Sewickley area student news for the week of May 31, 2022

Quaker Valley High School senior Charlie Crane was selected as a violist for the 2022 Pennsylvania Music Educators Association All-State Orchestra.

Crane was first selected to District Orchestra in January after submitting an application outlining his musical accomplishments and recommendations from his music teachers. At Districts, Crane auditioned and qualified to advance to the regional level. Region Orchestra was to be held in DuBois in February, but was canceled due to inclement weather. At that point, all students who qualified for regionals were required to prepare video audition clips on short notice in order to be considered for states. Crane’s audition video earned him a spot in the All-State viola section, placing seventh out of 21 selected violists and 104 string musicians representing the best student string musicians across all public and private high schools in Pennsylvania.

The All-State Orchestra met in the Kalahari Resort and Conference Center in the Poconos April 6-9. Apart from rehearsing with the orchestra throughout the week for their performance on the morning of April 9, Crane also was able to explore the conference exhibits, attend a talk by motivational speaker Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser, and hear a live featured performance by the United States Army Band, “Pershing’s Own.”

“PMEA All-States was an excellent experience. I am more than pleased to have had the honor and privilege of being selected to be a part of such an accomplished and talented group of musicians,” Crane said.

QVHS orchestra director Cory Neville sponsored Crane’s path to states. “Charlie is an amazing student and musician, and I cannot be happier that such a deserving young man earned his way to All-State Orchestra this year. For student musicians across Pennsylvania, competing to make it to All-State is the ‘big prize’ in school music competition. Years of hard work led him to this moment. We are very proud of how well he has represented himself, his family, our orchestra program, and the QV community through this process.”

Crane is now the third QVHS Orchestra student since 2019 to achieve this goal.

After graduation, Crane plans to study mechanical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh and hopes to one day work in the robotics industry.

Katie Serafin, a junior at Sewickley Academy, was selected as the recipient of the Best of Show Award at the High School Student Exhibition, a regional juried show hosted by Standard Ceramics in Carnegie. The Awards Reception was held May 5 in the Clay Place at Standard Ceramics. Serafin submitted two original works, the winning piece, “Skin/Bone Bust” and “Merged Facial Planes Bust,” both created from a grittier clay sculpted onto a newspaper base.

Brendan Reid, a history-international studies major from Sewickley, graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania on May 7 with a perfect 4.0 GPA. He is the son of Jeanine Thomas of Sewickley and Bryan Reid of Fair Oaks and a 2018 graduate of Quaker Valley High School. He was a member of the Army ROTC.

Alaina Giovengo was among more than 200 students whose academic work was showcased during the Baldwin Wallace University Ovation 2022 Day of Excellence. Giovengo, a graduate of Avonworth Jr.-Sr. High School majoring in communication studies, presented “Unwillingness to Communicate and Well-Being Among Caregivers for Patients with Cancer” during the event. Additionally, she was nominated to take part in Baldwin Wallace’s 128th Annual White Rose Ceremony, which is held during commencement weekend in memory of Philura Gould Baldwin, the school’s first librarian and granddaughter of Baldwin Wallace founder John Baldwin. At the behest of the Baldwin family, an oration is given and select female graduates carry white roses that serve as a memorial to Philura.

Camille Womeldorf of Sewickley has been named to the 2022 spring semester Dean’s List at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Sean Dugan of Sewickley has been named to Southern New Hampshire University’s President’s List for the winter 2022 semester.

Marietta College’s Andrew Novak of Sewickley was recently recognized for his excellence in nonpartisan democratic engagement as an awardee of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge’s Student Voting Honor Roll. “I’m honored to be recognized on the Student Voting Honor Roll by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge,” said Novak, who is majoring in Political Science. “I’m committed to increasing college student voting at Marietta College.”

Christopher Barefoot was named to the Spring 2022 Dean’s List at Belmont University.

Courtney Cordell of Sewickley has been named to the Honor Roll at the University of Mississippi for the spring 2022 semester.