MMI News

Five MMI Preparatory School seniors were recognized as Semifinalists or Commended Students in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program. Ali Aijaz, Anirban Chowdhury, Allison McGeehan and Nicholas Young were among a national field of just 16,000 students to be named Semifinalists, while Samuel Sessock was among only 34,000 individuals who were selected as Commended Students in the 62nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

MMI Preparatory School seniors Anirban Chowdhury, the son of Bhaskar and Saumitri Chowdhury of Hazle Township, and Ali Aijaz, the son of Fakhruddin and Dr. Naghma Aijaz of Mountaintop, attended the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University this summer. The pair joined high school students from across the state to complete research and problem-solving projects. The Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Sciences is an annual summer enrichment program for rising high school seniors. The program hosts some of the state’s brightest students for five weeks and provides them with course work and lab work in biology,...

MMI Preparatory School held its 11th annual Wall of Fame dinner on Saturday, September 17, welcoming four new members to its Wall of Fame. Established in 2006, the MMI Wall of Fame honors alumni in addition to past faculty, staff, and board members who have distinguished themselves in the areas of athletics, business, sciences, education, government, public service, the arts, or humanities. Wall of Fame inductees are selected in the following categories: Athletic Achievement, Community Service, Service to MMI, and Professional Achievement. During this year’s dinner and awards ceremony, the following inductees joined the Wall of Fame: John E. Hollis...

MMI Preparatory School art instructor Lisa Marie Ferry recently earned the prestigious Master of Arts degree in Art Education with an Emphasis in Special Populations from Moore College of Art and Design. It is the only degree of its kind in the country and they are very selective in the application process. The rigorous program trains and empowers art educators to develop skills for adapting and implementing strategies that enrich the lives of all learners. Once accepted into the master’s program, candidates develop and test innovative techniques through their action-based research in a field setting, while critically assessing art education policies...

MMI Preparatory School seniors Keenan Overa, Katherine Eschenbach and Jessica Smith were among a select group of students from 20 different countries who attended the month-long Pennsylvania School for Global Entrepreneurship at Lehigh University in July. The program is open to sophomores and juniors ages 15-18, who were selected to attend during the 2015-2016 school year. The Global Entrepreneurship program exposed the students to the topics of entrepreneurship, globalization, team building, project management, leadership and working within a culturally diverse environment and ignited the students’ spirit of creativity, innovation and learning.

The MMI Preparatory School campus was full of activity this summer and students saw multiple facility upgrades both inside and outside the school when they returned to classes on August 23 to open the 2016-17 school year. Highlights of the facility improvements include ongoing construction on a new multi-purpose building near MMI’s athletic fields, improved drainage at the baseball and softball fields and new display cases outside the library to house Native American artifacts that were donated by an MMI alumnus.

MMI Preparatory School rising sophomore Jessica McClellan, the daughter of Bruce and Patricia McClellan of Freeland, scored a 94 to capture the Girls 9-10 grade division of the Wyoming Valley Country Club Invitational at the Wyoming Valley Country Club in Wilkes-Barre. McClellan defeated five other golfers in her first year competing in the annual event. The tournament has four divisions for boys and girls in grades 9-10 and 11-12.

MMI Preparatory School rising senior Garrett Kost, the son of Joseph and Natalie Kost of Freeland, was selected to attend the Pennsylvania American Legion Keystone Boys State civic leadership program at Shippensburg University. More than 230 rising high school seniors from across Pennsylvania attended the weeklong program in June. The students learned about leadership, state and local government and civic participation. Participants are among the best and brightest of Pennsylvania’s future leaders.

Four MMI Preparatory School students competed at the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) National Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Rising senior Allison McGeehan placed fifth in the nation for Business Law. McGeehan was one of 55 Pennsylvania students to earn a national award. She will serve the state chapter on the Executive Committee as the Pennsylvania FBLA State Reporter for 2016-2017. Of her experience, McGeehan said, “Getting to spend a week in Atlanta with both my MMI and state office families was really amazing, and the pride I felt representing not only my school but all of Pennsylvania FBLA on...

MMI Preparatory School art instructor Lisa Marie Ferry was selected to give a presentation at the 2016 Pennsylvania Art Education Association conference, which will be held October 7-9 in Philadelphia. Ferry’s presentation is entitled “Using Postmodern Principles in Art Education Curriculum to Alleviate Anxiety” and will give participants knowledge and understanding of how to create art activities and an art journaling kit based on postmodern principles to help alleviate anxiety and stress symptoms. Presentation proposals were blind reviewed by two members of a committee of art educators from a variety of divisions.

A team of 10 MMI Preparatory School students received the Judges Choice Award for Outstanding Engineering during the New York/New Jersey region Botball Tournament, which was held in May in Rahway, New Jersey. MMI was the only school from Pennsylvania among the 16 teams that competed in the event. MMI students Jay Solgama, Erin Sari, Gabriella DeMelfi, Megan Marchetti, Lois Polashenski, Stephanie Zellner, Garrett Kost, Dillon Merenich, Samuel Sessock and Niklas Byriel competed in the event. MMI computer science instructor Justin Vincent was the student adviser for the competition.

MMI Preparatory School teams swept the top three positions in the seventh and eighth grade division in the year-long edition of the Stock Market Game for the University of Scranton region. The competition’s objective is to introduce participants to the fundamentals of investing. The team of Ayla Cooper, Carly Pennington, Harriet Wilson and Maya Rizkalla captured first place in the competition. Madyson Hornack, Benjamin Putnam, Joshua Serock and Grant Warren came in second. Emily Ankiewicz, Catrina Havrilla, Adam Tron, Macy Zenier and Abigail Walters finished third. MMI social sciences instructor Michael Scarlato was the student adviser for the competition.

MMI Preparatory School Class of 2016 graduates Andrew Alday and Shaelyn Heft were recently named the Hazleton Elks Lodge #200 Teenagers of the Year. This is the second year in a row that two MMI Preparatory School students received the honor. Claire Sheen and Michael Eisenhart were the 2015 Teenagers of the Year. MMI also had both a male and female student receive the award in 2010.

Five MMI Preparatory School Spanish students were honored for being among the top students in the Northeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. Alexander Sessock, Frederick Mejia, Maxwell Santana, Ali Aijaz and Daniel Tron, as well as MMI Spanish instructor Dennis Clarke, received awards during the local chapter’s Spanish Contest Awards dinner in May.

MMI Preparatory School rising juniors Jett Chen, Chava Kornblatt and Stephanie Zellner were selected to attend the 2016 Rotary Youth Leadership Awards conference, which will be held June 26-30 at Keystone College in La Plume. The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards conference is a program for high school students completing their sophomore year who have shown leadership potential in their home, school and community. The conference is designed to introduce participants to thoughts and ideas which, if utilized, will strengthen and develop their leadership skills. It also provides an environment where participants may discuss and exchange their ideas with other students.

MMI Preparatory School English instructor Jennifer Novotney has been selected by the Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English Language Arts as one of only 10 national recipients of the 2016 High School Teachers of Excellence Award and was chosen from among 1,700 applicants to give a presentation during the National Council of Teachers of English organization’s annual convention. The High School Teachers of Excellence Award is sponsored by the Secondary Section of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Novotney will be honored in an awards presentation on November 19 at the Secondary Section Luncheon during the NCTE Annual...