MMI Preparatory School recently held its annual upper school Awards Convocation for students in ninth through 12th grades.
MMI Head of School D. Scott Wiggins welcomed those in attendance and MMI College Admissions Counselor Stephanie Shandra served as emcee.
Senior Allison McGeehan received a special award honoring her service as Pennsylvania Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) State Reporter for the 2016-2017 school year. In addition to assisting MMI FBLA adviser Katherine Zucco, McGeehan spent a significant amount of time over the past year serving more than 500 students across the state in her capacity as State Reporter. Allison was also presented the 2017 Jake Kislan ’56 Polonaise Society Award, which honors the highest achieving Polish American graduate of MMI and is sponsored by Mrs. Michelle Kislan in conjunction with the Greater Hazleton Polonaise Society
Sophomore Andrew Decker was recognized for his performance in the Poetry Out Loud competition. Decker was MMI’s school winner for the second consecutive year and went on to place in the top five in the state out of more than 7,000 entrants.
The Eckley B. Coxe Jr. Memorial Subject Awards were presented to senior students who have excelled in their fields of study as follows: Visual and Performing Arts – Garrett Kost; History and Mathematics – Ali Aijaz; Spanish – Allison McGeehan; Science – Nicholas Young; Chinese – Keenan Overa; German – Megan Marchetti; and English – Joshua Narrow. Narrow was also recognized for his recent appointment as the Hazleton City Poet Laureate, a role that was recreated to help foster an appreciation for the humanities in the Hazleton area with the hope that students can get involved with various art-based organizations to exhibit their work.
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UGI Energy Services recently donated $15,000 to MMI Preparatory School as part of the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) program.
The OSTC program, along with the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program, enables a Pennsylvania business to gift up to $750,000 of its Pennsylvania state tax dollars directly to the school’s scholarship program. Tax credits are given for 90 percent of gifts given in two consecutive years, or 75 percent of a one-year gift. EITC and OSTC enable companies to support local schools at a minimum cost.
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Peter Bayer, a retired United States Army Major General and former Director of Strategy, Plans and Policy on the Army staff at the Pentagon, will give the Founder’s Day Address at MMI Preparatory School’s commencement ceremony on May 25.
Bayer, a 1980 MMI graduate, is the Area Vice President, Northeast for Penske Logistics where he leads a team of more than 1,900 associates providing world class transportation and warehouse management logistics support to 37 diverse customers nationwide.
Prior to joining Penske, he proudly served for over 29 years as a soldier in the United States Army in a variety of command and staff positions in the United States, Germany and the Middle East. He has extensive leadership experience at the tactical, operational and strategic levels and spent the majority of his career in operations and training with duty in multiple armor and cavalry units, including four post-9/11 operational and combat tours in Kuwait and Iraq.
In addition to his work at the Pentagon as a Major General, Bayer served as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Plans and Policy, Headquarters Supreme Allied Command Transformation, NATO.
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MMI Preparatory School captured first place and had a total of six teams finish in the top 25 during the recent regional Luzerne County Envirothon competition.
Five of MMI’s six teams placed in the top 10. The winning team of Lois Polashenski, Joshua Kalada-Kania, Samuel Sessock, Alexander Sessock and Lauren Babinetz recorded a score of 432 points out of a possible 500 points and will advance to the state competition, which will be held May 23-24 at the University of Pittsburgh campus in Johnstown.
MMI’s freshman team of Grant Warren, Kai Mele, Elias Bachman, Benjamin Putnam and Adam Tron placed fourth. The team of Garrett Kost, Kayla Leonard, Bailey Slusser, Kaitlyn McGeehan and Christine Park finished fifth. Stephanie Zellner, Gabriella DeMelfi, Daniel DeMelfi, Dana Carrato and Coleman Smith combined to place sixth. The team of Mahum Ahmed, Amanda Kalada-Kania, Elise Hreha, Kelisa Hysenbegasi and Alexander Jordan came in ninth. Summer Evancho, Maya Rizkalla, Lindsey Baloga, Ayla Cooper and Catrina Havrilla teamed up to finish 21st out of 30 teams.
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MMI Preparatory School is offering all area school children an opportunity to make their summer vacation enjoyable and educational at the same time through its annual MMI Summer Camps in June and July.
A variety of camps will be offered in morning and afternoon sessions across a five-week period. Topics include Asian Art Camp, Silly Storybook Theater Camp, Ooey Gooey Science Camp, Cake Decorating Camp, Creative Engineering Camp, Amazing 4-in-1 Robot Camp, and Asian and Spanish cooking camps.
MMI faculty and staff along with instructors from Sciensational Camps and Box of Light will lead the summer camps on MMI’s campus at 154 Centre Street in Freeland. Although each camp is open only to certain age groups, there are offerings for students from ages 6 through 15. A full list of camps, dates and times are listed below.
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MMI Director of Technology T.R. Laputka attended and presented at the Tech Talk Live 2017 conference hosted by the Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit (IU13) on May 3.
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MMI Preparatory School junior Sydney Karpowich was selected to attend the Pennsylvania School for Global Entrepreneurship, which will be held from July 2 through July 29 at Lehigh University. Karpowich is the daughter of Atty. Donald Karpowich and Tracy Gallagher, Sugarloaf.
The Pennsylvania School for Global Entrepreneurship brings American high school sophomores and juniors together with international high school students from all regions of the world for four weeks to learn about entrepreneurship, globalization, team building, project management, leadership and working within a culturally diverse environment. The curriculum includes core courses in business, ethics, marketing, basic accounting and globalization that are taught by Lehigh University faculty and community leaders.
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MMI Preparatory School recently held a ceremony at the school to induct students into the National Junior Honor Society and National Latin Honor Society.
MMI Head of School D. Scott Wiggins welcomed the attendees and the Very Rev. Lawrence Barriger, MMI’s faculty adviser for the two honor societies, gave the criteria of members, presided over the induction ceremony and introduced the guest speaker. Kirsten Young ’13, a cancer research assistant at Vanderbilt Medical Center, served as guest speaker. MMI Assistant Head of School Charles Seidel gave closing remarks and MMI freshman Benjamin Putnam provided piano accompaniment for the processional.
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MMI Preparatory School juniors Gabriella Kupsho and Angelica Alday were recently accepted into this summer’s Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Sciences, which will be held from July 2 through August 5 at Carnegie Mellon University.
The Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Sciences (PGSS) is an intense summer enrichment program in which students from across the state take lecture courses in the core subjects of biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and computer science. In addition, they are expected to participate in their choice of one laboratory course in either biology, chemistry, physics or computer science, and to engage in team research projects in one of the above five major discipline areas. The students also have the opportunity to take elective courses which may vary from year to year, to participate in several field trips and to be further enriched by a distinguished guest lecture series.
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MMI Preparatory School eighth grader Peter Walko captured first place in the Middle School Division and eighth grader Emily Ryan and junior Caitlyn Kline finished second in the Middle School and High School divisions, respectively, in the 22nd annual Israel T. and Mildred Klapper Memorial Holocaust Essay Contest, which is sponsored jointly by the Hazleton Jewish Community Council and the Greater Hazleton Ministerial Association.
All three students read their winning entries and received their awards at the Yom Hashoa Memorial Service at the Beth Israel Temple in Hazleton on April 24. MMI English instructor Jennifer Novotney was the faculty adviser for the competition.
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Eight MMI Preparatory School students advanced to the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) national leadership convention and 9 additional students placed in the top 10 in their respective competitive events during the Pennsylvania FBLA state leadership conference earlier this month at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center.
Junior Julia Snyder captured first place for client service, seniors Jonathan Smith and Jessica Smith both finished second for public service announcement, senior Allison McGeehan was second in business law and sophomore Morgan Long finished fourth for intro to business procedures. Junior Jakob Schwabe was elected to serve as the Pennsylvania FBLA state secretary for 2017-2018. All six students will represent MMI at the FBLA national leadership convention, along with juniors Chava Kornblatt and Stephanie Zellner who took sixth for marketing, which will be held from June 27 to July 3 in Anaheim, California.
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MMI Preparatory School has announced the names of students who achieved Honor Roll status for the third quarter of the 2016-2017 school year.
Honor Roll students are:
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MMI Preparatory School recently held an induction ceremony to welcome new members to the Spanish, Chinese and German national honor societies.
Head of School D. Scott Wiggins welcomed those in attendance to open the ceremony. University of Scranton Professor Marie Karam, German Fulbright Scholar Sarah Schrier and visiting Chinese Lecturer Allison Lai were the guest speakers.
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Forty-three MMI Preparatory School students captured first place at a recent Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS) regional competition held at Wilkes University and will advance to the 83rd annual PJAS state competition, which is set for May 14-16 at Penn State University’s University Park campus.
Two of the 43 students, Lois Ann Polashenski and Louis DeAngelo, topped the field in two categories and will compete at the state competition in both events. Nine students received a perfect score in their respective categories. The students are: Joshua Kalada-Kania (in zoology), Gabriella DeMelfi (math), Samuel Sessock (engineering), Nicholas Young (chemistry), Dustin Paul (chemistry), Connor Spencer (chemistry), Louis DeAngelo (computer science), Lois Ann Polashenski (computer science) and Lauren Freeman (biology).
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The guest chef program at MMI Preparatory School strives to give students the opportunity to try new things. Guest chef Foster Dale of Genetti Catering recently visited MMI to prepare a healthy and scratch-made meal for the students.
The Guest Chef program began two years ago and is part of a three-year plan undertaken by MMI to provide food to the student body and staff in a more sustainable manner.
The students were treated to a meal that included grilled marinated chicken breast, strawberry spinach salad, a whole grain roll and vegetarian vegetable soup.
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MMI Preparatory School will host an information session about the Selective College Admission Process at schools like The University of Pennsylvania on Wednesday, May 3 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in the school’s cafeteria. The event is open to the public. MMI is located at 154 Centre Street in Freeland.
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MMI Preparatory School sophomore Andrew Decker placed among the top five in Pennsylvania at the Poetry Out Loud state competition in Harrisburg.
Decker, the son of Aaron Decker, Kingston, and Elizabeth and Troy Topolski, Sugarloaf, was one of only 15 students who advanced to the state finals out of a total of 7,000 students from across the state who entered the competition starting at the school level.
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MMI Preparatory School freshman Philip Byriel was selected to the Wyoming Valley Conference Coaches Association Division 3 First team following the 2016-17 varsity basketball season.
The 6-foot-7 post player led the Preppers in scoring and rebounding with an average of 13 points and six boards per game. He also topped MMI in blocks and steals. He posted multiple double-digit scoring games this season, including a career-high 31 points in MMI’s victory over Hanover Area in February.
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Four MMI Preparatory School students placed in the top four at the Pennsylvania School Press Association Student Journalism State Championships, which were held last month at Penn State University’s University Park campus.
Joshua Narrow and Julia Snyder both won the state championship in their respective categories. Narrow placed first in the Literary Magazine Poetry category, while Snyder topped the field in the Literary Magazine Artwork category. Danielle Pileggi received the State Reserve Champion title for finishing second in the Literary Magazine Artwork category and Chava Kornblatt was fourth in the Yearbook Photo Caption Writing category.
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MMI Preparatory School senior Joshua Narrow was recently appointed the Hazleton City Poet Laureate during a meeting held at Hazleton City Hall on March 22. Narrow was selected out a group of creative writing students from schools throughout Greater Hazleton to fill the position.
The Poet Laureate has been recreated to help foster an appreciation for the humanities in the Hazleton area with the hope that students can get involved with various art-based organizations to exhibit their work.
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