Duke University Talent Identification Program:  This year 30 seventh grade students (83% of the class) at Villa were invited to participate in the Duke University Talent Identification Program (TIP). This program seeks to locate academically gifted seventh grade students. To qualify, a student must have scored in the top 5% of the national age-grade norms on a recognized standardized achievement test in verbal, mathematics, or composite. They had the opportunity to take the ACT or SAT as seventh grade TIP participants.  Congratulations again to these students for this outstanding achievement!  Of these 30 students, 18 students chose to participate in the Duke TIP by taking either the ACT or SAT. Of these 18 students, 14 have received special recognition.  Twelve students qualify for the State Recognition ceremony at Western Kentucky University on May 28 by scoring very competitively on these college entrance tests. The twelve students who are receiving State Recognition are Regan Bales, Eric Baugh, Nicholas Boucher, Braxton Foote, Charissa Junker, Kayla Kuris, John Oldfield, Kelsey O’Sullivan, Sarah Penney, Monica Spritzky, Madison Trenkamp, and Amanda Werner. Congratulations to these outstanding Villa students!  In addition, two students qualify for Grand Recognition! Eric Baugh and Nicholas Boucher are invited to the Grand Ceremony to be held at Duke University, Durham, NC on May 24.   They are in the top 3% of seventh graders in the nation who have taken the ACT.

  Congratulations to our Elementary Quick Recall Team!  This weekend, students competed in the Regional Governor’s Cup Competition.  The Quick Recall team placed 2^nd.  Michael Chang placed 1^st in the Science competition and 2^nd in the Math competition.  Overall Villa Madonna Academy won 2^nd place at the competition. This means that VMA placed 2^nd out of 20 elementary schools in our region!  Way to go J.