Send announcements to the Alexandria Gazette Packet, by e-mail to gazette@connectionnewspapers.com. Deadline is Friday at noon for the following week’s paper. Photos are encouraged. Call Rebecca Halik at 703-917-6407 with questions.
The Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) Special Education Parent Resource Center and Children Together are holding a workshop series on behavior. “Dr. Becky Bailey’s Conscious Discipline” will teach the basic skills of discipline. Sessions will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. on the following Tuesdays: April 8, 22 and 29. The location is Jefferson-Houston School for Arts and Academics, 1501 Cameron St., Alexandria. All parents, teachers and other school staff can benefit and are invited to this free series. Although the sessions are sequential, you need not attend all to benefit.
To register, call Anne Lipnick at 703-706-4552 or 571-274-2866 or e-mail alipnick@acps.k12.va.us.
The Alexandria City Public Schools English as a Second Language office is sponsoring a workshop series that will run from March 4 through May 21. The schedule and topics can be viewed online at http://www.acps.k12.va.us/news2008/nr2008022701.php. Spanish interpretation will be available at all of the workshops. Interpretation in other languages will be provided upon request as well as assistance with child care and transportation. Requests must be made in advance. For more information, contact Margaret Lorber, Bi-Lingual Parent Liaison, at 703-461-4084.
The City of Alexandria's Jerome "Buddie" Ford Nature Center, located at 5750 Sanger Ave., will offer a weeklong nature day camp for youth ages 7 to 10. The camp is scheduled from March 17-21, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily. Campers will participate in fun, nature-based learning activities, including woodland hikes, live animal exhibitions, journaling, story time, and nature games and crafts. Campers may be dropped off at 8:30 a.m. The camp fee is $275 for City residents ($300 for nonresidents) for the entire week. Registration is ongoing, and advance registration is required for all campers. For additional information or to register, call the Naturalist staff at 703-838-4829.
Alexandria Archaeology will be hosting an archaeology camp for kids this summer, and registrations are being accepted now. Campers will learn professional excavating, recording, and artifact-processing methods as they help uncover Alexandria's buried past while protecting historical resources. The camp is open to children ages 12 through 15. There are two one-week sessions, which run from Monday, July 21 through Friday, July 25, and from Monday, July 28 through Friday, Aug. 1. The camp day starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 3:30 p.m., and campers supply their own drinks, snacks and lunch. Camp costs $350 per session and some scholarships are available. Space is limited to just 15 campers per session and a non-refundable deposit of $100 is required to hold a slot. Each camper will receive a commemorative T-shirt. For more information or to register for camp, visit www.AlexandriaArchaeology.org or call 703-838-4399.
Volunteer Fairfax and the ExxonMobil Foundation selected 60 Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., nonprofit organizations as participants for the 2008 ExxonMobil Community Summer Jobs Program (CSJP). The ExxonMobil Community Summer Jobs Program provides full-time, undergraduate-level college students with an eight-week, paid internship to experience operations in a nonprofit community environment. College students interested in the ExxonMobil-funded internship may visit the Volunteer Fairfax Web site, www.volunteerfairfax.org, to obtain a list of participating local agencies, internship descriptions and agency contacts. Interested college students should apply directly to the selected agencies.
Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) elementary schools are holding open houses and/or school tours designed primarily for parents of rising kindergartners and other new ACPS students. If you are not sure to which school your child is assigned, please call 703-824-6710 or refer to the on-line Attendance Zone Locator at www.acps.k12.va.us/enroll/zonelocator.php. Call the individual school if you have further questions about visiting or enrollment.
Here are the scheduled events, listed by school:
* Charles Barrett Elementary School, 1115 Martha Custis Drive, 703-824-6960 – Tours take place from 9-10 a.m. on Wednesdays.
* George Mason Elementary School, 2601 Cameron Mills Road, 703-706-4470 –1 p.m. on March 28. Tours are given at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesdays.
* William Ramsay Elementary School, 5700 Sanger Ave., 703-824-6950 – Tours take place at 9 a.m. on Wednesdays.
* Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School, 435 Ferdinand Day Drive, 703-933-6300 – Tours take place at 10 a.m. on Thursdays.
Because all Alexandria City Public Schools were closed Friday, Feb. 22, due to inclement weather, the day will be made up Monday, April 28. April 28 is built into the school calendar as Make-up Day #1 and would have been a day off for students and staff if it wasn't needed as a make-up day. ACPS calendars can be viewed online at http://www.acps.k12.va.us/calendars/ .
Manuel Gomez, a Radford University senior psychology major from Alexandria, will present research at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research.
The following Alexandria residents graduated from Boston University: Laura K. Donovan, Master of Science in Human Resource Management; Stephanie A. Koss, Bachelor of Science in Communication; and Whitney L. Cumpson, Master of Criminal Justice in Criminal Justice.
Christina Shiroma, a graduate of St Stephens & St Agnes School, has been named to the Dean’s List for the fall semester at The College of Wooster. Shiroma, a senior philosophy major from Hilton Head Island, achieved a grade point average of 3.5 or above.
Alexandria Friends High School's next open house will be on Friday, March 7, from 9 a.m.-noon. Join for refreshments and learn how a Friends ("Quaker") education can help transform a high school student. 703-461-7222 to reserve your spot, and visit www.afriends.org for more information.
The T.C. Williams High School Lacrosse Boosters are continuing to take orders for 40-pound bags of high-quality, double-shredded hardwood mulch for $4.75 each. All proceeds will benefit the lacrosse team. Orders must be placed by March 19 for pick up or delivery from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on March 29 at George Washington Middle School, 1005 Mount Vernon Ave. Delivery is available in the city for orders of 10 bags or more for a $20 fee. Online order forms are available at http://www.acps.k12.va.us/tcw/mulch.pdf. Checks should be made out to T.C. Lacrosse Boosters and mailed to T.C. Lacrosse Boosters, c/o Linda Davenport, 206 Elm St., Alexandria, Va. 22301. 202-429-8068.
Wafa Khouloud Khadraoui of Alexandria was named as a finalist for Coca-Cola scholarship.
Jay Matthews of Alexandria was among a team of students at Davis & Elkins College to be awarded a first place prize of $1,000 from the West Virginia High Technology Consortium (WVHTC) Foundation. Matthews is majoring in computer science and math and is the son of Herbert and Dawn Matthews.