EDUCATION NOTEBOOK (Jan. 3)

Amanda Kilduff, the winner of the Wendy's High School Heisman Award for Ocean Springs High School, won the statewide competition for the award.

One student from each of the 50 states was chosen to represent their state to compete for the national award. She is the first statewide winner from Ocean Springs High School.

Kilduff is a three-time state 6A individual tennis champion, winning the girls doubles the past two years as well as winning the mixed doubles championship the previous year. Ocean Springs High School has won the past six class 6A state tennis titles.

Kilduff is a member of the National Honor Society, president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and a two-year member of the All Superior Blue Grey Pride Band. She is a member of Saint John's Episcopal Church, where she is the founder/leader of the youth Bible studies and volunteers for Samaritan Ministries.

She will attend Samford University and major in health sciences and the ministry. She is the daughter of Bill and Julie Kilduff.

USM students selected as Eagle Scholars

University of Southern Mississippi students at the Gulf Park and Hattiesburg campuses have been selected for the spring 2016 class of the Eagle Scholar Program for Undergraduate Research (Eagle SPUR).

The University's Center for Undergraduate Research and the Office of the Vice President for Research selected the students based on the quality of their research proposals. These students received up to $1,000 for research grants that will be used to conduct a scholarly or creative project in collaboration with a faculty mentor. Each student will have up to one year to present their findings in a scholarly context, such as a conference paper or publication.

New Eagle Scholars from South Mississippi, their major, hometown and faculty mentors: Paige Allen, microbiology, Carriere, (Shahid Karim); Joel Coutu, psychology, Ocean Springs, (Hans Stadthagen/Elena Stepanova); Jamie Henton, political science/history, Gulfport, (Douglas Bristol); Alexander Jackson, computing, Pass Christian, (Weihua Zhou); Joseph Jelinski, chemistry, Diamondhead, (Shahid Karim); Janine Nowak, polymer science, Gulfport, (Joseph Lott); and Aaron White, Long Beach, psychology, (Michael Mong and Hans Stadthagen).

MGCCC student completing O.S. Chamber internship

Marcus Hamilton of Ocean Springs is a sophomore business marketing management major at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

Through the school's Cooperative Education program, Hamilton is completing a semester internship at the Ocean Springs Chamber of Commerce-Main Street-Tourism Bureau.

GHS students raising money for Pencils of Promise

The Gulfport High Student Council is participating in a service project for Pencils of Promise, which believes every child should have access to quality education.

The organization builds schools in the developing world in countries such as Ghana, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Laos. The council's goal is to raise $25,000 by May to break ground on a new school in one of these countries.

Freeman earns military leadership scholarship

Zachary Freeman, a senior at Hancock High School, has been awarded a top scholarship from Marion Military Institute, the nation's oldest military junior college. Freeman was awarded the Leadership Scholarship.

The scholarship will cover 50 percent of his tuition at the institute. This scholarship was offered based on his academic achievements and leadership positions.

Freeman demonstrated a strong candidate profile in his various honors and positions throughout high school. He is a member of JROTC unit at Hancock High, serving this year as company commander. Hancock joins the Corps of Cadets as a member of the Early Commissioning Program, in which Freeman will pursue a commission as an officer in the U.S. Army.

Resurrection students selected for ACE contest

Students from Resurrection Catholic School in Pascagoula competed in the Academic Competition of Excellence at St. Stanislaus in Bay St. Louis.

RCS students in fifth through seventh grades were selected by teachers to compete in one of these categories: science, math, social studies or language arts. The team also competed in a team trivia contest.

Mary Hinman received an honorable mention award for the social studies category for seventh grade.

Other RCS participants: Max Askew, Evan Burrow, Emma Godfrey, Andrew Gunman, Morgan Hester, Ellis Jackson, Catherine Kinkela, Maggie Miller, Daniel Myers, Caroline Nelson, Sky Paulk, Sydney Sudduth, Chrystel Vega, Olivia Wachsman and Xavier Wright.

St. Patrick students win Patriot's Pen contest

Three St. Patrick students were chosen as local winners for the VFW Patriot's Pen writing contest. Eighth-grade student Camille Seghers placed first in the competition followed by Avery King and Jacob Roberts in second and third place

The Patriot's Pen youth essay contest is an annual competition put on by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The contest is open to students in sixth through eighth grades.

Participants must have a strong knowledge of the theme and their knowledge should be seen in their work. The themes must then be developed to answer facts about the theme and their stories included personal or relatable experiences relevant to the theme. To receive acknowledgement the students then had to collect all of the requirements in a clear and concise essay to be judged.

Basile, Valliant join honor society at PRCC

South Mississippi students Hannah Basile of Picayune and Victoria Valliant of Carriere were among those inducted into the Beta Tau Gamma chapter of Phi Theta Kappa international honor society during a ceremony at the Forrest County Center of Pearl River Community College.

D'Iberville Middle students selected for Duke TIP

Twenty-four D'Iberville Middle School seventh-graders qualified for the Duke University Talent Identification Program.

These students will be able to take either the ACT or SAT assessments, tests designed for college-bound high school students. Duke TIP identifies seventh-graders in 16 states who scored in the 95th percentile or above on a grade level achievement test.

The students selected: Matthew Alexander, Jacob Allen, Matthew Anderson, Irvin Dement, Alivia Duplessis, Christian Galle, Kenneth Irving, Toby Krivanec, Lindsey Kuykendall, Derick Mabanta, Christina Nguyen, Jannie Nguyen, Megan Parker, Katelyn Powell, Brylee Prince, Alex Rog, Luke Sanchez, Alexis Schmachtenberg, Garrett Silverstein, Ashton Steffey, Jesse Tran, Ngoc Tran, Kobe Trieu and Nina Vo.

MGCCC student named Leaders of Promise Scholar

Hallie Nettles, a student at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Jackson County campus, has been selected as a 2015 Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholar, receiving a $1,000 scholarship.

Nettles, from Vancleave, is a sophomore majoring in business and nursing. She is active in her Phi Theta Kappa chapter, serving as vice president of scholarship, and is a member of the Honors College. After graduating from MGCCC, she plans to attend the University of Mississippi.

This scholarship is designed to provide new Phi Theta Kappa members with financial resources to help defray educational expenses while enrolled in a two-year college and encouraging participation in society programs. This year's recipients were selected by a panel of independent judges from more than 1,100 applicants. Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholars are selected based on outstanding academic achievement and demonstrated leadership potential.

The Leaders of Promise Scholarship is sponsored by the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation. The program awards 200 scholars with $1,000 scholarships each, totaling $200,000.

Magnolia Park students learn about amphibians

Third-graders at Magnolia Park Elementary School in Ocean Springs learned how they can help save amphibians when the Ocean Springs Garden Club presented the program, "The Frightened Frog: Why Amphibians Need Our Help."

The program, one of many projects the garden club does to serve the community, was based on the curriculum and book, "The Frightened Frog," developed and written by the National Garden Club.

The program also gave an opportunity for Ocean Springs High School honors students Chadler Kuiper and Kyle Fudge to present the program to the 145 third-graders. Kuiper and Fudge, under the coordination of Robin Rumery, OSHS science teacher, taught the curriculum, which included the lesson plan developed by the National Garden Club, and an original audio-visual presentation they created.

Jane Hunolt, in a frog costume, read the book, "The Frightened Frog." Others instrumental in the project were Vicki Goley, assistant curriculum coordinator in administration; Amanda Cummings, coordinator of the third-grade teachers at Magnolia Park for the program; and local garden club members Shirley Margaret Godsey, Bonnie Andrews and Libby Gunn.

Students learned to protect frogs by not going frog gigging, not disturbing a pod of frog eggs and not trying to keep frogs as pets because they are very fragile and they can get diseases from humans.

Hunolt presented the school a copy of "The Frightened Frog" for its library on behalf of the Ocean Springs Garden Club, which is also presenting programs on Woodsy Owl, Smokey Bear and Pollinators to elementary students in addition to beautification plantings throughout Ocean Springs.

Haulsee to lead USM Panhellenic council

Hannah Haulsee of Long Beach has been elected president of Southern Miss College Panhellenic Council for sororities for the 2016 year. The council is the governing body for the eight National Panhellenic Council Chapters at Southern Miss in Hattiesburg.

Haulsee is a junior and a member of Delta Gamma sorority.

Moss Point Escatawpa students are pen pals

Moss Point Escatawpa Upper Elementary Third-Grade Gifted and Talented students (LIFT) are participating in a pen pal project with students in Uganda. This project is allowing students to incorporate the Mississippi Department of Education's Gifted Outcomes and third-grade benchmarks.

The project is coordinated by Moss Point High School graduate Vornita Harris.

Ocean Springs students place in science fair

More than 30 Ocean Springs High School students took part in the school's science fair, with placing participants earning a spot in Region VI competition in March in Biloxi.

Lori Nelson, a biology teacher at Ocean Springs High School, organized the school's fair.

Students presented experiments in eight categories: behavioral and social science; biochemistry; botany; chemistry; Earth, space, and environmental science; medicine and health; microbiology; and physics.

Winners:

Behavioral and social sciences: first place, Adora Norman; second place, Valencia Shuler; honorable mention, Gabby Cruz

Botany: first place, Jon Beatty

Chemistry: first place, Mariana Strawn

Earth, space and environmental sciences: first place, Amelia Moore; second place, Sukhi Borse; third place, Caroline Wiygul; honorable mention, Sadie Smith

Medicine and health: first place, Carter Brown

Physics: honorable mention, Kiara Batson

Pass Christian student on dean's list at Ottawa

Bobby Nguyen Vo of Pass Christian is on the dean's honor roll at Ottawa University for the fall semester, earning a GPA of 3.5 or better on a 4.0 scale.

This story was originally published January 2, 2016 at 7:48 PM with the headline "EDUCATION NOTEBOOK (Jan. 3) ."