NKMS Students Excel at Virginia Junior Beta Convention!

Guest post from Lindsay Horne, NKMS Social Studies Department Head:

Last week, a tremendous thing happened nearby in Hampton, Virginia.  For the first time in a number of years, our students boarded buses and headed to the National Junior Beta Club State Convention to compete against 31 other middle schools from across the state of Virginia.  Along with the over 1,000 students attending, our 43 students competed in various academic, talent, and creative competitions.  We went toe-to-toe with the brightest kids throughout the state and we definitely held our own!

We represented you, our New Kent Middle School community, incredibly well and proudly brought home the following state honors and wins:

1^st Place Virginia POETRY competition – Jillian Schmid

2^nd Place Virginia MATH competition – Harrison Hunt

2^nd Place Virginia SCIENCE competition – Josh Dore

3^rd Place Virginia INDIVIDUAL TALENT – Kirsten Torrence

Jillian, Harrison, and Josh will be heading to national convention in Richmond this summer to compete at the national level – what an honor!

We are so incredibly proud of all of our Beta students who went and boldly competed this year – they could not have done a better job.

We received one additional (and pretty incredible) honor this year - (William) Cameron Fazio, one of our 8^th grade students, was awarded the Harris Leadership Award for excellence in leadership, academics, and character.  This is a highly prestigious award and our Cameron won it for the ENTIRE state of Virginia.  He is one of only 25 recipients nationally to receive this award.  

Please help us in congratulating all of our Junior Beta members who attended convention, it was an amazing experience for both the students and adults and one that every one of us can be proud of!

NKMS staff who attended as sponsors included Rechele Gregory, Sara Fleenor, Anthony Massimini, and myself.  Great job and HUGE thank you to all of you - we made a great team!