School Notes: Student Achievements and Heart Screenings

students are being honored by the Oakland Schools Career Focused Education Department and the Oakland Education Advisory group for their technical skills, certifications and more exhibited at the Oakland Schools Technical Campuses in Oakland County.

Sophomore Jason Drouillar and senior Craig Scalpone received awards for placing third in the Oakland Community College Drafting Competition, according to a release from Janet Roberts, director of community relations for the Huron Valley district. Both were nominated by their teacher Christine Trent.

Lakeland senior Luke LaFountain earned the award for exceptional student in career and technical education. LaFountain has excelled in video and graphic arts classes. He plans to major in media production in college and was nominated by his teacher Janet Reddy.

All students will be recognized at a dinner reception May 9 at Oakland Schools.

Healthy hearts

Milford High School will host free heart screenings for high school students, in partnership with Beaumont Hospital, from 3-7 p.m. May 20 and from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. May 21.

The screening will include a medical history, physical examination by a cardiologist, blood pressure check and an electrocardiogram. The screenings, designed for students in Grades 9-12, are meant to detect hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a heart disease that is treatable but often goes unnoticed. In the past seven years, more than 28 young people in Michigan, mostly student athletes, have died from HCM.

HCM, according to the release from Roberts, is a genetic mutation that causes an asymmetric, hypertrophied, nondilated left ventricle. When combined with physical exertion, this condition can lead to serious arrhythmias, including ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation.

Art students excel in competition

Milford student Holly Downey has won first place in the Congressional Art Competition with her painting Self Portrait. Downey will receive two tickets to Washington to see her work on display in the Conner Tunnel of the U.S. Capitol, where it will hang for one year. Downey is also eligible for a yearly renewable $5,000 scholarship to the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA.

Milford senior Amira Hegazy won third place for her painting Spherical Reflections in the same competition. Hegazy photographed a sunset, dropped water droplets on the photograph and then painted her vision with acrylic on canvas.

The Congressional Art Competition began in 1982, according to Roberts, to encourage and recognize the artistic talents of their young constituents. Since then, more than 650,000 high school students have participated in the nationwide competition.