Mich. H.S. wins Obama as grad speaker

 Formspring.me becomes obsession – Popular website allows anonymous postings on Facebook, resulting in gossip similar to Juicy Campus, which colleges have blocked.  “Nice stuff is not why you get it,” said Ariane Barrie-Stern, a freshman at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in New York City. “I think it’s interesting to find out what people really think that they don’t have the guts to say to you. If it’s hurtful, you have to remind yourself that it doesn’t really mean anything.” (NYT)

 NYTimes top 10 student poems – 17=year-old Pa. poet was inspired by the death of Alexander McQueen to write “Panic,” which was chosen as a Top 10 selection in NYT’s poetry contest.  A bubble growing, History collides, Bad markets, bone chilling numbers, Reserves of happiness drying up, breaking up… (NYT)

 The Recession and Education – NYT magazine article examines how the recession has led to a record number of students to enter college but also a dramatic fall in college graduation rates. College administrators and researchers admit they do not yet know exactly what works. The most important factor appears to be student preparation, which is mostly beyond a college’s control. But intensive remedial programs seem to make a difference. So does financial aid linked to academic performance. (NYT)

 Smithfield considers teen curfew

 Teen uses hoops to raise money for Haiti – Colin Wilkins’ school project evolved into a basketball fundraiser that collected $1,500 to Paul Farmer’s Partners in Health project in Haiti.  “After I saw what was happening … I just really thought I could help.” (Herald-Sun)

 Wake teen places in chess tourney – Cheri Agner pulled off a series of stunning upsets to finish fifth at the All-Girls National Chess Championships.  “It’s not a team sport. When you’re playing a sport like soccer, you always have someone else you can point to if something goes wrong. But in chess, it’s all up to you,” Agner said. (East Wake News)

 Durham students speak against budget cuts – Speaking at a special school board meeting, students expressed frustration over $20 million in projected budget cuts for Durham schools. “It seems like nobody really cares,” said Hillside High School student Tevin Armstrong. “You can’t teach effectively when you 25 or 30, or 35 students in a class and don’t even have enough chairs and desks and they can’t even sit,” said Hillside student Joshua Martin. (MyNC)

 Preview of CHHS ‘The Wiz”

 College select summer reading for frosh – UNC has selected Picking Cotton, Duke will be reading Everything Matters, Peace College will read The Blue Sweater and both NC State and Meredith will read Half The Sky by Nicholas Krisof and Sheryl WuDunn.  Half the Sky explores issues faced by women around the world, and it offers ways readers can help make a difference. The book’s title refers to a Chinese saying, “Women hold up half the sky.” “This is one of the hardest books I’ve had to read,” said Roger Callanan, an assistant undergraduate dean at NCSU. “This is not pleasurable. But it’s important. We’re talking about real brutality and grotesque abuse. But if you persist, at the end it is hopeful, and it is challenging. Now that you know, what are you going to do?” (N&O)

 Profile of student activist – Dismayed by a single piece of litter at age 6, Morehead scholar Adam Meyer has devoted himself to environmental education and activism, including the opening of HOPE Gardens, a community garden north of UNC that will offer transitional employment to homeless people.  “I always felt a connection to the environment and being outdoors,” he said. “My parents used to have to pull me inside, kicking and screaming.” (Daily Tar Heel)

 Durham Riverside no-hits Northern – Sophomore Dusty Tatum tossed a no-hitter as Riverside beat Northern 2-0 to remain undefeated in the Pac-6.  “He’s been getting better as the season has gone on,” Blowe said of Tatum’s performance. “He’s got great stuff. He’s got four pitches, and he had command of all four of them tonight. He did a great job with both sides of the plate and working from ahead for the most part.” (Herald-Sun)

 Barrel Monster creator gains commissions

 Want better grades? Go to private college – A recent study shows that average GPA’s has increase 0.1 per decade from 2.52. in the 1950s to 3.11 now, with the majority of grade inflation coming from private colleges. The authors suggest that these laxer grading standards may help explain why private school students are over-represented in top medical, business and law schools and certain Ph.D. programs: Admissions officers are fooled by private school students’ especially inflated grades. (NYTimes)

 Student designers show, critique work – NC State textile program has changed their senior class to include two critiques and a final fashion show of a six-piece collection. Kristen DePalmo’s collection revolves around resort wear and uses braids and knots as embellishments. She began gathering inspiration and sketching over Christmas break.“I wanted to make a line that would simplify packing,” DePalmo says, citing her personal inability to pack light. “It’s elegant and mix-and-match. You can slip on a long dress that would also double as a cover-up.” (Indy)

 Why do h.s. students want to go to Duke? – As written by a Duke student.  My roommate, on the other hand, said she preferred the Fiske Guide to Colleges when she was school searching, and it sings similar praises. “What fun to be a Dukie—face painted blue, rocking Cameron Indoor Stadium as the Blue Devils score again. Duke is the most prestigious private university in the South—similar to Rice in selectivity and academically competitive with the Ivies and Stanford.” It does mention that, “Students say language development is weak” and that “Students of different ethnicities and races tend to ‘self-segregate,’ students say, producing little tension but also little interaction.” (Duke Chronicle)

 Comedian says school ‘waste of time’

 Profile on NC Youth Tap Ensemble – One of the world’s most premiere tap groups relies on collaboration where older dancers teach routines to the younger dancers.  Michelle Dorrance, daughter of UNC women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance, will perform with the ensemble this weekend at the Carolina Theater in Durham.  An NCYTE alumna, Michelle Dorrance is now considered one of the premier tap dancers in the world, highly sought after and currently performing in the Off-Broadway production of STOMP.  (Daily Tar Heel)

 Profile of Durham 4-H Meat Goat Club – Led by Joel Dahms of Durham Academy and Alex Flores-Burgess, the team last year won the state championship in a competition called the 4-H Jr. Livestock Skill-a-Thon, and they competed hard at the 65th Annual Central Piedmont Junior Livestock Show & Sale Wednesday and Thursday at the Central Carolina Holstein Association Barn in Orange County. (Herald-Sun)

 Student profile of Olivia Bass – Garner High School senior will attend UNC to double major in Biology and Spanish, with hopes of attending medical school.  “Olivia is a great person; but more significantly she is a kind-hearted, positive, spirited, young lady,” Golden said. “Never have I seen her without a smile on her face. Her smile is contagious to both faculty and students alike. And whether in the classroom, at sporting events or merely in the hall between classes, her personality draws people to her. She is an asset to Garner Magnet High School and the Garner community in general.” (Garner Citizen)

 Trinity finishes 8th in national robot tourney

 Many teens send 100 texts a day – New survey shows that 75% of teens own cell phones, 1/3 of teens send more than 100 texts a day, and that texting is preferred to talking on the phone, except when communicating with parents.  Forty-three percent of teens who take their phones to school reported sending at least one text message from class a day, despite the fact that many schools have banned cell phones in class.”Teenagers have been looking for ways to skirt around rules and defy administrators for millennia, whether it’s passing notes in class or passing digital notes in class through cell phones.” (CNN) 

 NC State grad loses secret new Iphone – Apple engineer Gray Powell left the top-secret model of the in-development I-phone in a California bar, and it was later published on the Gizmodo website, earning one million hits in a day.  Apple closely guards its prototypes, which are always the subject of intense speculation and hype. This weekend, though, Gizmodo not only published a story about the phone’s new features with detailed photos but also outed Powell, going so far as to link to the Flickr account where he posted personal photos. (N&O)

 School-issued computers snapped 50,000 secret photos – A tracking device on computers issued by a suburban Philadelphia school district secretly shot over 50,000 photos of students in their homes. (NYT)

 Prom on a school night

 How to ask out a prom date on YouTube – Following the lead of the Colorado teen who successfully asked a Maxim model to prom via YouTube, more students are utilizing technology to ask the question.  When it came time to ask his girlfriend to the senior prom, 17-year-old Adrian Newcomb of Simi Valley, Calif., took a particularly creative approach. With help from a friend, he spent six hours stringing 625 digital photographs into an “underwater” stop-motion proposal video.”The girl that I’m asking, she really likes sea horses,” he said. “I wanted to somehow incorporate those into how I ask. I knew I couldn’t get a real one so I figured I’d animate my own.” (ABC News)

 Student makes prom dress out of gum wrappers – An Iowa high school student has been chewing ‘Five’ gum since August to collect enough wrappers to create a blue and white homemade prom dress.  Dawn Rasmuson said, “I think it’s really admirable for her I mean she’s a junior in high school and in today’s world a lot of the girls are worried about fitting in; they don’t want to stand out for wrong reason so it’s really cool and so unique.” (KIMT)

 MS teen banned from prom will lead NYC gay parade – After her school district cancelled her prom rather than allow her to bring a lesbian date to prom, Constance McMillan has won a $30,000 scholarship from the Ellen DeGeneres show and will now be the grand marshall for the gay pride parade in NYC. (NYDN)

 Seventeen Magazine’s 17 best prom scenes of all time