While most of her peers were busy starting middle school this year, Alexa Kerner took a different path.  She began rehearsals in August for a show that opened in September. Alexa appeared as Young Fiona in the Broadway National Tour of "Shrek the Musical." The show performed in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania. The show generally performed eight times a week and Alexa alternated playing Young Fiona and Young Shrek and Grumpy. Young Fiona sings the song "I Know it's Today" with Teen Fiona and Grown-Up …

It may be the last day of school, but teachers of a rising 5th grader at Wyoming say she deserves some end-of-school recognition for organizing a book club and getting fellow 4th as well as 5th graders interested in reading and discussing what they’ve read all year. Throughout the year, twice a month, 20 fourth and fifth graders came together after school to munch on tortilla chips and salsa and discuss their latest book club selection. The volunteer book club was Lucy Hall’s brainchild, and her teachers say it has been a labor of love for Lucy who first brought the idea to her former third …

 The student team from Millburn High School ranked 2nd in the state in the prestigious 61st Annual Merck State Science Day.  The Biology and Physics teams from MHS earned first place, and three MHS students are Merck Scholars, those who score at the highest individual levels. Students from 94 high schools around New Jersey competed in this annual competition, demonstrating their mastery in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Integrated Sciences. The total school score is based on the combined scores from all science disciplines in the competition. As in 2010, the Biology and Physics teams from …

Millburn resident Mark Robinson didn't really think about it when his youngest son Luke, handed him a large envelope addressed to the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) and asked him to please add postage and mail it for him. He was surprised however to receive a call some time later while walking from his office at Warner Brothers in New York.  "A voice asked if I was Mark Robinson, and I said yes and then they asked if I had a son named Luke,"  Robinson recalls.  "I was a bit concerned and asked what it was about and they told me he had won the contest to invent a new WWE pay-per-view …

Wyoming School Fourth grader Maggie Ma won first place in the “My Essex County” Poster Contest last week. The contest is open to 4th graders throughout Essex County and is sponsored by the County Clerk’s Office. More than 600 students entered posters this year and County Clerk Chris Durkin hosted the top 10 winners at a reception last week, where it was announced that Maggie came in first out of all the entries. This is not the first time a Wyoming student has done well in the contest. Last year, a Ryan Sunada-Wong won 3rd place. Fourth-graders from all over the county, who study the State of…

While the community debates the merits of Mandarin-immersion charter schools as well as the strength of the world language program  in the school district, four Millburn High School students won awards last week using Chinese and Korean. The students earned the awards at the 28th Annual Orlando Saa Poetry Recitation Contest at William Paterson University, where 700 students from 50 high schools from around the state participated in a unique competition in which students recite an assigned poem in one of the 10 languages taught in regional schools: Arabic, Chinese, English as a Second Language…

It may not defy the laws of physics, but Millburn High School is now the National PhysicsBowl champion  for the third time and a MHS student earned the top spot nationwide for the second time. The MHS PhysicsBowl Division I team is the highest scoring team in the nation with a score of 166 with junior Henry Meng leading the way with by earning the No. 1 score in the competition In addition, the Division II team was the second highest scorer in its region (NJ & PA). School team scores are determined by the sum of the scores of the top five students competing. The PhysicsBowl competition …

The Millburn Art Advisory Committee is awarding seven students its scholarships for artistic acheivement this year -- three seniors and four juniors.  Students, friends, family, administrators, teachers and supporters will celebrate the achievements of Annie Dolan, Saraya Kanagara Stephanie Tager, Chelsea Castro, Emily Draper, Chanthia Ma and Wenyun Zou on May 25 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Paper Mill Playhouse Art Gallery. The event and awards are sponsored by The Art Advisory Committee of Millburn and Short Hills, Jerry's Artist Outlet of West Orange, Wells Fargo Bank of Millburn, La Strada …

“The word of the day is gusto,” announced moderator "Beau Handsome," host of the second annual Scholastic Word Girl Definition Competition in New York City, where Wyoming School’s third grader Grace Varnish competed against three other students chosen to represent their schools in Scholastic’s Definition Competition viewed “live” on a webcast in classrooms all over the country and abroad.  Ten of Grace’s third grade classmates joined her at Scholastic to cheer her on from the studio audience, proudly waving handmade banners and posters. Back home in Millburn, the rest of the 3rd grade was …

Eight students from Millburn High School have their artwork on display at the Newark Art Museum as a part of the Congressional Arts Competition sponsored by Congressman Donald Payne and open to students living within the 10th Congressional District. The Awards Ceremony was held on  April 25 , and awards were given in seven categories including drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, mixed media, photography and digital art. Students whose work is exhibited at the museum include seniors Carina Chang, Sarah Bernstein and Hannah Sotnick, juniors Morgan Gruer and Chelsea Castro, sophomores Jake …

Millburn High School Latin students earned 38 awards on the 2011 National Latin Exam, including 8 gold medals and 12 silver medals. The NLE is an internationally administered, multiple-choice test of the Latin language and ancient Roman culture. This year over 150,000 students in all 50 states and from 12 countries participated in the Exam.  Antonia de Vegh, MHS Latin teacher, presented the awards to the students at the Roman Banquet (an event celebrating Greco-Roman culture open to students, parents, and administrators at MHS) on Thursday.   Gold Medals Latin I Emily Dalton Matthew Deshaw …

Evan Sherman, graduating senior from Millburn High School,  is one of 560 students nationwide named as a semifinalist in the 2011 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. The semifinalists were selected from more than 3,000 candidates on the basis of superior achievements, leadership qualities, personal character and involvement in community and school activities. Finalists will be be selected by The Commission on Presidential Scholars, which will choose one young man and one young woman from each state, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and from among U.S. students living abroad. …

Know the difference between “triclinium” and “cubiculum?” If so, you’re on par with four students at St. Rose of Lima Academy, who recently earned certificates for outstanding achievement on the National Latin Exam. One of the students, seventh grader Emily Goncalves of Elizabeth, earned a perfect score on the Introduction to Latin exam – a first in the eight years that St. Rose students have been taking the national exam. The annual exam, given each March in several versions based on experience level, has developed an international following, with students in 14 countries from Australia to …

Remember your favorite teacher? The one who made an impact on you —whether it was to instill a love of learning or let you laugh or offer you the support you needed to do well? Fourth grader Jake Garfinkle has had that teacher too. And recently he made sure other people get to know how great she is as well. Garfinkle, who attends Hartshorn School, wrote an essay about his 3rd grade teacher, Tara Mezzasalma, for the Barnes & Noble "My Favorite Teacher” Contest. “Mrs. Mezzasalma is an amazing teacher for many reasons,” he wrote in his essay. “She never yelled, unless you did something really …

Township residents Mia Jenness, 5, and Alexa Kerner, 11, perform this weekend in the Montclair Operetta Club's prodution of "Gypsy." Mia, who lives in Millburn and will attend South Mountain School next year, plays the role of Toddler June and Balloon Girl, and Alexa, a Short Hills resident who goes to Deerfield Elementary, plays the role of Baby June in the production at the Westminster Center for the Arts in Bloomfield. The show is directed by award winning director, Bob Cline, with musical direction by Gonzalo Valencia. "Gypsy," which features a talented cast from New York and New Jersey, …

 Carly Maitlin is a veteran performer at the tender age of 14.  She's been in the Broadway productions of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Shrek: The Musical." "I took some voice lessons when I was little and really liked it," she said.  "My mom knew some people, and so I started going out on auditions." The talented Maitlin, who played "Reno" in this weekends middle school production of "Anything Goes" says that performing isn't her ultimate goal.  "This is a really fun hobby but I want to be a vet or a doctor," she said. "I want to help people.  I know everyone says that, but it's true…

 Ryan Siegel of Short Hills, was only an eighth-grader when he scored a perfect 800 on the math portion of the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Siegel is now a freshman at Millburn High School. The Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth, known as CTY, holds an annual, global talent search in which seventh and eighth graders compete by taking the SAT alongside older, college-bound juniors and seniors.   The awards ceremony, known as "The Grand Ceremony," honors the very top scoring students from around the world at the event on the Johns Hopkins campus. On March 27, students who were high…

 Two talented artists – one in grade school and one in high school – get the nod as our Whiz Kids this week. Both Michael Yuan, a sophomore at Millburn High School, and Ryan Sunada-Wong, a 5th grader in Philip Mistretta’s class at Wyoming School,  took first place honors for their artwork recently at the New Jersey Association for Gifted Children’s Conference on Gifted Education. This year’s theme came in the form of a question: “How will the world grow in the next 20 years and what part will you play?” Ryan won first place for Grades 3-5 for his artwork that is drawn around the premise “In …

At Christmas, 10-year-old Lisa Sandoli started thinking about how lucky she was to receive so many gifts and new clothes. Then she started thinking about the homeless and others so much less fortunate. So she went to her mom with a plan. “At the time, it was very cold outside, so she thought she could collect blankets for the homeless,” said Lisa’s mom, Sandy Sandoli. Her mom thought it was a great idea, and Lisa asked her friend and fellow South Mountain 4th grader Katherine Besom to help her out. The two went to Principal Tina Lehn, who approved of the drive and let the girls put up posters…

Patch Whiz Kids/Team/Club of the week: Millburn High School AP physics students Peter Baggaley, Rei Otake, Henry Meng and Qi Wang Whiz Kids’ School/Church/Community Center: Millburn High School, Millburn Whiz Kids’ Accomplishment: The four were named semifinalists in the 2011 U.S. Physics Team competition on March 4. This means their scores on a qualifying exam given in January were among the top 300 in the nation, out of approximately 3,000 who participated. Wednesday, they took a semi-qualifying test, which Millburn High School physics teacher Robert Barkovitz described in an email as “a …