4/23/10 Local Teen News

 Comedian says school ‘waste of time’ – Aries Spears began performing stand-up at age 14 and dropped-out in 10th grade to study comedy on television and in the clubs.  “School is highly overrated,” he says. “Once you learn how to add, subtract, read and write, it’s a waste of time unless you go on ‘Jeopardy.’” (N&O)

 Profile on NC Youth Tap Ensemble - One of the world’s most premiere tap groups relies on collaboration where older dancers teach routines to the younger dancers.  Michelle Dorrance, daughter of UNC women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance, will perform with the ensemble this weekend at the Carolina Theater in Durham.  An NCYTE alumna, Michelle Dorrance is now considered one of the premier tap dancers in the world, highly sought after and currently performing in the Off-Broadway production of STOMP.  (Daily Tar Heel)

 Profile of Durham 4-H Meat Goat Club – Led by Joel Dahms of Durham Academy and Alex Flores-Burgess, the team last year won the state championship in a competition called the 4-H Jr. Livestock Skill-a-Thon, and they competed hard at the 65th Annual Central Piedmont Junior Livestock Show & Sale Wednesday and Thursday at the Central Carolina Holstein Association Barn in Orange County. (Herald-Sun)

 Student profile of Olivia Bass - Garner High School senior will attend UNC to double major in Biology and Spanish, with hopes of attending medical school.  “Olivia is a great person; but more significantly she is a kind-hearted, positive, spirited, young lady,” Golden said. “Never have I seen her without a smile on her face. Her smile is contagious to both faculty and students alike. And whether in the classroom, at sporting events or merely in the hall between classes, her personality draws people to her. She is an asset to Garner Magnet High School and the Garner community in general.” (Garner Citizen)

4/13/10 Teen news: Local(∆) and national

(∆)Gears of War 3 ready for 2011 – Cary-based Epic Games announced a 2011 release for the final chapter of the trilogy that has already 12 million games to date.  Epic is also releasing a first-person shooter game Bulletstorm next year as well.  Epic’s design director, Cliff Bleszinski, was scheduled to discuss “Gears of War 3″ Monday night on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.” The trailer for the game that Bleszinski planned to unveil on the show, called “Ashes to Ashes,” also is set to debut today at www.gearsofwar.xbox.com. (N&O)

 New queen of fashion is TN teen – Blair Fowler’s beauty and fashion videos have attracted 61 million views and she is able to direct record number of viewers to other fashion and clothing websites.  The crossover between saleswoman and internet friend isn’t just blurred, it’s completely unimportant: her audience may be aware that they’re being pitched to, but they don’t really care, as long as the pitch is coming from someone they feel they can trust. (Jezebel)

(∆)Wake Tech students’ culinary contest - As the local jobless rate continues to climb, a record number of students have enrolled in the Wake Tech culinary program, which is hosting a pastry contest today in Raleigh.  ”If I had to do it all again and choose between getting my bachelor’s or going to culinary school, I would go to culinary school,” he said. “It fits what I like to do.” (N&O)

 Oregon school district may go to 4 days – In order to save money, the Klamath Falls school district is considering expanding the school day to 5pm and eliminating Friday from the school week.  Imagine having every Friday off, thus making Thursday night the new Friday night, forever?? So what if you’re in school until five. What are you doing until five anyway? (Gawker)

4/12/10 National Teen News

 Some unpaid internships may be illegal – With young people facing a lack of jobs, government regulators worry that companies may be using internships to obtain labor without paying minimum wages.  “If you’re a for-profit employer or you want to pursue an internship with a for-profit employer, there aren’t going to be many circumstances where you can have an internship and not be paid and still be in compliance with the law,” said Nancy J. Leppink, the acting director of the department’s wage and hour division. (NYTimes)

 Teen to attempt Everest summit – 13-year-old Jordan Romero is attempting to be the youngest climber to ascent Mount Everest and the Seven Summits.  “Obese children are the future of America the way things are going,” he tells CNN in Kathmandu Friday as he prepared to leave for the mountain on Sunday.”I am hoping to change that by doing what I do — climbing and motivational speaking. I want to motivate children and inspire them to get outdoors.” (CNN)

 Should students be paid for school? – Time Magazine profiles Roland Fryer’s national study of paying students money for better grades, higher test scores, etc., which obtained mixed results depending on the method and the city.  One clue came out of the interviews Fryer’s team conducted with students in New York City. The students were universally excited about the money, and they wanted to earn more. They just didn’t seem to know how. When researchers asked them how they could raise their scores, the kids mentioned test-taking strategies like reading the questions more carefully. But they didn’t talk about the substantive work that leads to learning. “No one said they were going to stay after class and talk to the teacher,” Fryer says. “Not one.” (TIME)

 Best college tours - Stanford University, another school that offers a self-guided campus walking tour iPhone app, also offers golf cart tours, which enable prospective students and families to see parts of its 8,200 acre campus that aren’t covered in walking tours. (US News)

3/31/10 National teens news

H.S. junior owns dj company, develops tv shows - 17-year-old entrepreneur Oliver Bogner balances school with promoting parties for his dj company, producing and hosting a teen dating show for television and pitching other reality shows to national tv networks.  “When he walked through the door, I was like, ‘What is this?’ He’s a kid,” said Jenny Daly, a producer with Target Entertainment Group. “He was 16. He’s doing what people in the industry coming to me have been doing for 10 years. (LA Times)

A teen jury of peers – 17 teen courts throughout the nation hear cases and decide punishments for first-time juvenile offenders, with the idea that teen jurors would better know what questions to ask and the punishment that may be most effective.  Timothy Williams, a senior who last year sat in the defendant’s chair for fighting and petty theft, said his trial before other students was intimidating and more than a little embarrassing — but effective.”They pretty much understood where I was coming from,” recalled the 17-year-old, who was back in court — this time as a juror. After he was sentenced to curfew, tutoring, community service and meeting minimum grade requirements, he has been doing better in school and hasn’t been in trouble since, he said. (LATimes)

Students still prefer school food to chef’s - After working with a West Virginia school as part of “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,” most students still preferred the school’s nuggets and pizzas to the chef’s healthier menu.  And when denied the food they were used to, many stopped buying the school lunch. (Salon)

Why girls outperform boys in school? - NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof examines why girls are outperforming boys in almost every single academic category. Mr. Whitmire argues that the basic problem is an increased emphasis on verbal skills, often taught in sedate ways that bore boys. “The world has gotten more verbal,” he writes. “Boys haven’t.” (NYTimes)

3/24/10 Local teen news

Wake schools end diversity policy - By a 5-4 vote, the Wake school board voted to end three decades of having race or socioeconomic status as a factor in student assignment of schools, instead deciding to create neighborhood community schools.  “This gives us our direction now,” said John Tedesco. “We’re now going to community schools. This will give parents more stability.” During a public comment period, police removed more than 20 people, mostly in their teens and early 20s, who sat in the hallway outside the meeting room and pierced the proceedings with loud chanting: “No resegregation in our town! Shut it down!” (N&O)

Apex robotics team reaches finals – Apex H.S. robotics team will compete against 23 countries in the FTC World Championships next month in Atlanta and which will be televised on ESPN.“They like this club because they actually get to do something,” said the team’s coach, Faith Starr, a teacher at Apex High School and herself a robot builder when she was a student at Southeast Raleigh High School. “They have to figure out how to design angles that will put the balls on target. They’re using trigonometry, not just learning it in a book.” (Cary News)

A.P. credits on rise with UNC students - Arriving with college credits allows students more schedule flexibility or the ability to graduate early, but some professors are worried that the quality of education is decreased by so many students receiving college credits for high school classes.  “I think it has hurt the quality of the degree for our best students,” said economics professor Ralph Byrns. He said he thinks the University’s emphasis on producing graduates encourages them to award credit to students that could decreases the value of student degrees if they graduate too quickly. (Daily Tar Heel)

Auto class now popular at Durham Tech – Due to the economy, a new co-op program and the Toyota effect, enrollment has doubled in the Automative Systems Technology class at Durham Tech.  “All these Toyota recalls have convinced people — they need a lot of training to work on cars,” Smith said. “They’re a lot more complicated than they used to be.” (Herald-Sun)