BVN GRADUATE NAMED PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLAR — A little over a year ago, in April 2012, we featured Gavri Schreiber as a Chronicle Salute to Youth. Maybe we should have waited a while to feature him because this was certainly Gavri’s year to shine. Earlier this year we told you that Gavri achieved a perfect score on his ACT exams, one of a handful of students in the entire area to do that. The Blue Valley North graduate earned a host of other honors this year including:
AP Scholars with Distinction
Kansas Regent State Scholar
Presidential Award for Educational Excellence
National Merit Finalist
The most recent, and possibly the most prestigious, was being named a 2013 U.S. Presidential Scholar. The U.S. Presidential Scholars program recognizes and honors the nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors. In Kansas, only three seniors received the honor this year.
“Gavri multiplies his intelligence by combining it with curiosity and persistence,” said David Stubblefield, Blue Valley North principal. “He seeks to understand before he acts and when he decides to take action he has the initiative to ‘go for it.’ He has made the most of his high school experience.”
Gavri is one of 141 outstanding American high school seniors that have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, artistic excellence, leadership, citizenship, service and contribution to school and community. He, along with the other U.S. Presidential Scholars, was honored for his accomplishments in Washington D.C., earlier this month.
The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, appointed by President Obama, selects honored scholars annually based on their academic success, artistic excellence, essays, school evaluations and transcripts, as well as evidence of community service, leadership, and demonstrated commitment to high ideals. Of the 3 million students expected to graduate from high school this year, more than 3,800 candidates qualified for the 2013 awards determined by outstanding performance on the College Board SAT and ACT exams, and through nominations made by Chief State School Officers or the National YoungArts Foundation.
The 2013 Presidential Scholars are comprised of one young man and one young woman from each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and from U.S. families living abroad, as well as 15 chosen at-large and 20 Presidential Scholars in the Arts.
Created in 1964, the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program has honored more than 6,000 of the nation’s top-performing students with the prestigious award given to honorees during the annual ceremony in D.C. The program was expanded in 1979 to recognize students who demonstrate exceptional talent in the visual, literary and performing arts.
Gavri plans to attend the University of Maryland where he has received a four-year scholarship and will be a Banneker Key Scholar. He will be a student in the Humanities Honors Program.
He is the son of Edna Levy and Jacob Schreiber and the grandson of Nouri and Claudette Levy, Simeon and Rose Schreiber of Bal Harbor, Fla., and Jeanine Schreiber of Forest Hills, N.Y.
STING DOING AUSCHWITZ — (JTA) Sting will play Poland for the first time at The Life Festival in Oswiecim, the city that was home to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The British rock icon will be performing June 29 with a five-piece band as part of his “Back to Bass” tour.
Festival creator Darek Maciborek, an Oswiecim-born journalist, is seeking to spread messages of peace and tolerance in his hometown. Sting is choosing to make his Poland debut here most likely because of the peaceful philosophy of the event and his involvement with human rights organizations, specifically Amnesty International, participating in the festival.
According to Haaretz, festival organizers had no response when questioned about holding a concert in a space with such a controversial and violent history.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers also were scheduled to perform but reportedly have dropped out.
The Life Festival, in its third year, has featured performances by James Blunt and Peter Gabriel.
