FOX CHAPEL AREA HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT TO PLAY PIANO AT CARNEGIE HALL

Fox Chapel Area High School sophomore Praveen Tummalapalli will play the piano at Carnegie Hall in New York September 30, 2006. Praveen earned the right to play at Carnegie Hall when he received an honorable mention at the 2006 World Piano Competition of the American Music Scholarship Association held recently in Cincinnati, Ohio. At the World Competition, Praveen competed against piano players from several countries and was awarded the only honorable mention for Level 7. At Carnegie Hall, Praveen will play “Evening in the Country” by Bartok.

Praveen is a piano student of Professor Hanna Wu Li of Carnegie Mellon University and he has attended the CMU Preparatory School since the age of six. Praveen is the son of Dr. Krishna V. Tummalapalli and Mohini Chatrathi of Fox Chapel Borough.

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS INVITED TO SUBMIT ORIGINAL WORK FOR CONTEST

The Fox Chapel Area High School PTSA is inviting students to submit original work for the 2006-2007 National PTA Reflections Contest. Fox Chapel Area High School students in grades nine-12 may submit work in the following categories: literature, musical composition, photography, visual arts and, two new categories this year are choreography and film video. The theme for this year’s contest is “My Favorite Place.”

Entry forms and rules are available in the high school main office, the guidance office, the QUEST office, and in the QRT rooms. The deadline for entries is the end of October 2006. For more information call Ann Boyd at 412/828-4663 or Laurie Kassab at 412/963-8088.

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT RECEIVES CITATION FROM COUNTY CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Fox Chapel Area High School senior Rebecca Fink has received a Community Citation of Recognition from the Office of the Chief Executive of Allegheny County. Signed by Dan Onorato, the award was presented in recognition of Rebecca being selected to attend the Science and the Art of Discovery course at St. Francis University which was held June 26-30, 2006.

The award states, “Your accomplishments serve as an inspiration to all, particularly other young women interested in the male-dominated field of science. We join your family, friends and classmates in congratulating you on this achievement. May you continue to positively impact and enrich our community.”

Rebecca was one of only 25 students from Maryland and Pennsylvania selected for the course and she was chosen based on her application, academic strength, and teacher recommendations. Funded through a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program grant from the National Science Foundation, the program is designed for students with an interest in pursuing a career in the sciences or technical fields. The course, which is worth two college credits, focused on the topics of energy, heat, and temperature; atoms and chemical reactions; the basis of life, evolution, and genetics; and ecology and environment.

St. Francis University, located in Loretto, Pennsylvania, is a comprehensive four-year, coeducational, liberal arts university and also offers advanced degrees. Ranked among the popular U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT’s “America’s Best Colleges 2006,” the university was founded in 1847.

Rebecca is the daughter of Paul and Deborah Fink of Indiana Township.

FOX CHAPEL AREA STUDENTS NAMED 2007 NATIONAL MERIT SEMIFINALISTS

Fourteen Fox Chapel Area High School seniors have been designated as National Merit Semifinalists in the 2007 National Merit Scholarship Program conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC). The Semifinalists from Fox Chapel Area High School are: Samuel Bakkila, Kevin Boyd, James Byrnes, Stephen Dickel, Maureen Hart, Thomas Hu, Andrew Krieger, Elise Liu, Bassem Mikhael, Ethan Minogue, Juliette Power, Robert Schwartz, Anastas Stoyanovsky, and Michael Tracht.

All of these students were selected based on their 2005 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) scores. Each year college-bound 11th grade students complete the PSAT/NMSQT. All the students who take this test are automatically enrolled in the National Merit Scholarship Program and approximately 16,000 advance to become Semifinalists. The Semifinalists represent less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors. The Semifinalists now have the opportunity to advance to the Finalist level and compete for about 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards worth $33 million to be offered in the spring of 2007.

The NMSC is a privately financed, not-for-profit corporation.

2006-2007 DISTRICT FORUM MEETING DATES

The Fox Chapel Area School District Forum will hold six meetings throughout the 2006-2007 school year. The meetings will be held October 11 and November 8, 2006, and January 9, February 7, and March 8, 2007.

All of the meeting will begin at 9 a.m. Additionally, District Forum will hold an evening meeting April 24, 2007, at 7 p.m. All of the District Forum meetings will be held in the Fox Chapel Area High School large group instruction room and all district residents are invited and encouraged to attend. The high school is located at 611 Field Club Road in O’Hara Township.

District Forum provides a public forum for addressing topics of interest to those residents living within the Fox Chapel Area School District. Its objective is to promote communication and discussion among parents, administrators, School Board members, teachers, students, and all persons in the community.