Education briefly

Carson City students

to compete in state Geographic Bee

Six Carson City students qualified for the state Geographic Bees on April 1, competing for a spot in the national competition in Washington, D.C. in May.

The bee is organized by the National Geographic Society. This year's bee is sponsored by Google Inc. and Plum Creek.

Up to 100 fourth- to eighth-graders in each state have qualified. Each state winner will receive $100, "The Complete National Geographic" on DVD and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the national finals May 24-25.

First prize in the national competition is a $25,000 college scholarship and lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society. Second- and third-place finishers receive $15,000 and $10,000 college scholarships, respectively. Additionally, the national winner will travel to the Galapagos Islands.

Carson City students who qualified are: Hemanth Madduri of Jacks Valley Elementary School, Rose Berry of St. Teresa of Avila School, Noah Giron of Fremont Elementary School, Ethan Lopes of Carson Middle School, Michael Brown of Fritsch Elementary School and Samantha Kechely of Bethlehem Lutheran School.

Boys & Girls Club to attempt Guinness record

Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Nevada joins some 4,000 Boys & Girls Clubs across America and on U.S. military bases overseas in the annual celebration of National Boys & Girls Club Week, this week.

For more than 75 years, Boys & Girls Clubs have celebrated this week in a variety of ways, which support the organization's overarching goal to help each child reach his full potential and achieve a great future. This year, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Nevada plans to take this opportunity to promote the three club outcome areas: Healthy lifestyles, academic success, and character and citizenship.

During the week, members will be encouraged to join Boys & Girls Clubs of America's attempt to receive the Guinness World Record title for the most star jumps (jumping jacks) completed in two consecutive minutes.

An open house will be held along with a canned food drive.

Monday will be favorite sports team day. Tuesday will be world record day. Wednesday is pajama day, Thursday is crazy hat day, and Friday will be club colors day.

Carson girl advances

to state poetry contest

After winning the competition in her Carson High School drama class then the citywide event, Adriana Avitia, 17, advanced to the Nevada State Finals of Poetry Out Loud contest Saturday.

It is a national recitation contest that encourages high-school aged students to learn about poetry through memorization, performance and competition.

For Avitia, it was a natural fit.

"I write poetry myself, so it's nice to be able to read and recite other people's poetry," she said.

The sixth annual competition took place at the Knitting Factory in Reno.

"With the danger of continued cuts to arts education and programs throughout the state, we're thrilled with the success of our outreach efforts in reaching high school students with this program and how it can change lives," said Susan Boskoff, executive director of Nevada Arts Council. "Arts education is essential to raising America's next generation of creative thinkers."

This year, an estimated 2,521 students have participated in the Nevada program, a 25 percent increase from last year. Attendance has continued to climb since the start of the program in 2006.