The Geauga County recipient of the 2024 prestigious Franklin B. Walter Award went to West Geauga High School senior Myra Utterback...
Franklin B. Walter Award
The Geauga County recipient of the 2024 prestigious Franklin B. Walter Award went to West Geauga High School senior Myra Utterback. Myra was selected from among a pool of talented students representing school districts in Geauga County.
Myra won the honor based on her academic grades, test scores, school-related activities and awards. The presentation took place at the annual Franklin B. Walter All-Scholastic Awards Program on April 15 at the Nationwide Hotel & Conference Center in Lewis Center, Ohio. Myra was accompanied by her father, Gary Utterback. Also in attendance for the banquet and presentation were Jennifer Felker, superintendent of the Educational Service Center of the Western Reserve, which awards $500 to the recipient, and Dr. Rich Markwardt, superintendent of the West Geauga Local School District.
GEAR 4-H Contest
West Geauga students in the Geauga Engineering and Robotics 4-H Club (GEAR) had great success at a recent contest with their robotics projects that they’ve been working on since October. In the maze contest, Anthony Fioritto participated in the high school division and Ginny Goodall in the middle school division. They programmed their robot to navigate a complex maze. Ginny took home third place or bronze.
Two teams of West Geauga students competed in the rescue robots contest. The rescue robot is designed to simulate going into a demolished building with the goal of retrieving four ping pong balls. The sixth-grade team comprised of Collette Johnson, Sam Geraci and Noah Lear took first place or gold. The eighth-grade team of Lena Wright, Mandi Petonic, Molly Moidell and Janna Winningham took second place or silver. In addition to second place, the eighth-grade team was also awarded the prestigious Honda Innovation Award, which was the top competition prize.
There were over 460 robots and over 1,300 participants at the event. Winning the Honda Innovation Award was an extraordinary accomplishment, especially as it was their first year at the competition. The GEAR advisors are Jeff and Adrienne La Favre.
Power of the Pen
West Geauga Middle School’s Power of the Pen team recently competed in the regional tournament at Shaker Middle School. Even with an absent team member, the team took fourth place out of 32 teams competing. Congratulations to team members Addie Oja, Janna Winningham, Tessa Leonard, Gabby Ohlsen and Aurora Pavick.
Addie and Gabby will be moving on to the state tournament at Ashland University in May.
