Lower School Assembly – May 3, 2019
May 3, 2019 – Assembly
Presented by Head of Lower School, Mrs. Anita Fine. Our assembly today is devoted to student recognition. View pictures of the assembly.
Pledge – Rogan Hearn (1st grade)
Character Trait for May – Courage
I have invited senior Valentina Galliano to speak about courage. At the age of 13 Valentina moved 2000 miles from her home in Mexico City to St. Petersburg to attend Farragut. Now this is the definition of “courage”.
National Junior Honor Society: Yesterday was our ceremony for new inductees into the National Junior Honor Society. Qualifications for membership is not only based on being a 6th-9th grader, but also on the five pillars of NJHS: scholarship, service, character, citizenship, and leadership.
New Inductees in 6th Grade:
- Ethan Adolfsson
- Hazel Alevok
- Jacob Arias
- Myles Bonilla
- Jacob Bush
- Noah Carnevale-Pilc
- Ethan Creadon
- Brennen Cornish
- Cedric Fisher
- Saige Jeffers
- Allister Nasr
- Cole Raymer
- Isabella Reynolds
- Zachary Rice
- Kelis Sims
- Hannah Singleton
- Jenna Sorensen
- Zachary Vaughn
- Alexandra Wallace
New Inductees in 7th Grade:
- Christopher Chan
- Tekoyia Cheedy
- Christopher DeMaio
- Logan Martin
- Jacob Robertson
- William Seeley
- Lillian VanArsdale
Current 7th Grade members:
- Sophia Bourque
- Traveler Cornish
- Sophie Deitche
- Aiden Geis
- Amelia Kirtland
- Julia LoRusso
- Codi Rano
- Sophia Raymer
- Hans Renlund
- Lars Renlund
- Grace Vernine
Safety Patrol- I want to thank our patrols for their hard work and dedication keeping students safe this school year. You did an awesome job. The following students are ranking up today. Mrs. Reynolds and Mrs. Genzel will be giving you your certificates and badges this afternoon at pick up. Hannah Singleton promoted to Captain, Sienna Menchaca, Lilly VanArsdale, Sophia Preston and Sumayah Lewis-McIntosh are all promoted to Sergeant. We also want to thank our current patrols Captains: Sophie Deitche, Julia LoRusso, Sophia Bourque, Luci Passarelli and Bella Reynolds. Sergeants: Leah VanArsdale, Katie Lynch and Alexandra Wallace and Patrol: Carson Covington Please give them a round of applause.
If you are an entering 4th, 5th or 6th grader and would like to apply for safety patrol for next year you can get an application in the Lower School Office. Applications are due next Friday, May 10th and training begins May 13th.
Turtle Project – 7th Graders Sophia Raymer, Hans Renlund, and Lars Renlund successfully participated in this year’s Regional Ocean Conference for Students at the Florida Aquarium. The title of this year’s conference was “Teens for Turtles” and as you may have guessed, it was all about turtles and how students could get involved in turtle conservation. Hans, Lars, and Sophia participated in an all-day student conference, giving up one of their Saturdays back in December to be a part of this project. They also worked after school, and at home. They created a heavy duty sign about turtles, participated in a trash cleanup, and created some other informative props to teach people about turtle conservation. Their core value was “Conservation through Education” and last week they presented this idea, themselves, and their project in front of peers from other schools, aquarium staff, and guests at the Florida Aquarium. We are very proud of their hard work! If you want to see their sign, it is currently housed in Mr. Sadler’s science room. Great job guys!
Battle of the Books team – Sophia Preston, Carlos Bonilla, Peter Vaughn, Chris Giblin, and Polina Creadon did an amazing job preparing for the Battle of the Books. They had a strong 4th place finish this week at the Battle of the Books competition.
I have seen a few of you who are picked up at the car circle to go to swim practice for the Treasure Island Swim Team. Can I have Bailey Reynolds, Jordan Merryman, Logan Kip, Sophia Preston, and Sophia Raymer stand? I expect to see all of you on the Farragut swim team when you are old enough.
Girls on the Run- Leila Bakken, Rylie Costello, Simay Dykes, Nour Fackih, Jana Fackih, Dana Oberman, Bailey Reynolds, Jenna Robertson, Julia Sorensen, Ellie Stone, Leah VanArsdale and Erika Watts have been training hard with coaches Ms. Van Curen & Mrs. Reynolds for a couple of months now and have also been working on a community service project of making cards for the sick children at All Children’s Hospital. Tomorrow is their big 5K race in downtown St. Petersburg. Good luck girls!
Student Council – Gardy Raymond- Kindergarten, Rogan Hearn – 1st grade, Max Salebra – 2nd grade, Braylee Rano –3rd grade, Benjamin Deskovich – 4th grade, Carson Covington & Sophia Preston – 5th grade, Hannah Singleton & Cole Raymer – 6th grade, Traveler Cornish, Grace Vernine, & Sophia Raymer – 7th grade.
We want to thank Student Council for an excellent job this school year with the many community service projects they did.
Their projects included:
- Hungry Heroes where they collected canned goods for St. Mary’s Food Bank
- Toys For Tots
- Operation Generosity in which they had the students write letters to the armed forces overseas
- In kindergarten -7th-grade students made cards for the elderly and Mrs. Reynolds delivered them to Westminster Assisted Living and Healthcare Facility in Bradenton.
- This Tuesday after school, student council members will be putting together individual snack bags for “Pack-A-Snack”, which is for elementary age children in our public schools who face chronic hunger.
For all of their hard work this year I hear they are getting a surprise lunch field trip on May 16th. Great job, Student Council.
Beach Clean-Up: Admiral Farragut Academy held their Annual Earth Day Cleanup at Clam Bayou on April 13th. Can the following students that attended please stand: Johanna Dennis, Ryan Spann, Sophie Deitche, Aiden Geis, Julia LoRusso, Sophia Bourque, Lily Van Arsdale, Leah VanArsdale, Bella Reynolds, Bailey Reynolds, Bianca Reynolds, Hans Renlund, and Lars Renlund. This event was sponsored by the Science Department, Parent’s Group and USF-St. Pete Marine Science Program. Over 60 student and parent volunteers from Admiral Farragut Academy picked up trash, filling a 300-gallon can full of plastic, styrofoam, wood, glass and cigarette butts, among other debris. They also cleaned out dead and dying wood and palm tree fronds and planted over 200 mangrove seedlings. All this was completed in less than 2 hours! Thank you for your help in filling the 300-gallon can with trash.
St. Pete Dragon’s players:
5th Graders: Pete Vaughn, Carson Covington
4th Graders: Trey Ulevich, Logan Kip
2nd Graders: Ari Fatseas, Max Salebra, David Vaughn
They had a winning lacrosse season and I am hoping they are future AFA varsity lacrosse players one day.
PreK:
Teddy Paget started Karate this year and has earned his orange and yellow belt.
Bianca Reynolds started gymnastics a few months ago and has already been moved up to the next level going from Twilight Tumbler to Mighty Meteorite (stage 2).
1st Grade:
This year Rogan Hearn continued to take his golfing career to the next level by touring with US Kids Golf; competing in over 20 tournaments both locally and nationally. This summer he will travel throughout the country until he eventually makes his way to Pinehurst, North Carolina. There he will join children from all over the world to compete in the US Kids Golf World Championship. Last year Rogan placed in the top 50. This year he says he plans on making it in the top 20!
2nd Grade:
Jackson Bevins earned his Blue Belt in Mixed Martial Arts in March. He worked really hard to achieve this goal.
Jacob Cuesta became a TaeKwonDo black belt in first grade. At the beginning of this school year, he trained for and began participating in district and state level TaeKwonDo competitions, especially Olympic Sparring. Throughout the school year, he competed in numerous tournaments and is the 2019 USAT State Champion in his weight class for the states of Florida and Maryland and silver medalist for the State of New York. Last weekend, Jacob became the 2019 AAU Florida State Champion for his age/weight class in both Poomsae and Olympic Sparring. Presently his national ranking is #1, in the 8-9-year-old male, Black Belt, Lightweight Division by USAT, which is the governing body for TaeKwonDo for the U.S. Olympic Committee. Jacob has qualified to compete in the U.S. National Championship and the Junior Olympics this summer.
Carlos and Cassie Bonilla performed at the Spring Showcase where more than 20 children competed and they both received top scores in their divisions. They danced Viennese Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Jive, Cha Cha and many more. Maren Lewis also performed at this showcase and did quite well.
Olivia Love was the only 7-year old invited to play in the GYSA U10 soccer tournament in February. Olivia scored the winning goal in the last three seconds in one of the games and the tying goal in another game. Currently, she is the only 7-year-old on her U10 team and is the leading goal scorer. She has been asked to try out for U11 competitive team.
3rd Grade:
Luka Vaughn was 1st in Junior Club Golf Championship for his age group at the Vinoy.
4th Grade:
Steven Miller took first place this past Saturday in the Anderson Race Park Spring/Summer Club Race in Tag Mini Go Karts.
Jacob Singleton-This past year Jacob competed for the Pinellas County United Tropics U10 soccer team and played ice hockey in the Squirt Rec League at the Brandon Ice Sports Forum. Jacob just completed his competitive soccer season over the past weekend, playing in the Sarasota Cup. Jacob won the most improved player award for his team. In hockey, Jacob was named player of the game three times during this hockey season.
5th Grade:
Katie Lynch and Sophia Preston – Both girls ran in the Race for the Cupcake 5k. They had an impressive run and crossed the finish line together. They placed first and second in their age group.
Sophia Preston also ran the Disney Star Wars 5k in April.
Christopher Giblin was the starting Goalie for his Competitive PCU Soccer Team in both the Bradenton Cup and Sarasota Cup u11 Championship Finals.
Niko Panuthos Niko was on the Largo Celtic Soccer Club’s competitive 11U team for the 2018-19 season. During the season, Niko scored 7 goals and 11 assists. He was selected to play for the Largo Celtic’s in the Disney Boys Soccer Showcase that was held in December, as well as, the “Best of the Bay” in March, in which they won the 11 U tournament. He also played baseball for Madeira Beach Youth Baseball and Softball Cal Ripken Minor league (12U). He played catcher during the regular season and was selected to play for Madeira Beach’s Advanced Baseball 12U team. Niko’s batting average was .450, with 12 stolen bases. At catcher, Niko caught the tournament’s only perfect game not allowing one runner to advance. He also had a batting average of .500 with 4 stolen bases during the tournament.
6th Grade:
Asher Mozombite played competitive soccer for the Largo Celtic Soccer Club U12 team. His main position was striker. His team competed and won in the Best of the Bay soccer tournament on March 30-31. What was remarkable about them winning was not only were they playing up a year, playing U13 as a U12 team; but also they played on the larger field that the other teams had played on all year. They won with penalty kicks going 7 deep in the end. They also came in second out of 16 teams in the Sarasota Cup this past weekend.
Brennen Cornish and Jacob Arias competed on the Pinellas County United Tropics competitive soccer team. Brennen was promoted to A team and played center attacking midfield. Jacob played right wing and striker.
Zachary Vaughn placed 3rd in the Junior Club Golf Championship for his Age Group at the Vinoy.
Jacob Arias – After competing in the Tae Kwon Do AAU state qualifying tournament last weekend, Jacob was awarded the AAU Tae Kwon Do State Champion in forms and Olympic sparring in his division. He will be competing at the national level in July.
Kelis Sims was the winner of this year’s AFA Speech Contest and AFA Spelling Bee. She was accepted into National Junior Honor Society. She received a medal for 2nd Place 400m dash in AAU Clearwater track meet.
Several 6th and 7th graders are competing this spring on the Azalea Team Fusion Club Kids Sports recreational league, Cedric Fisher plays full back, Brennen Cornish plays center attacking mid, Asher Mozombite plays center striker, Cole Raymer plays right attacking mid and Traveler Cornish plays center defending mid. They are coached by Brennen and Traveler’s Dad, Michael Cornish.
7th Grade:
Elise Graham is on the Farragut Middle School and Varsity Track Team. She has won several awards this year competing in Middle and Varsity Track Meets. Elise competed in the Class 1A Regional Track Meet and won 2nd place in the 4×400 Relay race. Elise and several other Varsity Track athletes will be competing at the FHSAA Outdoor State Finals on May 3rd & 4th.
Logan Martin worked hard to make the Upper School tennis team.
Sophia Raymer completed her 2nd triathlon this past weekend. She got 9th place in her age division in the Meek and Mighty Triathlon
