Yarmouth students help Indian students

The Yarmouth High School Global Action Club raised $1,300 on Oct. 19 with a screening of “Girl Rising,” a new documentary that tells the stories of young women from across the developing world and their struggles to overcome barriers to education. The club will use the proceeds to help fund the education of three female students at the Siddhartha School in the Ladakh region of India. The club, which has supported girls at the Siddhartha School for the past five years, also supports microlending nonprofit Kiva, which finances interest-free loans to women entrepreneurs in developing nations. “Girl Rising,” which features narration from Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway and Liam Neeson, was shown in Yarmouth High School’s performing arts center. The event was scheduled around the International Day of the Girl Child, a day of international observance declared by the United Nations, which took place on Oct. 11. Students from North Yarmouth Academy helped organize the screening.

High School musicians get jazzed

Seven Falmouth High School music students have been chosen to perform at the Maine Jazz All-State Festival. Each October, the Maine Music Educators Association holds auditions for statewide earn spots at the festival. The Falmouth students selected this year are Riley Engelberger, Isabelle Simbari, Julia Warnock, Alexandra Ertman, Emma Mooradian, Matt Estabrook and Nick Groat. The festival singers and instrumentalists rehearse together intensively for two days, culminating in a concert. Professional musicians from outside of Maine lead various combinations and groups of the students, alongside music teachers from various Maine schools. The students will rehearse and perform the first weekend in January at Bangor High School.

Falmouth and Freeport students ‘Commended’

Freeport High School senior Fiona Harbert has been named a 2014 National Merit Scholarship Commended Student. Falmouth High School seniors Lexis Anderson, Elise Bickford, Eric Chen, Robert Foley, Joseph Lesniak, Rory Nagem, Joshua White, Nathaniel Wolf and Prathusha Yerramilli have also been named Commended Students. These 10 scholastically talented students will be presented with a letter of commendation from their schools and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. About 34,000 Commended Students will be recognized nationwide. Although they will not continue in the 2014 competition for national Merit Scholarships awards, Commended Students placed among the top 5 percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2014 competition by taking the 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.