Hasbini Wins County Honor

Leena Hasbini, who (as we told you in our last issue) runs the “Success Center” at New Tampa’s Paul R. Wharton High, has been named the winner of the Hillsborough Education Foundation(HEF)’s Instructional Support Person of the Year award for 2012.

Hasbini, who learned of her award at the “Excellence in Education” Awards Banquet held Feb. 16 at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Tampa, got to ride to school in style, courtesy of Ambassador Limousine, as part of her prize package.

Forensic/Debate Team Qualifiers at Wharton

The Forensics/Debate team at Wharton High had great results at the recent State tournament! In a truly amazing showing the weekend of Feb.10, Wharton came through with eleven National Qualifiers and three First Alternates!

National Qualifiers: Cash Howard, Student Congress; Lily Tang, Lincoln-Douglas Debate; Rachel Mitcham/JenBayley, Public Forum Debate; Camery Barden, Oral Interpretation of Literature; Tyler Uhlich, Oral Interpretation of Literature; Torrey Crosby, Oral Interpretation of Literature; Madelyn Diaz, Dramatic Performance; Alexandra Johncola, Oratorical Declamation; Patrick Tyler Cates/Jake Lobianco, Duo Interpretation of Literature.

First Alternates: Kayla Talebi, Lincoln-Douglas Debate; Kelsey Hoyt, Oral Interpretation of Literature & Kennedy McCann, Oratorical Declamation.

Liberty Team Shines At Science Olympiad

The Science Olympiad team from Liberty Middle School is looking forward to more success as this issue reaches you, after winning a trophy for “Best Team Spirit” in its first-ever competition on January 21. The invitational competition was held at Orlando Science Middle School.

Science Olympiad is a competition for elementary, middle and high school students. Teams are comprised of up to 15 students, who compete in 23 different events. The events are in physics, chemistry, earth space science, biology and engineering. Students engage in hands-on, interactive, inquiry-based activities that are labbased, research-based, or prebuilt. The Liberty team also placed in several individual contests.

The next competition for these Olympians will be held in Fort Myers on Saturday, February 25, or as you’re receiving this issue. The team from Liberty, which is coached by parents, teachers and other volunteers, consists of the following students: Maya Patel, Adriana Fromby-Fernandez, Keerthi Premkanth, Christina Jayaraj, Harry Lee, Kaitlin Ross, Lamine Diagne, Raja Muthulagappan, Maitreyi Paluri, Apoorva Sista & Kirthana Sandepudi.