Education Matters: Students receive Elks scholarships

Justin Buettner, of Belleville, is one of 22 students in Illinois to receive the National Foundation Most Valuable Student Scholarship. It is the highest award the local Elks can provide. Justin will attend the University of Notre Dame and plans to major in engineering.

Justin was one of 17 metro-east students to take home a combined $25,000 in scholarships after a ceremony June 18.

The Illinois Elks Association awarded 12 scholarships to students majoring in physical or occupational therapy. They were: Jacqueline Bassler, Natalie Gass, Nicole Jenks, Nicole Kaltwasser, Katelyn Kidd and Megan Seibel, all of Belleville; Bradley Morr, Kristin Rein and Amanda Rzepczynski, all of Columbia; Alyssa Pellmann, of Millstadt; Sarah Kuester, of Freeburg; and Hana Michael, of Collinsville

The Belleville Lodge Anton Schmid Legacy Scholarship winners were: Abigail Irwin, Laura Kern, Taylor Vollmer, and Madeline Wiegers.

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The Jazz St. Louis All-Stars, a group of 57 students from around the greater St. Louis area, will include two from Belleville this fall.

Chase Carpenter, a trombone player at Belleville East, and Miles BH Wadlington, a bass player at Belleville West, will be members of the small jazz combos that meet as part of JazzU.

JazzU is part of the educational programming offered by Jazz St. Louis; it combines middle and high school musicians in small jazz combos that meet weekly between September and May. Find out more at http://www.jazzstl.org/. It’s a competitive program, and the students are taught by professional musicians and educators, including a permanent artist in residence.

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Sikorsky Aircraft is looking for a few good helicopter designs by children ages 9 to 16. The annual contest is in its fifth year.

The competition runs through Oct. 15, and the winner would receive the Igor Sikorsky Youth Innovator Award and a $1,000 scholarship and be flown to Sikorsky’s headquarters in Connecticut to tour the Black Hawk and Seahawk assembly plant, and to meet with rotocraft engineers.

For more information on the contest to create an eco-friendly helicopter that would address challenges in the year 2050, go to www.helicopter2050.com.

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Edwardsville Community Unit School District 7 is among the state’s districts in the running for grants of $10,000 and $25,000 from America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education grant.

Carrollton Community Unit School District and Greenfield Community District 10 are also finalists.

According to a news release, a panel of math and science educators reviewed the applications submitted by districts for a specific project to enhance curriculum in their district. Districts first had to be nominated by local farmers to apply for the Grow Rural Education grants.

Grow Rural Education is a community outreach program by Monsanto.

Last year, Grow Rural Education invested $170,000 in public school districts across Illinois to improve math and science programs. Since 2011, Illinois school districts have received $580,000 through the program, the release said.

“Making it to this stage of the process is a great accomplishment that requires a lot of time and effort,” said Michelle Insco, Monsanto Fund program officer. “There is still more to do before we announce our winning school districts, but this year’s finalists submitted impressive applications.”

Details about the applications were not available on the website at www.americasfarmers.com. But previous winning projects helped build greenhouses, outdoor learning environments and science lab equipment.

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Education Matters: Students receive Elks scholarships."