2 local students win National Merit Scholarships

Two area high school seniors are among the 2,500 chosen as recipients of the National Merit Scholarship Program's $2,500 scholarships. Michelle Bowman, of Dayton High School in the Lyon County School District, and Renee Johnston, of Douglas High School in the Douglas County School District, were chosen as top scholars from a pool of some 15,000 students who qualified.

Bowman received a scholarship sponsored by El Paso Corp., which owns the nation's sole coast-to-coast natural-gas pipeline. Johnston received a scholarship supported by National Merit Scholarship funds. Bowman is interested in sports medicine and Johnston likes environmental studies.

Eagle Valley Middle School principal to take new position

Ferd Mariani, principal of Eagle Valley Middle School for the past six years, will take over Carson City School District's prison and adult-education program in the 2006-07 school year. The program has been run by Ernie McKenzie, who plans to retire.

Mariani has served in administration for 13 years and has been with the Carson City School District for the past 25 years. He has also served at Carson High School and Carson Middle School.

"The pace, I've got to tell you, has been incredibly fast and it's been intense," Mariani told school board trustees at a recent meeting. "I've had a wonderful time serving as an administrator. I just want to take a look at a new experience."

Carson student named to Oregon dean's list

Ryan Henry, from Carson City, was named to the 2006 Winter Term president's list at Oregon Institute of Technology. Inclusion on the list requires a 3.7 grade-point average and above. Only full-time students (12 credit hours or more) are eligible for academic honors. Henry is studying communications.

Advanced-video production team enjoys Philly trip

The Project Ignition team from Carson High School took a trip to Philadelphia in late March.

Even though they did not take the $10,000 State Farm top place award as hoped, they received a trophy for being in the top 10.

"We feel very good about the team that did win," said advanced video production teacher Brian Reedy. "They have an awesome program that really is better than ours. We feel good about everything, have had a wonderful time and have been treated very well."

Carson High School students on the team were Greg Saunders, Tyler Bourns, Heidi Flansberg, Lydia Peri and Alejandra Melgarejo.

"Carson City was well-represented by these students - and well- recognized by everyone they met," Reedy said. "They showed off their project well at their booth, and got a lot of people to see how amazing CHS is. We gave away about 500 decks of playing cards with a sticker of our 'Slow Down Our Kids Matter' logo."

Carson High sophomore will go to conference

Kaileen Bachman, 15, a sophomore at Carson High School, is headed to the National Youth Leadership Conference on Medicine this summer, thanks to more than $2,000 in donations made by Appeal readers. Once she heard she had the money to go, she entered just days before the deadline.

She didn't get her first or second location choices - Boston and Chicago - so she will head to Atlanta from July 2-11.

"It's still a place I really really want to go," she said. "I'm very excited, and all I'll need to do now to get ready is pack."

Honor society recognizes Carson woman at UNR

Shannon Devereaux, of Carson City, has been named to the University of Nevada, Reno dean's list for the College of Education for fall semester 2005.

Devereaux is a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi by election of the Chapter at UNR.

In recognition of this accomplishment, Devereaux has been inducted into the Golden Key International Honor Society and was recently honored at UNR.

Golden Key International Honor Society is the premier college/university honor society in the world with more than 1.5 million members. Membership is by invitation only.

Devereaux is the daughter of Lora Devereaux and Frederick Droes. She is a 2003 graduate of Carson High School.