Issaquah teacher wins new physics award
November 2, 2010
Issaquah High School students are not the only ones who hold physics teacher Tom Haff in their high esteem. The Washington chapter of the American Association of Physics Teachers awarded Haff with an Outstanding High School Teacher Award Oct. 9 at its state meeting.
This is the first time the chapter has given the award, and it will now be called the Tom Haff award, in honor of its first recipient.
Issaquah High School physics teacher Tom Haff holds the first Outstanding High School Teacher Award given by the American Association of Physics Teachers. Issaquah School District Executive Director of Secondary Education Patrick Murphy (left) and Associate Superintendent Ron Thiele (right) honored Haff in his classroom. By Sara Niegowski
“I was really overwhelmed by it,” Haff said. “It’s nice to be able to be recognized by your colleagues.”
Haff, a native New Yorker, has studied physics since his undergraduate years at the University of Washington. In his 35 years as an educator, he worked at Bishop Blanchet High School and Everett High School before he came to Issaquah High School in 1996.
Even as a teacher, Haff continues to take classes at universities. In 1988, he did the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship at Princeton University and in 1990-91, he spent the school year in Japan, representing Washington for the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Independent streak defines Eastside voters
October 26, 2010
The sprint — or slog — to Election Day has a familiar storyline: The angry electorate is poised to rebuke Democrats for a far-reaching agenda and choose a roster of penny-pinching Republicans to slash spending.
The reality is more nuanced — and more complicated.
“There’s always talk about the angry voter and how everybody’s really mad and they’ve got their torches and pitchforks out,” Seattle independent pollster Stuart Elway said. “We’re really not seeing that here, at least statewide.”
Eastside residents from Newcastle to North Bend exhibited different shades of the national mood — in the form of fired-up Republicans and dispirited Democrats — but experts said the local electorate could not be pigeonholed. Read more
Students learn the simple things while volunteering in Indonesia
September 14, 2010
Tia Strombeck, Chrissy Hughes, Hannah Sherwood and Bria Dawkins (from left, with two children) wear traditional Malayo outfits during a farewell ceremony in Bulung, at the end of a volunteer mission to Indonesia.
The world recently got a lot larger for two Seattle Pacific University juniors.
Issaquah residents Hannah Sherwood and Chrissy Hughes recently returned from a volunteer mission to Indonesia, where they helped with community projects as locals prepared for Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting.
“I wanted to give back,” Hughes said. “The motto at SPU is ‘engaging the culture and changing the world,’ so I wanted to do that on a big scale.” Read more
Former college runners set records
August 10, 2010
Brett Withers, a former Gonzaga University runner, and Edward Strickler, a former Seattle Pacific University, runner set course records Aug. 7 at the Grand Ridge Trail Run at Issaquah’s Grand Ridge Park.
Withers, a Woodinville High School graduate, took first place in the 5-mile run in a course-record time of 35 minutes, 58 seconds. Karen Demgimi, who was the first-place woman, set a new mark for women with a time of 45:43.
Strickler, a Seattle resident, set a new mark in the half-marathon with a time of 1:42:30. Rebecca Buchanan, who finished third overall and was the first-place woman, set a record for women with a time of 1:44:28.
Kyle McCoy won the 50K race with a course-record time of 5:03:46. Sarah Crosby-Helms was first for the women with a record time of 5:48:50.
College News
July 27, 2010
Local student participates in national leadership program
Jay Chakravarty, a senior at Liberty High School, has been selected to participate in the Economics for Leaders program at the University of Washington from July 18-25.
Chakravarty is one of 32 students from the country to be honored by being accepted into the Foundation for Teaching Economics’ Seattle program. All of the students have been selected because they have demonstrated excellent leadership potential.
Local students make Pepperdine dean’s list
Sarah Goodman, of Issaquah, and Emily Chu and Kathryn Malone, of Sammamish, were recently named to the Seaver College dean’s list for the 2010 spring semester at Pepperdine University. To qualify, students must be in the upper 10 percent of their class and maintain a 3.5 or better grade point average.
A great deal of effort and teamwork
June 22, 2010
By Olivia Spokoiny
Our teen page seeks to highlight a vast variety of students in Issaquah using the underappreciated art of journalism. It truly is an art, and writing for The Beat has made me realize that a great deal of effort and teamwork is required for a successful team of journalists.
Motivated by The Beat’s vision, I volunteered to be one of three staff members to participate in the Social Venture Plan Showcase at Seattle Pacific University. Our team designed a 10-page business plan and spent three hours at SPU discussing The Beat’s vision to have a social impact on students in our community by producing a page “by teens, for teens.”
Many of the teams of SPU students had years more experience than we did, and they could probably do a convincing showcase of their project in their sleep. For us, however, it was a much more difficult task. We were faced with questions from adults about how we expected to successfully reach out to teens and keep our page running on grants rather than using advertisements.
I had never put thought into these things before, but I am confident that the feedback we received that day will help us improve our page for the future. The three of us displayed extreme enthusiasm in The Beat, and we left the competition with $250. I am glad to have been part of the SPU Showcase, as it opened my eyes to the amount of effort that is necessary to ensure that “The Beat goes on.”
College News
May 18, 2010
Local students graduate from WWU
The following students are graduating from Western Washington University’s winter 2010 quarter. Read more
College News
March 13, 2010
Local students make SPU dean’s list Read more
College News
August 18, 2009
Sammamish student graduates from WSU
Sarah Ducharme, of Sammamish, graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in communication, with an emphasis in public relations and a second major in sociology. Read more
Liberty grad follows family legacy to USC film school
June 30, 2009
Alex Bell, a Liberty High School graduate, works on a home movie project from his laptop, a skill that helped get him accepted to the University of Southern California film school. Contributed
Maybe it’s in the genes.
Alex Bell, 18, of Newcastle, a 2009 Liberty High School graduate, is one of only 20 incoming freshman accepted into the film school at the University of Southern California.
About 1,200 high school students applied to study at the same school that produced George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Gene Fowler Jr.
Though not as well known as Lucas and Spielberg, Fowler Jr. was a prolific editor and director of film and television. His efforts won him a Golden Globe, four Emmys and an Oscar. He studied film editing at 20th Century Fox as a student at USC. Read more
