Essex, Missouri - The Richland junior high and high school students have been busy working on their History Day projects for the last couple of weeks but there is a slight delay on the unveiling of the winners of this year’s competition due to an early release at the school today.
This year’s History Day theme is “Turning Points in History: People, Ideas, and Events”. There have been many great projects picked by the students that have shown a quick preview of their hard work before the Open House, which was scheduled for tonight before the bad weather set in. This year’s topic brought a lot of new participants and ideas to the table, with boards and papers ranging from The Assassination to John F. Kennedy to the revelation of John Lennon and The Beatles.
With History Day being around for nearly forty years, there are millions of students that participate in it across the nation. Many United States Presidents and legislatures have recognized this program and annual event multiple times. Richland is proud to be a part of it and have been participating in their school wide program for nearly a decade.
Open House has been moved from February 21st to tomorrow, Friday, February 22nd. The students’ projects will be judged by History Day judges that will be brought in from different areas and schools and students in both the Junior and Senior Divisions will be awarded with trophies from third to first place. The gym will be arranged by category: Individual Exhibit, Group Exhibit, Individual Historical Research Paper, or Group Historical Research Paper. Each category will be divided up by the Junior Division (6th through 8th grade) and the Senior Division (9th through 12th grade).
The winners of each category and both divisions will be announced tomorrow night and the students will receive their grades for their History classes at a later date. This year’s competition has been both exciting and stressful, just like any school project this large, but the participants have put a lot of effort into their work and are excited for their friends and family to see.
The winners of the local Richland competition will be taken to Cape Girardeau for the SEMO National History Day District Competition, which will take place on March 15th. All students who receive an award at the local level will have the option to advance to Districts. Richland has had great success at the District and State competitions and has sent multiple students to the National History Day Competition in Washington DC within the last couple of years.
Three Rivers College offers many different programs, and they are preparing to celebrate “National TRIO Day” on February 23rd. TRIO is a large group of eight federal programs that is knitted together to deliver information that many high schoolers need and want in order to prepare for college and for job opportunities later in life.
Three Rivers supports TRIO and offers Talent Search Representatives to many local schools to give thousands of students an opportunity to learn things that will benefit them and their career path. Talent Search recently took many schools with multiple students to visit the campus’s of many colleges and universities. Certain areas got to visit Missouri State University, University of Missouri, Arkansas State, Murray State University, SEMO, and many others.
Each school has at least one Talent Search meeting each month. This group of junior high and high school students consists of the students who are able to contain a B-average report cord and who are eligible to receive financial aid or other resources to help them attend college. Talent Search offers tips and procedures to study, including tutors and ACT Prep hints and tips. Members of Talent Search are influenced and encouraged to begin to search for their career path and the colleges that they wish to attend.
With many different choices and decisions to make throughout their high school career, it is a good thing to know that Talent Search and the TRIO representatives will always be there to support the students as they continue their educational journey. TRIO offers advice that some students will never come in contact with inside of the classroom. With this program, students are able to receive help and tips on how to create a resume, how to apply for scholarships, and how to fill out an application for the college they wish to attend.
TRIO and its many programs are crucial to the development of the students and their bright futures. Although many schools in the area have the TRIO program, some teachers and students are unaware that it exists. That is why in 1986, Three Rivers decided to begin celebrating National TRIO Day, which builds awareness of this excellent program.
Three Rivers is holding a National TRIO Day Celebration on the Poplar Bluff Campus on Friday morning (February 22nd). Three Rivers would like to thank State Representative Todd Richardson for supporting the TRIO Programs in Missouri and the students that are a part of it.
Nearly 80% of the students that are involved in a TRIO program attend college and finish college with the major that they applied for. High school students that are preparing for college are encouraged to make lists, outlines, and plans for their future. It allows them to organize their life and write down what they are looking for in a school, career, and overall lifestyle.
Students that are not involved in Talent Search are still visited by TRIO representatives. Every semester and sometimes every quarter, certain grade levels are visited by the representatives to help all students prepare, not only the ones that are enrolled in the Talent Search program. A vast majority of the students in high school are still unsure about their decisions or plans for after high school, and TRIO helps them figure things out step by step.
TRIO plays a large part in the education of Missouri and in the younger generations. Education is a chain reaction, and TRIO has helped motivate students for nearly twenty years. So, celebrate with Three Rivers and the members of TRIO on February 23rd, as they celebrate their success and the growing education in the state of Missouri.
Three Rivers College is happily celebrating the number on their enrollment records for the spring semester. This year’s spring semester started last month on January 14th with a total of 4,310 students and had over 46,000 credit hours registered for my students. The total enrollment of the spring classes at the main campus in Poplar Bluff and the branches located in Kennett, Dexter, Malden, Sikeston, and Cape Girardeau increased by 2% and the total classes that were registered for increased by 8%.
This is truly an outstanding record set by the local college and it is exciting to see the college expanding and growing in more ways than one. This has been an exciting year for Three Rivers as they just launched their brand new Physical Therapy Assistant Program, along with introducing their newest scholarship for nursing students, and now they are preparing to open their new Academic Resource Center in Poplar Bluff at the main campus in May. Now, as the college prepares to celebrate their 47th anniversary in early April, they can also celebrate the new semester, students, and programs as well.
Three Rivers was labeled in a recent “Community College Week” as one of the fastest growing community college. During last year’s fall semester, the Three Rivers Branch in Sikeston had all of its classes completely overtaken by eager students and the class-size limit had been maxed out. The teachers and members of Three Rivers are astounded by the growth and goals that have been reached over the past few years.
The growth of the college has jumped up tremendously and they have nearly broken their previous records every year. With many different branches and ITV classes offered at other colleges and high schools, Three Rivers is expanding quickly and efficiently. The needs of both high school and college students are recognized and met by the local college. In fact, TRC is going to continue to expand and is preparing to hold a groundbreaking ceremony in March for their new Eastern Campus in Sikeston.
The Sikeston Branch is completely full this year and is continuing to grow quicker and quicker each semester as demand for career training and credit hours has shot up around the local area. Not only has the Sikeston Branch expanded tremendously, but so has the branch in Dexter. Dexter’s TRC Center has grown by 52% since last year as the TRC Center is Kennett has grown by 28%.
With many scholarships, workshops, tutoring, and other aids offered to the students, it’s no mystery why the numbers have skyrocketed. The college believes that classes and branches will continue to grow over the next couple of years and that they will provide even more services than before for the surrounding communities.
The FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) District Sixteen State Leadership Conference took place in Malden, Missouri yesterday morning. This year’s conference was hosted by Risco High School, which is the home to the retiring 2012-2013 FBLA President, junior Dylan Kennedy. The local high schools that participate in District 16 celebrated the theme of “Igniting Innovation”. There were about fifteen schools in attendance and each group had a fairly large number of club members that participated in the competitions that took place a month prior to the district meeting.
The conference was kicked off by guest speaker, Dave Green, who is the creator and founder of the Creative Design Group. Green shared his experiences and life lessons to the young business leaders by expressing the need to understand that even though life isn’t fair, there are still many things to be learned from everyone you come in contact with. Green was born and raised in Malden and attended the University of Missouri and explained the importance to build a strong resume and to avoid things that could wreck all the work that you have done over the past few years. Green enlightened the large group of students about what it takes to build a successful life and what they need to chase dreams that might seem out of reach. Many students could relate to Green and he made an overall fun and exciting speech and appearance, which was a great way to start off the meeting.
The next guest speaker to take the stage was Jodi Phillips, a representative from Three Rivers College. Phillips presented a power point to inform the high school students how to prepare for scholarships and how to fill out FAFSA. As the end of the school year approaches, it is important that the students preparing to graduate and pursue a higher education are approved for FAFSA and that they apply to multiple scholarships before they attend school in the fall.
While many of the students were in the auditorium with the guest speakers, there were still a number of participants that were competing in the building next door. As the students waited for the competitions and interviews to finish, they were rewarded with entertainment by Mr. Aaron Epps, the history teacher at Campbell High School and a band member of the Christian band One Way Out. The students were also visited by Halford’s Photography, who graciously set up a photo booth in the back of the auditorium and allowed students to take free pictures with fun props as they waited.
When the competitions ended, the meeting officially began as President Dylan Kennedy took the stage. New office members for the 2013-2014 school year were elected as the Installation of Officers Ceremony began to usher in the new officers. Austin Ward (Bernie) was elected the new District 16 Reporter, Dylan Kennedy (Risco) stepped down from President and became next year’s Treasurer, Katie Hall (South Pemiscot) joined the group as she was announced as the new Secretary, next year’s Vice President was awarded to Luke Dell (Campbell), and the brand new President of District 16 was one of Dexter’s own: Jacob Robinson.
Kennedy and this year’s officers handed out awards to the participants and winners of the FBLA competitions and tests. There were many different business-related subjects that the students were able to test in, ranging from Business Ethics to Desktop Publishing. Many of the students received rewards and will be attending the State Conference in the end of April that will be located in Columbia, Missouri at Mizzou.
Congratulations to all of the young business leaders that attended and were rewarded at the district meeting, we look forward to seeing you at next year’s conference that will be lead by our newly elected officers!
The picture above is credited to Halford's Photography
Dee Loflin, SMT Writer
Katelynn Frazier #5 is the eighteen year old daughter of Dana Gibbs, Sloan Stahl, Matt and Tania Day. She has played basketball all four years of her high school career, volleyball two of those years, track one year and tennis one year. Katelynn is a member of FCA and the Dexter Honor Society. She plans to attend Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas and eventually study abroad.
Brittany Harris #24 is the eighteen year old daughter of Jason and Samantha Harris. Brittany has ran track for one year, played volleyball for three years and basketball all four years of her high school career. She has received All State for two years, All District, All Conference, All Region for two years, SEMO Co-player of the Year, record holder for Most Career Points and leading scorer in the conference. Brittany plans to attend college and major in Nursing.
Coach Chad Allen is extremely proud of his Seniors and the Bearcats will miss them greatly next year. "These girls are great on and off the court! They are truly inspirational and talented young ladies". The girls were presented with flowers and a framed photograph which all the Lady Cats signed around the photo. What a keepsake these girls will cherish forever.
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Check out more photos of the Dexter Lady Cat Senior Night by going to the ShowMe Times Facebook page.You can still see these girls in action as the DHS Lady Cats head to West Plains on February 16th, will be in Jackson on February 18th and Sikeston on February 21st before starting their tournament play on February 25th at the Bearcat Event Center.
The Dexter community and Bearcat fans wish them the best of luck with their future endeavors and congratulations on a well deserved victory!
