Taylor Frederick, Maddison Paule, Sean Grim, and Kemper Vogel were recently honored as the recipients of the 2006 Joan Spicher Student Award. The presentation was made on Sunday March 19, 2006 at the Pennsylvania Middle School Association (PMSA) State Conference held in State College, PA. Frederick, Paule, Grim, and Vogel were selected from statewide nominations of students recognized by their teachers for leadership abilities, good citizenship, and positive contributions to their school and community.

The Joan Spicher Student Award is very prestigious as it recognizes the very heart of middle level education, the student. The Student Award is the brainchild of Joan Spicher, a dedicated middle level educator from Hershey Middle School. Joan is a past President of PMSA. She continues to be active at the State and National levels currently representing our region as a Trustee on the Board of NMSA. Due to her belief that outstanding students should be recognized for their efforts, PMSA has honored 14 young people in the past 7 years.

Four young adolescents who exemplify the qualities and essence for which this award was designed are selected as recipients each year. These four students represent every middle level child in the State of Pennsylvania. Each student award winner, two males and two females, receives a plaque, a check for $500.00 to be used by their school, and a $1000.00 US Savings Bond.

Far too little attention is given to the student that comes to school every day, treats others with kindness and works hard to make their school and community a better place to live. Out of the many, many nominations that were received, the selection committee reviewed unfailingly courteous, kind, respectful, trustworthy, and cheerful students like Kara, Nicole, Ashley, and Alex. Leaders like Breanna, David, Juliana, Marion, Ashley, Lisa, Lauren, and Kyla gave hundreds of volunteer hours and collected nonperishable food for food pantries, raised thousands of dollars to support Toys for Tots, gave books and crafts to children in the community, and organized many other community service projects. Max and Laura gave hundreds of hours to their fellow students as peer tutors and peer mediators. Caitlin,

Text Box: Joan Spicher Student Award Recipients Honored by Paul A. Meck, PMSA Awards Committee

Raphael, Emily, Erik, Amanda, and Stephen were recognized because they are true ladies, gentlemen, and everyday role models to their classmates. Chelsea and Joseph were nominated because they do the little things like pick up litter in the halls and make their schools look good. Dedicated musical and theatrical performers like Alexandra and Rose were nominated for the ways they share their talents. Colleen, Sheena and Jenni were nominated because they are dependable, quietly volunteer, and show integrity in everything they do. This award is about those students, the ones who do the right thing and are making a positive difference day-to-day.

Taylor Frederick is an 8^th grade student from Ligonier Valley Middle School in the Ligonier Valley School District. Her teachers describe her as a student who gives 100%, is consistently cooperative and happily on task. She loves basketball, volleyball, softball, and coaches young cheerleaders for the local midget league. In school, she assists in the library and voluntarily helps classmates during the tutorial period. In the community, Taylor is active in her church, does Christmas shopping for less fortunate individuals, baby-sits, visits individuals in a personal care facility, and does work for the elderly. As a 4-H member, Taylor loves animals. She rides horses and shows dogs in obedience, conformation and agility competitions throughout the country. She is also active in raising money for a local no-kill animal shelter in her community.

One of the most unique characteristics about Taylor is that she accomplishes all of this as a significantly hearing impaired individual. Taylor and her dog Tigger, an Australian shepherd, make many visits to local homes bringing joy to the elderly and disabled. This outstanding student always shows her bright award winning personality

Maddison Paule is an 8^th grade student from Moon Area Middle School in the Moon Area School District. Teachers describe this young lady as flawless, dependable, caring, considerate, cooperative and an awesome leader in school and in the community. As an honor student, she is always offering to help others in the classroom. Being well rounded, Maddison