Waynflete students had an exceptional showing at the Maine State Science Olympiad tournament earlier this month. Contributed / Waynflete Academy

Waynflete excels at Maine Science Olympiad

Waynflete’s teams took first and second places overall April 9, when 32 Upper School students participated in the Maine State Science Olympiad tournament at the University of Maine in Orono.

Highlights included the six events in which the two teams from the Portland private school took both gold and silver medallions: Forensics (Kate Bramley-Simmons, Matt Adey, Aelia Russell and Charlie Horner), Wi-Fi Lab (Henry Wagg, Maya Flores, Cole Isherwood and Tipton Heminway), Wright Stuff airplane (Maren Cooper, Reed Robinson, Vera Shattuck, Aelia Russell and Deon Rivers), Astronomy (Blythe Thompson, Oscar Herrera, Vera Shattuck and Deon Rivers), It’s About Time clock and test (Maya Flores, Oscar Twining, Liam Anderson and Charlie Horner) and Environmental Chemistry (Orion Keierleber, Maren Cooper, Lolie Millspaugh and Julia Werner).

Trajectory, an engineering event, placed first for Nathan Bukowski-Thall, Kate Bramley-Simmons and Ed Cox, and resident ornithologist Reed Robinson and his partner, Oscar Herrera, earned gold for Ornithology, missing only the species identification for a recording of owl fledgling calls.

Write It Do It, a test of students’ ability to communicate and interpret technical information, saw a first-place finish for Waynflete (Mira Levine, Oscar Herrera, Lincoln Smith and Liam Anderson). Other top finishes included Disease Detectives, with a first place for Blythe Thompson and Ed Cox. Chem Lab and Experimental Design also came in first.

Local UMaine students intern for Collins

McConville

Students from Yarmouth and Falmouth have been awarded spring internships in Sen. Susan Collins’ Bangor office.

Keely McConville, a Yarmouth native, is a graduate of Yarmouth High School and a senior at the University of Maine, where she is majoring in political science and minoring in psychology. At UMaine, she is involved in the Pre-Law Society, student government and its Peer Mentoring Program, and UVote, a nonpartisan voter education and registration service on campus. Upon graduation, McConville plans to attend law school and pursue a career in policy, criminal law and domestic violence.

Marks

Jacob Marks, a Falmouth native, is a junior at the University of Maine. Marks is majoring in financial economics and is a member of Delta Tau Delta. He is a third-year cadet in the Army ROTC program and an enlisted soldier in Maine’s Army National Guard. Upon graduation, Marks plans to serve full time to the state military or pursue a civilian career focused on financial services.

“Keely is a hardworking student and has demonstrated impressive leadership qualities through her involvement with extracurricular activities on campus,” Collins said in a prepared release, and “Jacob has demonstrated an impressive commitment to academics and outstanding leadership at UMaine, and I commend him for serving our nation in uniform.

Outstanding scholar

Andrea Atkinson, of Portland, who attends Southern Maine Community College, was one of 14 Maine Community College System students named to the 2022 All-Maine Academic Team in recognition of outstanding academic achievement, leadership and service. She will receive a $500 scholarship from the MCCS Board of Trustees.

Atkinson was also named a Maine New Century Scholar as one of only two students to earn the highest scores in the state on the All-USA Academic Team applications, for which she will receive a $2,250 scholarship.

The All-Maine Academic Team is a program of Phi Theta Kappa, an international honor society for two-year colleges. Students are nominated and selected for the team by their college.