Congratulations to the following students who have made the Rivermont Collegiate 3^rd Quarter Honor Roll!

Middle School (Grades 6-8)

High Honors (All grades B+ or higher or B or higher for courses designated as Upper School level)

Asha Alla

Clayton Douglas

Faith Douglas

Giavanna Eckhardt

Jessica Elliott

Kenton Fee

Aislinn Geedey

Jacob Hansen

Mary Aisling McDowell

Elizabeth Paxton

Patricio Salazar

Grace Sampson

Anna Senjem

Jack Westphal

Honors (All grades B- or higher or C+ or higher for courses designated as Upper School level)

Christopher Cumberbatch

Elizabeth Decker

Evan Didelot

Chirag Gowda

William Heaney

Jonathon Kokoruda

Dwira Nandini

Jozef Porubcin

Davis Priest

Lauren Schroeder

Genevieve Strasser

Nikhil Wagher

Upper School (Grades 9-12)

Headmaster's List (GPA 3.85-4.00)

Adam Dada

Maram El-Geneidy

Tejasvi Kotte

Benjamin Nordick

Manasa Pagadala

Emilia Porubcin

Michal Porubcin

Shravya Pothula

Suhas Seshadri

MingSui Tang

Loring Telleen

Distinction (GPA 3.50-3.84)

Christian Elliott

Anastasia Eganova

Shivani Ganesh

Ryan Howell

Summer Lawrence

Victoria Mbakwe

Amanda McVey

Grace Moran

Thomas Rodgers

Alexander Skillin

Pavel Yashurkin

Merit (GPA 3.00-3.49)

Spencer Brown

Hema Chimpidi

Jennah Davison

Sukhmani Gill

Aditya Gohain

Nathan McVey

Hayley Moran

Joseph Rodgers

"3, 2, 1 - LEGO!"  This enthusiastic phrase was on repeat last Saturday at Iowa's FIRST LEGO League (FLL) state competition held on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, IA.  72 teams from around the state (including twelve from the Quad Cities) qualified to attend the event.  Each team of 9-14 year olds was armed with a LEGO Mindstorms NXT robot they designed, built, and programmed themselves.

The results are in, and the Quad Cities has reason to be proud!  Four of the twelve teams from our region received awards - BIG ONES!

Team "World Changers" (Trinity Lutheran, Davenport), brought home top honors with the Champion's award.  Not far behind was team "Technical Difficulties" (Rivermont Collegiate, Bettendorf), winner of the third place Champion's Award trophy.  Other big winners included team "Charged Up", (Rivermont Collegiate, Bettendorf) winning 1st place for Core Values, and the "Robodawgs" (Bettendorf Middle School) winning 1st place for their project.

Rivermont Collegiate's robotics coach, Rachel Chamberlain, praised the program, saying, "FIRST LEGO League provides a fun and creative platform for kids to learn basic engineering techniques.  Students work really hard during the four month season, but it's all done in a fun, hands-on way that allows them to make discoveries every day with their team mates.  It's a great way to learn!"  Rivermont Collegiate had five teams at the regional competition in Davenport last month, three of which qualified for the state competition, and two who brought home with big wins.

"I'm so proud of all the teams from the Quad Cities." Says Chamberlain, "FLL teaches 'Gracious Professionalism' and the kids all know it's not about what you win, but about what you discover along the way.  The trophies are neat (especially the ones made out of Legos), but what's even neater is the pride the kids feel when they talk about what they learned.  It's music to my ears to hear them encourage their peers to participate next year.  It's an experience they will never forget."

FIRST LEGO League is an international robotics competition for teams of two-ten students.  This year there were over 20,000 teams in more than 70 countries, including over 400 teams from the state of Iowa.  56 teams from the Quad Cities competed in the regional qualifier last December at the Putnam Museum in Davenport, IA, and twelve teams were selected to advance to the state competition at Iowa State University on Saturday, January 19, 2013.

During the four month FLL season, students work together with their team to build a robot that can accomplish predetermined missions on a common playing field to earn points.  Each team receives the same field with the same missions at the beginning of the season.  With a 2 1/2 minute time limit, teams must figure out how to make the best use of their robot's time to earn as many points as possible.  At the competition, teams go head-to-head in a race against the clock, and then add up points at the end with referees.  The robots are completely autonomous, meaning they are preprogrammed and not controlled by any sort of remote or handheld device.  The programming is done on the computer ahead of time, and then uploaded to the robots before the competition.

In addition to building and programming a robot, teams are tasked with creating an innovative solution to a real world problem to present in front of a panel of judges.  This year's theme was "Senior Solutions" - solving problems affecting senior citizens.  Students solicited the help of local experts when designing their inventions and shared their ideas with members of the community before the competition to get feedback and advice.

The third and final piece of the FIRST LEGO League competition was Core Values.  According to the First Lego League website, the FLL Core Values are the cornerstones of the FLL program. They are among the fundamental elements that distinguish FLL from other programs of its kind.  By embracing the Core Values, participants learn that friendly competition and mutual gain are not separate goals, and that helping one another is the foundation of teamwork.

Harrison Brown, a 5th grader at Rivermont Collegiate, was on team "Charged Up" (winner of the Core Values award).  "I'm proud that our team won the Core Values award." Says Brown, "This is actually a really important award. I feel like our team worked well together and had fun.  That's probably why we won.  If a team doesn't have strong Core Values, it would be hard for them to be successful because they wouldn't be able to work well together."

"The real life skills these kids learn through this program are priceless." Says Chamberlain, "We're not only teaching kids how to program and become future engineers, but we are teaching them how to problem solve, brainstorm, build presentations, and work on a team.  These skills are invaluable and will cross over into many different areas of their life and future careers."

Although teams don't know details yet about next year's challenge, they do know the theme - "Nature's Fury".  The 2013 season officially kicks off on August 27, 2013.

For more information about First Lego League, visit www.firstlegoleague.org.  For more information about this year's championship at Iowa State University, visit www.isek.iastate.edu/fll.

Wednesday, April 25th  9:00am-2:00pm

Raising money for (and assisting in) obstetric surgery in Zambia, Africa. Founding a music program for kindergarteners and first graders that holds concerts on a regular basis, including one for former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Creating a film on childhood obesity that is used to kick off First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" campaign. Organizing an art auction featuring nationwide artists to fight for clean air in a community affected by pollution from a nearby metal refinery. Though these may sound like the endeavors of large philanthropic organizations, they are the accomplishments of young people throughout the U.S. who have yet to even earn their high school diplomas!

Rivermont Collegiate is extremely proud to be represented in a select group of students profiled in the Spring, 2012 issue of Independent School magazine, published by the National Association of Independent Schools. Students from twelve schools were selected to represent the thousands of "Changemakers" in independent schools nationwide and profiled in the issue. Pavane Gorrepati, a senior at Rivermont Collegiate in Bettendorf and daughter of Dr. Krishna and Pramilarani Gorrepati of Davenport, is profiled as a "Student Changemaker" - described in the article as those "young people who refuse the narrow label of student. Of course, they take care of schoolwork, but they also look outside of themselves and see a world full of need - and they want to help."

Pavane, who intends to devote her life to the study of alternative energy, is the recipient of numerous top titles at regional, state, and national science fairs. Pavane spent last summer in Changsha, China on a Borlaug-Ruan International Internship researching ways to grow rice suited to thrive in warmer climates with less water than traditional rice-growing regions. Pavane is founder and president of the Rivermont Environmental Club and author of A Buzzie Bee Tale, a children's book about a bee and its efforts to help family and friends whose environment has been affected by climate change. "I've been very active with the environment and inspiring kids to be a part of it, and I felt that the only way to make a difference in the future is to educate the youth," she said.

Rivermont is excited that one of our students is recognized in such an elite group and, of course, most definitely proud of Pavane's many accomplishments. Other Changemakers include students from Catlin Gabel School in Oregon, Marlborough School, Menlo School, Sage Hill School, Wildwood School, and Lick-Wilmerding High School in California, Lowell School in Washington, DC, Albuquerque Academy in New Mexica, Punahou School in Hawaii, and Gulf Stream School and Saint Andrew's School in Florida.

Independent School, published four times a year by the National Association of Independent Schools, is an open forum exchange of information about elementary and secondary education in general and independent schools in particular. With an objective to provide informative, thought-provoking articles focused on key themes in education, Independent School has been the premier publication in private education for over sixty years and was named 2011 Periodical of the Year by the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP).