Congrats to Andrew Brake!
From The Trenton Times
Auto insurance company awards $20K scholarship
Friday, February 22, 2008
WEST WINDSOR -- A Wyncote, Pa., high school student was cho sen from 300 applicants to receive a $20,000 tuition scholarship from the New Jersey-based Citizen United Reciprocal Exchange auto insurance company that has offices in the township.
Andrew "Jordy" Freed of Cheltenham High School is the third recipient of the "Pay It Forward" Scholarship, which is based on the 2000 movie of the same name and promotes contributions to society for no personal gain.
The four other finalists were Andrew Brake of Morrisville High School; David Karas of Notre Dame High School in Lawrence; Joshua Suslak from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South and Kimberly Critelli from The College of New Jersey in Ewing.
Each of the five finalists will receive a plaque and $1,000 from CURE for textbooks as well as other gifts.
Freed focused his winning essay on organizing benefit concerts that raise money for charitable organizations such as tsunami relief.
Friday, February 22, 2008
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3 comments:
I suppose this is an example of those failing Morrisville kids. Where are the deniers when these good things happen? And if they paid more attention, they'd see they happen more often than not. It's just that when something bad happens, they milk it for all they can. Go Morrisville!! Go Bulldogs!!
Congratulations! It's good to hear good news every now & then!
On a different topic, I saw the interesting article below in today's Phila. Inquirer about a newly opened public Middle School in Radnor, PA and a soon-to-open private school in Haverford, PA that are LEED-certified. The Radnor school serves 1,000 students (about the same as a Morrisville K-12 would), and is ~195,000 square feet (about 20% more square footage than the dead Morrisville K-12's 160-165,000 ft2).
Even with 20% more square footage, a wealthy Main-Line community, a vegetated roof, terrazzo floors, recycled glass, and a geothermal heating system, I saw in another link that the construction cost was $37.9 million. So why is it so hard to believe that the Morrisville K-12 could NEVER have been built for $30 million, especially when the Morrisville construction bids came in pretty much right on target with estimates?
ARTICLE STARTS HERE:
Two institutions are living laboratories of environmentalism. The school building is a teacher
By Joe Cox
Last September, the new Radnor Middle School opened its doors to nearly 1,000 students. With its vegetated roof, terrazzo floor with recycled glass, and geothermal heating system, the 194,822-square-foot building represented a bold decision by the school district. The school was one of only 55 K-12 schools in the country that could claim certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
What this means for kids is a healthier and more efficient learning environment. What this means for teachers and their curriculum is that the building itself becomes a partner in the learning. For taxpayers, it means they will save money on long-term sustainability costs and that they are making a difference in reducing man-made carbon emissions linked to global warming.
Under the auspices of the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit organization committed to expanding sustainable building practices, construction projects are granted LEED certification - an accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. The Green Building Council is composed of more than 12,000 organizations from across the building industry that are working to advance structures that are environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work.
It is impossible for any building to be carbon neutral, but LEED promotes a whole-building approach to environmental sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.
Three years ago, The Haverford School, where I am headmaster, made the decision that human and environmental health factors were worth the extra cost and more detailed planning needed to achieve a LEED certification. The new Upper School will open next September and serve more than 380 students in grades nine through 12. The total cost of the building will be $42 million, money being raised in a capital campaign supported by alumni and parents. The extra cost of LEED Gold certification will be about $800,000, money already raised to meet a $100,000 challenge grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation. No tuition or tax dollars will go into the funding of Haverford's new Upper School.
When examined systematically, school officials concluded that LEED certification was indeed worth the cost, and with some careful planning, they would be able to secure Gold certification, the second from the highest certification category granted. To achieve this Gold certification, the school's construction waste is diverted from landfills; construction materials are secured locally; recycled and rapidly renewable materials are used throughout; rainwater is the non-potable water source, and overall energy consumption is reduced by 30 percent annually.
Although some of the more extrinsic green details such as grass roofs and geothermal heating systems were not installed, attention was paid to storm-water runoff, parking for multi-fueled automobiles, natural lighting, and overall environmental efficiency. Like Thomas Jefferson's pavilions at the University of Virginia, the new Upper School will not only provide space for teaching but also teach. From the first day they occupy the building, students will monitor its daily environmental performance through specially installed measuring devises. Our science and engineering faculty is eager to make the new building a part of their 21st-century curriculum.
When questioned about the extra expense incurred in building a Gold Certified LEED Upper School, educators at The Haverford School answer that it is worth the cost to educate future leaders about their social responsibility to pursue an environmentally friendly and energy-conscious environment. Environmental ethics concern themselves with the global concerns of humanity's relationship to the environment, its understanding of and responsibility to nature, and its obligations to leave some of nature's resources to posterity. The faculty argues eloquently that an environmentally friendly building will not only provide a cleaner and safer learning environment, but also it will be more cost effective, pay for itself over its lifetime, and will promote unique environmental learning opportunities and lessons in civic and global consciousness.
The new Radnor Middle School and the soon-to-be-completed Haverford Upper School will provide immediate and measurable results for building owners and occupants, but they are especially important as living laboratories of environmental responsibility. Learning in a green school may prove instructive to the students who will be left to face the consequences and find the solutions to future environmental concerns.
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Joe Cox is headmaster of the Haverford School, a private boys' school in Lower Merion.
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20080222_Two_institutions_are_living_laboratories_of_environmentalism__The_school_building_is_a_teacher.html
Good article, thanks Jon.
Congratulations Andrew Brake.
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