Surabhi Tewari, a junior at Lakota West High School, earned a top composite score of 36 on the ACT test. Nationally, on average, less than one-tenth of one percent of students who take the ACT earn a top score. Among all test takers in the high school graduating class of 2012, only 781 of more than 1.66 million students earned a perfect score.
Lakota West junior Surabhi Tewari earned a perfect score on her ACT. Photo provided.
Tewari had a GPA of 4.9 after her first semester this school year. While she has not yet narrowed down her top choices for college, she is interested in pursuing a career in medicine or engineering. According to her mother, Jaya Tewari, she often talks about Washington University in St. Louis and has dreamed of going to Duke University since her freshman year.
“Surabhi is oftentimes recommended for scholarships, awards and leadership positions,” said Lakota West counselor Andrea Bryant. “The staff thinks very highly of her and she has certainly earned their respect, including my own.”
Tewari is co-president of Lakota West’s math team and is also involved in InterAlliance and Relay for Life. She was voted next year’s co-president of student government and spends much of her time volunteering as a peer mentor and tutor for students with special needs in the district.
The ACT consists of tests in English, mathematics, reading and science. Each test is scored on a scale of 1-36, and a student’s composite score is the average of the four test scores. Some students also take ACT’s optional writing test, but the score for that test is reported separately and is not included within the ACT composite score.
In photo, in front from left to right; Ryan Fisher, Frederick Tessier; back from left to right; John Trygier, Eric Ambrus, Alex Bunk, Nick Zhao, Alexandre Tessier and Isabelle Tessier. Photo provided.
A robotics team comprised of students from the Lakota, Loveland and Mason school districts placed third at the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics World Championship recently in St. Louis.
The top 128 robotics teams in the world qualified for the event, which was held at the Edward Jones Dome and drew teams from 35 states and 17 countries.
The local group, Team 4530 Infinite Resistance, consists of freshman Eric Ambrus, sophomore Isabelle Tessier, senior Alexandre Tessier, freshman John Trygier and freshman Ryan Fisher, all from Lakota West High School; Loveland sophomore Alex Bunk; Mason sophomore Nick Zhao; and Lakota Ridge eighth-grader Frederick Tessier.
The team has been invited to compete at the Asian Pacific International Open in Sydney, Australia, in July. The group decided Friday that they could afford the cost of the trip. To donate to the team, visit 4530robot.org.
Leading up to prom last Saturday, Lakota West High School did various activities to promote safety. One of those activities included a mock crash, where students acted out a fatal car crash that involved a drunk driver.
The scene included a dead student and others who were seriously injured.
“We want our students to understand that we care about them and the importance of being safe,” Lakota West principal Elgin Card said. “If the mock crash can make at least one student think before they make a possible life changing decision then it is well worth it.”
Tony Jones of The Cincinnati Enquirer was at Lakota West last Thursday to capture (photos above) the mock crash.
To let West Chester and Liberty Township residents catch up with the news that they need to know, WestChesterBuzz.com will list and link to all of last week’s top local stories every Monday.
WestChesterBuzz.com also recently added a new video page last week. To view West Chester and Liberty Township related videos, visit westchesterbuzz.com/videos.
Yosselin Villatoro beams at her eighth birthday party March 16. The year before, Yosselin’s family was preparing for her surgery at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Photo taken by Cara Owsley.
Yosselin Villatoro is a ‘survivor’ – Sue Kiesewetter again shared the story in The Cincinnati Enquirer of Yosselin Villatoro, who recently celebrated her eighth birthday. Villatoro was diagnosed just before Christmas in 2011 with osteosarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer that started in the femur of her left leg and spread to her lungs. Recently, she told her grandmother that she was a “cancer survivor.”
Butler County resists switching to full-time judges - Sheila McLaughlin reports for The Cincinnati Enquirer: Thomas Moyer, the late Ohio Supreme Court chief justice, tried for more than a decade to eliminate the use of part-time judges across the state. They more recently came under attack by Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser. He called one local judge “the fox in the hen house” and was instrumental in getting the judge kicked off of 10 drunken driving cases.
Punxsutawney Phil is off the hook – Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser has since changed his mind and dismissed the charge of “misrepresentation of early spring” against the groundhog. Gmoser said Phil is a scapegoat for the misinterpretation of his handler. Phil’s handler has “stepped up to the burrow to take full responsibility for misrepresenting said Defendant’s prediction of an early spring,” he said in the official looking dismissal document.
The Woodland 6th grade girls’ team won their 4th consecutive March Madness championship. Photo provided.
‘Lakota Style’ March Madness – Around 1,300 Lakota elementary students on 146 different teams helped raise more than $13,000 for local non-profits by participating in this month’s March Madness “Lakota Style” basketball tournament. Last year, the event raised $3,000.
AK Steel forecasts first quarter loss – AK Steel Holding Corp. said Friday it expects to post a net loss of between 9 cents and 13 cents per share in the first quarter. The West Chester Township-based parent of AK Steel said it is dealing with lower levels of steel shipments and below average spot market demand compared to the fourth quarter.
Lakota West grad Brigit Reder makes professional roster – Lakota West graduate and former Ball State soccer player Brigit Reder has recently made the preseason 25-person roster for the Western New York Flash of the National Women’s Soccer League. On the roster, Reder joins Abby Wambach and Caril Lloyd, both members of the U.S. Women’s National Team.
A recent choral performance by four southwest Ohio youth groups raised about $9,100 for the Alzheimer’s Association of Cincinnati.
Lakota West’s choir director Anthony Nims. Photo provided.
Founded three years ago by Bret Albright, choral director at Taylor High School, and Anthony Nims, Lakota West choral director, this year’s Sing For A Cause featured more than 150 singers and 100 instrumentalists.
Shows were held March 23-24 at the College of Mount St. Joseph and included performances by both schools’ choral groups along with the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra and the May Festival Youth Chorus. The program was conducted by William White, director of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra.
All groups joined together to perform the Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Dong Nobis Pacem. Professional soloists Amita Prakash and Brandon Morales joined in the show.
“The spectacle of 250 high school students on stage performing together was something to behold,’’ Nims said.
Tammy Randall burst into tears when her granddaughter said the four words she’s waited months to hear.
“I’m a cancer survivor,” Yosselin Villatoro told her grandmother one day after school this month.
“I stood there and cried,” said Randall, who has custody of Yosselin and her 6-year-old brother Freddy.
“With all she’s been through and struggled with – to finally have her say that, well, all I can say is I’ve been waiting a long time to hear those words.”
Yosselin Villatoro beams at her eighth birthday party March 16. The year before, Yosselin’s family was preparing for her surgery at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Photo taken by Cara Owsley.
Fifteen months ago, just before Christmas 2011, Tammy and her husband, Keith, got the devastating news that their then-6-year-old granddaughter had osteosarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer that started in the femur of her left leg and spread to her lungs.
Since then, Yosselin has undergone four surgeries – including one to remove 8 inches of her femur, replacing it with an expandable metal rod – to remove the cancer. Another operation is scheduled June 14 to lengthen the rod since Yosselin has grown 2.5 inches in the last year.
In December, doctors gave the Randalls the news they had been praying for since the ordeal began: Yosselin was in remission and if her now quarterly tests remain the same – her next scan will be done in June – she will be declared cancer free in five years.
“I told Yosselin, but I don’t think she really believed it until she said those words after she did a school report on Sally Ride,” Randall said. “Even though Sally died of cancer (in July), Yosselin recognized she had survived cancer.”
(Ride, a physicist, in 1983 became the first American woman astronaut to orbit the earth.)
“It’s breathtaking just to watch her grow into a beautiful young lady,” Randall said with tears in her eyes.
“She had her first sleepover at a friend’s house, and I was a nervous wreck. It was the first time she’s been away since the diagnosis.… It went well.”
Yosselin is now going to school most days, and the family is settling into a routine that doesn’t involve constant doctors’ visits and runs to the hospital every time Yosselin gets a cold or fever.
She still tires easily and frequently takes a nap after school. Her immune system is getting stronger, but, when she does get sick, it takes longer to recover and the illness tends to be more severe than before the cancer diagnosis.
Physical therapy that Yosselin is undergoing has strengthened her leg enough that she bears full weight on it. Yosselin uses her walker at Cherokee Elementary – where she is a second-grader – only as a safety precaution as her leg strengthens.
Classmate Savannah Evans is glad Yosselin is back in the classroom full time.
“My favorite part is spending time with her,” Savannah said. “She’s the kindest person in the whole world.”
Yosselin likes physical education and art classes and was excited to help her team win a race.
“In gym class I get to run and exercise my leg and that’s good,’’ Yosselin said. “We did a one-legged relay race – you gotta take big hops – and we had teams and my team won because of me. I’m the fastest hopper.”
For her eighth birthday, Yosselin invited her entire class, along with family and friends, to a birthday party that featured a live Candyland game set up in the family’s basement. It was quite different from her seventh birthday when there was no party as the family prepared for surgery to insert the rod into Yosselin’s leg.
For five weeks before the party Randall worked on re-creating the Candyland game board complete with Chocolate Mountain, Lollipop Woods, Snowflake Lake, Peanut Acres, King Candy and Peppermint Forest.
More than two dozen children turned out.
“I’m lucky, very, very, very lucky to have a birthday party with this many people,” Yosselin said.
All nine Lakota East and West high school choral groups have been invited to the Ohio Music Education Association’s statewide large group state competition.
Lakota West’s choir director Anthony Nims. Photo provided.
That’s after the choral groups made district history – all large group choirs received superior OMEA ratings in a year.
The groups qualified for state competition April 26-27 at Lebanon Junior High School after earning the superior ratings at District 12 and 13 OMEA competitions held the weekends of March 9 and 16.
Four West and two East will go to Lebanon to compete, choral directors said.
To earn those ratings each group had to perform three rehearsed songs and then received a fourth piece that neither the students nor director had seen before. They had four minutes to review the unknown piece before performing it twice before a panel of judges.
Those groups earning the superior rating from Lakota East are: Eastside Voices, Men’s Ensemble, Women’s Ensemble Black, Women’s Ensemble Silver and Women’s Freshman Ensemble.
Both the Women’s Ensemble Black and the Women’s Freshman Choir plan to compete at Lebanon.
“I am so proud of the work my students have accomplished both in and out of the classroom,’’ said Becky Huddilston, Lakota East choir director.
“With so many difficult issues facing our students, these select students have moved mountains to make music a part of their school day and to be successful and accomplished in that choice.”
Lakota West groups receiving superior ratings in the large group category include Women’s Chorus, Chorale, Men’s Chorus and Freshman Chorus.
“Even in the face of the many challenges we’ve struggled with this year, out students’ dedication and passion have enabled us to continue the tradition of musical excellence at Lakota,’’ said Anthony Nims, Lakota West’s choir director.
Nims said all of his large choral groups – Women’s Chorus, Chorale, Men’s Chorus and Freshman Chorus – that qualified would compete in Lebanon.
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All weekend
Spring musical - “Alice in Wonderland” will be performed by 7-8 graders at Plains Junior School in Liberty Township this weekend. Shows will take place in the Plains Junior auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Friday, 3 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Pre-sale tickets are $10 for preferred seating and $6 for general seating. All tickets are $10 at the door.
Friday
See a local band – The Gamut will be performing from 9:30 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. at the Win, Place or Show located at 9933 Cincinnati-Columbus Road in West Chester. The Gamut plays rock and roll music from the 1970′s to the present. On its website, it says that it performs music made famous by Journey, Boston, Heart, Duffy, Aerosmith, Benatar, AC/DC, Guns & Roses, Bon Jovi, Goo Goo Dolls, Jimmy Eat World, Poison and more.
Saturday
Mother’s Exchange Sale at Lakota West – The Mother’s Exchange Fall Sale and Vendor Event will take place this Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon at Lakota West High School. Approximately 100 local moms will be selling their gently used children’s clothing, furniture, equipment, toys, books, sports equipment, computer and video games, nursery items, maternity and more. Admission into the event costs $1. All sales are cash only.
Explore the VOA Museum – Currently, the unfinished museum off Tylersville Road has been open from 1 to 4 p.m. on the third Saturday of each month since July of 2012. It will be open, again, this Saturday during that same time. As of right now, it consists of exhibits featuring the old relay station; Media Heritage’s Greater Cincinnati Museum of Broadcast History; the Gray History of Wireless Museum; and the West Chester Amateur Radio Association control room. For updates and information on the museum, visit westchesterbuzz.com/tag/voa-museum.
Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at West Chester’s Irish Pub – The Dingle House Irish Pub located on Centre Pointe Drive, which is between Union Centre Blvd. and West Chester Road in the heart of West Chester, is having a two-day St. Patrick’s Day celebration. There will be an Irish breakfast from 9 a.m. to noon and Caledonian pipes and drums, plus McGing Irish dancers both Saturday and Sunday.
St. Patty’s party at wine bar – Bella Vino Wine Merchants and Bar, 6064 West Chester Road, is having a St. Patrick’s Day party. Deals include $3 pints of Guinness, Harp, Smithwick’s and Magners, as well as $5 appetizers all day. At 7:30 p.m., there will be music performed by Steve Raszka.
Free ice cream – Bruster’s, 8770 Union Centre Blvd., in West Chester is giving away a free small waffle cone for wearing your PJs. The deal, which will go from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. works for those walking up and for those using the drive-thru window. Bruster’s will also be giving out free doggie sundaes.
Sunday
Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at pub – The Dingle House Irish Pub (see Saturday) will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day again. On both Saturday and Sunday the pub will feature live music. For more information, call 513-874-7468.
The Mother’s Exchange Fall Sale and Vendor Event will take place this Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon at Lakota West High School.
Approximately 100 local moms will be selling their gently used children’s clothing (sizes infant through teen), furniture, equipment, toys (Little Tikes, Fisher Price, Step 2, Barbie), books, sports equipment, computer and video games, nursery items, maternity and more.
Admission into the event costs $1. All sales are cash only.
It is recommend to bring a laundry basket for easier shopping.
The event will also feature the following vendors: Baked by Brittany, The Daisy Chain, Pampered Chef, Tastefully Simple, Sidney Bean’s Bows, Tupperware, Wildtree, 31 Gifts, Scentsy, Mary Kay, Darlene’s Hats and Gifts, Cincy Cake and Crumbles, Self Reliance, Storybook Moments Photography, It Works!, Clever Container, Toyouloveme Boutique, Origami Owl, Lia Sophia, and Usborne Books.
The Mother’s Exchange Fall Sale and Vendor Event will take place Saturday, March 16 from 8 a.m. to noon at Lakota West High School.
Approximately 100 local moms will be selling their gently used children’s clothing (sizes infant through teen), furniture, equipment, toys (Little Tikes, Fisher Price, Step 2, Barbie), books, sports equipment, computer and video games, nursery items, maternity and more.
Admission into the event costs $1. All sales are cash only.
It is recommend to bring a laundry basket for easier shopping.
The event will also feature the following vendors: Baked by Brittany, The Daisy Chain, Pampered Chef, Tastefully Simple, Sidney Bean’s Bows, Tupperware, Wildtree, 31 Gifts, Scentsy, Mary Kay, Darlene’s Hats and Gifts, Cincy Cake and Crumbles, Self Reliance, Storybook Moments Photography, It Works!, Clever Container, Toyouloveme Boutique, Origami Owl, Lia Sophia, and Usborne Books.
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