ceremonies.

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SASSY SCIENTISTS IN LEGO CHAMPIONSHIP COMPETITION – The Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council’s Sassy Scientists robotics team has gained national attention for breaking boundaries and stereotypes as one of the few all-girl teams to compete at the FIRST LEGO League North American Open tournament at LEGOLAND in California in May. The girls placed 35th in the robot race out of 76 teams from all over North America and were considered for a Judges Award.

The competition is only open to teams invited from each region of North America. The Sassy Scientists, a team of eight Girl Scouts from The Woodlands and Spring, were selected for the tournament after becoming the first all-girls team to win first place in the FFL Lone Star Championship in December, beating 59 other teams from six regions.

The team included: Evelyn Wendt, Vidisha Ganesh, Allison Durkin, Liana Brown, Hannah Lane, Emily Hebel, Melanie Rohla and Danielle Sutter. Coaches are Henry Hebel and Jennifer Sutter.

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ST ANNE’S TOMBALL WINS WILLOWBROOK COMPETITION - Thanks to the My School’s Cool program at Willowbrook Mall, St. Anne Catholic School-Tomball will be shopping for library books. The Tomball parochial school accumulated a total of 31,852 points during the 5-month My School’s Cool competition and took home first place honors and a check for $5,000. Principal Margaret Morgan indicated St. Anne will use some of the funds to purchase books for the library. Additionally, the school will be able to implement technology upgrades.

Willowbrook Mall awarded a total of $17,500 to participating schools.