Discovery students, sponsors compile honors during spring semester

MADISON – Now that school’s out for summer, students and sponsors at Discovery Middle School can reflect on awards and honors that they compiled during spring semester.

The Destination Imagination or DI team excelled at the state level. Students Scarlett Calloway and Abby Wilson earned the state title in the Fine Arts category. Candi Rose serves as DI teacher sponsor. (madisoncity. k12.al.us/Page/690) Destination Imagination, a widely accepted creative problem-solving program, focuses on teaching methods to solve team-based, interdisciplinary challenges. Adults do not intervene.

Discovery has had DI teams since 1999. In the study of visual arts, student Kennedy Craft earned first-place honors in the Junior Division for drawing in the Alabama Visual Arts contest. Lauren Nalty teaches art at Discovery.

In Scholar’s Bowl match-ups, Discovery students Emilia Ng, Matthew Ng, Sriram Rani, Katherine Milonopoulos and Nora Gottlieb placed second at the state level at Wallace State Community College on March 7 in this comprehensive contest. Emilia Ng was awarded first place for the All-Tournament Team at state-level testing.

The sixth-grade team, along with the seventh- and eighth-grade team, qualified for national competition in Scholar’s Bowl. The seventh- and eighth-grade team placed fifth at the state contest for Division I at Hoover High School. Team members are Cindy Halter, Ahsan Sohel, Elise Datcu-Charrault, Vedanth Siva and Paul Allison.

Cindy Halter earned sixth place for Division I’s All-Tournament Team at the state meet. Kristina Dea sponsors Scholar’s Bowl at Discovery.

In addition, students in the Advancement Via Individual Determination or AVID program are preparing in academics for admission to a four-year college or university. Students take an AVID elective course throughout middle school and high school that provides needed skills for success with the ultimate goal of attending college.

Student Bella Chilufya, an eighth-grade AVID student, plans to attend the University of Florida and major in biology. She aspires to work as a pediatric orthodontist. Also an eighth-grader in AVID, Autumn Barker plans to attend Ringling College of Art and Design and major in fine arts to train to become a visual artist. Teacher sponsors are Karly Beavers and Kelsey Cooper.