Members of the Santa Fe Trail Scholarship Committee included the following staff members:   Mrs. Midgorden, Mrs. Dailey, Mrs. Carr, and Ms. Koogler.  Staff members helped start the scholarship program through the Independence School District Foundation.  Students at Santa Fe Trail were also recognized for Character Education awards for Self-Control and Perseverance.   Each scholarship winner was photographed with their former teachers from Santa Fe Trail Elementary.

Recognized by Money magazine as one of the top 12 scholarship opportunities in the United States, EWISP allows selected students to compete at both the EWI chapter and corporate levels for scholarships. This scholarship program has been approved by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the American Vocational Association. Students are judged on merit based on their application materials, oral and written communication skills, creativity, scholastic records, involvement in extracurricular activities, leadership qualities, awards and honors, citizenship, attitude and clearly defined career goals. This is an annual competition that awards more than $200,000 in college scholarship money each year.

This year’s Kansas City Chapter first place winner was Katie Bartels from William Chrisman High School. Katie attended the EWI Scholarship Dinner at the Embassy Suites Plaza where emcee John Holt from WDAF TV FOX 4 presented her with a $1,500 chapter scholarship. Katie’s application now moves on to the corporate level where she will compete for additional scholarships between $1,000 and $5,000 dollars. Winners of the corporate level will be announced in the fall.

Truman High School - Wednesday May 29th
William Chrisman - Thursday May 30th
Van Horn High School - Friday May 31st

Water, sun, and friends—what more does a kid love? On Wednesday, May 21 William Southerns’ Bulldogs were outside enjoying their annual field day.

All of the grades participated in relay races, tug-o-war, and many, many other activities. Above all, the “Sponge Bob” station was their absolute favorite—kids had to run with a wet sponge above their heads and then dunk it in more water before passing it back to their teammate! This was a perfect way to end the school year at William Southern Elementary!

Every spring students at Santa Fe Trail anticipate which staff members will get 'slimed' at the annual Fun Day.

Students put money in each staff members jar for a chance to be the lucky student to dump the bucket of slime on a staff member that has the most donations.

Students and staff members raised over $320 for Student Character Council projects and events for 2013-14.  Master of Ceremonies, Sarah Green featured Bruce Huntsucker, Miranda Burris, Casey Kuska and Deb Koepke as the lucky staff members to be 'slimed.'

After the Slime Wars students and staff enjoyed the annual water spraying by the Independence Fire Department held in front of the school.  A great time was had by all the Trailblazers!

Where: Elementary:  Benton, Glendale, Korte,  Ott,  Southern,  Spring Branch, Sycamore,  Three Trails

Middle Schools: Bingham, Pioneer 

High School: William Chrisman

When: Elementary/ Middle Schools- May 29^th – June 25  

High School- May 29th-June 28th

Meals and Times:

Elementary-  Breakfast 8:00 -9:00     Lunch 11:00-1:00

Middle Schools-  Breakfast 7:00-8:00  Lunch 10:30-12:30

High School- Breakfast 6:30-7:30   Lunch 11:00-1:00

For More Information Please call:

Independence School District Nutrition Services

816-521-5371
or 888-435-1464 for a site near you.

Or check out http://www.dhss.mo.gov/sfsp.

]]> http://www.isdschools.org/2013/05/21/nutritious-summer-meals-at-no-charge/feed/ 0 http://www.isdschools.org/2013/05/20/jersey-lynn-is-principal-for-the-day-at-santa-fe-trail-elementary/ http://www.isdschools.org/2013/05/20/jersey-lynn-is-principal-for-the-day-at-santa-fe-trail-elementary/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 21:30:47 +0000 Christina Medina http://www.isdschools.org/?p=23447 Every year PE teacher and Wellness Champion, Maria Jonas sponsors Jump Rope for Heart at Santa Fe Trail Elementary.  This year students jumped rope and collected pledges to raise money for the Heart Association on April 27^th. 

The biggest incentive for bringing in pledges was to be named Principal of the Day and PE teacher for your class.   Jersey Lynn, granddaughter of Debbie Lynn, earned the incentive for Principal for the Day by raising $250 in pledges for the Heart Association.  Her favorite part of the day was eating lunch with some of her friends in the principal’s office.  Santa Fe Trail raised a total of $1343.91 for Jump Rope for Heart, surpassing last year’s goal of $1200!  Way to go Trailblazers!

David Daniel is a senior at Chrisman High School and is focused on going to what he calls a “selective school”.  He applied to Duke, Stanford, Harvard, Yale and Washington University.

He was featured on Fox 4's Reaching for Excellence.

Click Here to watch the story.

Daniel has already been a student at MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Last summer he was one of about 70 students accepted from across nation to participate in an engineering program at MIT for High School Students.

Daniel is the proud recipient of the Gates Millennium Scholarship for the Class of 2013.  The highly competitive scholarship, funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, pays for the entire cost of tuition to any accredited college or university in the United States. The scholarship will also pay for certain doctorate programs.

Daniel said he is thrilled that his hard work in now paying off. “I feel like this is the beginning and I am looking forward to see how this all comes to fruition,” explained Daniel.

So what pushes the senior to work so hard? Daniel said he has a rare perspective of why college is so important.

“Education is one of those opportunities that would not be available in Nigeria. One of the reasons we moved was because schooling there is really expensive,” said Daniel.

Daniel moved from Lagos, Nigeria when he was 18 months old.  His family wanted to make sure he had every opportunity to succeed and his father knew education would be the key to that success.

“Being in America now and having an abundance of opportunities and resources, I really want to make sure that I seize every one of those. Just having the chance to learn all that I want to learn is what drives me” said Daniel.

He said now his parents are very proud of his successes but they want him to continue to push.

He was accepted to attend Harvard, Yale, Duke and Stanford.