ACHIEVEMENTS.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Shasta band teacher earns state honor

Joe Ingram, longtime band teacher at Shasta Middle School, has been named one of seven Teachers of the Year by the Oregon Middle Level Association.

The son of a professional jazz trumpeter, Ingram has led the Shasta band program to numerous victories in state and regional competitions. He previously received a national Teacher of the Year Award. He has been at Shasta for 20 years, and has helped cultivate its identity as a top middle school for music. About 70 percent of Shasta students participate in either band or choir or both.

National Merit Scholarship Finalists named

The following local students have been named National Merit Scholarship Finalists, an honor shared by approximately 15,000 students across the nation who earned the highest scores on the Preliminary SAT and National Merit Scholar Qualifying Test and met other academic requirements: Matthew Haven and Patrick Lamson-Hall of Churchill High School; Lee Fischer of Sheldon High School; Patrick Chaney, Samantha Demboski, Charles Forkish, Rebecca Freund, Alex Huntsberger, Devin Jordan, Alison Lee, Nathan Lindquist, Richard Murphy, Britta Wren Patton, Wenqi Shao, Bridget Welch and Jordan Widmer of South Eugene High School; Kelly Hopper of Pleasant Hill High School; Matthew Smith of Springfield High School; Ross Leavitt, a home-schooled student from Springfield; Kaela Barnett and Erin Miller of Marshfield High School; and Chad Fulton of Siuslaw High School. Winners of scholarship awards will be notified beginning next month.

Thurston FBLA students take top honors

Five Thurston High School students took top honors at the Future Business Leaders of America Regional Skills Conference, held earlier this month at Silverton High School. They are Hilary Jevne, first place in Computer Applications; Dustin Taylor, first place in Introduction to Business Communication and second place in Computer Applications; Jordan Boehm, third place in Business Math; Shalynn Pack, third place in Business Procedures; and Jaime Emmett, third place in Economics. They competed with more than 500 students from 17 other area high schools. All students who placed in the top 15 in each event are eligible to participate in the state conference in April.

Sheldon student accepted to West Point

Robert Carney of Eugene has been accepted to attend the Military Academy at West Point, Rep. Peter DeFazio announced earlier this month. A senior at the International High School at Sheldon High School, Carney recently toured the British Isles as a student ambassador and serves as a peer mentor and elementary school tutor. He will begin Cadet Basic Training at West Point in June. Carney was one of three Oregon students nominated by DeFazio who were accepted to military academies.

Students place at debate tournament

Several local students took top honors at a regional debate tournament held last month at South Eugene High School. They are Jeremy Schifberg of South Eugene, first place, Northwest Lincoln-Douglas Debate Round Robin; Daniel Griffith of South Eugene, first place, Crystal Jenks of Willamette High School, second place, and Richard Murphy of South Eugene, third place, Student Congress; Linzy Munger and Scott Edinger of Willamette, second place, Open Division Public Forum Debate; Claire Kouba and Natasha Naidoo, South Eugene, second place, Open Division Policy Debate; Lizzy Wolfram and Ruby Blum of South Eugene, first place, Natalie Sonnenfeld and Sophia Yan of Churchill High School, second place, Novice Division Policy Debate; Anni Wooley of South Eugene, first place, Open Division Lincoln-Douglas Debate; and BJ Goldsberry of Churchill, second place, Novice Division Lincoln-Douglas Debate.