WOODLAND HILLS TEEN'S DOG EARNS HONORS IN COMPETITION.

Byline: SIMONE SCHRAMM Community columnist

Kate Moureaux, 16, of Woodland Hills placed third in two rounds of the recent American Kennel Club National Agility Championship in Katy, Texas.

Moureaux, who began training dogs in agility skills at age 6, competed with Heisey, a Shetland sheep dog, and Quick, a border collie.

Moureaux has traveled around the country with Heisey, who placed among the top 25 Shetland sheep dogs on the National AKC Agility list.

Quick placed third in a round for dogs measuring 24 inches in height and third in the last day's challenger competition, which is open to all dogs, regardless of height.

``I was really happy with her,'' Moureaux said. ``It's fun to meet people and to see the other competitive dogs.''

Anthony Alcazar, a student at Grant High School in Van Nuys, was among five high school seniors to win a $2,000 scholarship from Chela Financial as part of UNITE-L.A.'s College is Yours campaign.

To qualify for this scholarship, students must write an essay on ``How I plan to use my college education to make my career dreams come true'' in 300 words or less.

For information on this and other scholarships, log on to www.loans4students.com or call UNITE-L.A. at [phone].

Gov. Gray Davis has appointed Allen Martin, a professor at California State University, Northridge, to the California Earthquake Authority Advisory Panel.

Martin's commitment to financial and consumer literacy issues was one of the reasons he was appointed to the panel, which includes nine members: four insurance company representatives; two licensed insurance agents and three citizens with no ties to the insurance industry. At least one member of the public must demonstrate a commitment to consumer protection.

``This appointment gives me an opportunity to represent the university at a state level and, more importantly, put into practice what we teach in the classroom and bring to a governmental body a true consumer perspective,'' Martin said.

Martin teaches in CSUN's Department of Family Environmental Sciences and heads the university's Consumer Resource Center.

A team of four teachers from Plum Canyon Elementary School in Santa Clarita placed third in the Emerging Technology Awards for Educators program from AT&T Broadband.

The school received a $1,000 grant and a digital video camera to implement their video project entitled ``Character Counts.'' The project will focus on producing six video programs with the kindergarten, first and sixth grade classes. Each video will explore one of the six ``pillars'' of character - trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.

For the video production, the sixth-graders dubbed themselves the ``Character Crew.'' They are writing their own material and learning the art of video editing on iMac computers from local high school students.

The winning teachers are:

Laurie Boyd, Dianne Foderaro, Jennifer Nossaman and Janet Weise, all from Santa Clarita.

Students on the Character Crew are:

Natalie Badalof, Jessica Charton, Mario Lara and Travis Langham, all from Santa Clarita.