The ATL Equations Team made a late surge for the district championship on the final day of the fall math academic games season at Forest Hill High School. Atlantic's players were edged out by Suncoast, 212-209, to finish 2nd in the district.

Finishing 2nd and 3rd individually for our entire school district and also qualifying for the 50th anniversary of the Academic Games National Tournament in Orlando in late April was senior Andrew Sack and junior C.J. Fisher. State tournament qualifiers for Atlantic include sophomore — and first year player — Jordan Rosen and senior Alec Li. Also competing this year and having great seasons were seniors Madison Lichtenstein, Abhirav Joshi and Anton Relin.

First year 9th grader Sarah Klein was a huge addition to the team this year and will be counted on to buoy what will prove to be a very young team next year.

USA Football has selected ATL junior Chanler Ferguson to play linebacker on the Under-18 National Team. USA Football is the official youth football partner of the NFL and manages U.S. national teams for international competition. 

Chanler and his team will represent the United States on the field against Team Canada at 7:30 pm on Friday, Jan. 30, at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

The Rotary Club of Delray Beach Student of the Month is Jared Franzese. Jared currently has a 3.11 GPA and is a very active member of the student body at Atlantic HS. He is a high ranking ROTC officer and a member of AVID. Jared donates his time to AVID as a tutor to help those in need. 

The Teacher of the Month is Nickoletta Loulis. From Ms. Loulis: "I am so honored to have been chosen as The Rotary Club of Delray Beach’s Teacher of the Month for October. This is my sixth year at Atlantic High and my 17th year teaching in Palm Beach County. At the end of my second year at Atlantic, I was delighted to watch many of my former first grade students graduate from high school! I’ve taught reading and I am now the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) elective teacher and IBCC Approaches to Learning teacher. I have been sent to several places in the U.S. to receive extensive training in the AVID system and I am a Trainer of Trainers. The Rotary Club of Delray Beach is responsible for providing amazing service and goodwill in our community. I am proud to say that the students I teach within the AVID program aspire to do the same, and as such, several of our students have been awarded the honor of student of the month through the years."

About the AVID program:

Students in the AVID program are chosen based on certain criteria: They are students in the academic middle who have potential but may have been overlooked. They are from middle to lower socioeconomic families and have been historically under-served in 4 year colleges, as well as being the first in family to attend college. These students also may have special circumstances that require additional support, i.e. single parent/loss of parent, language barriers, etc. Because these students have desire and determination and a positive attitude toward learning, grades, and school, they then take on advanced courses, and with college tutor support, they will achieve their goals. All of our AVID graduating classes have achieved 100% acceptance into 4 year universities or military officer recruitment (not to mention thousands in scholarships).  

In recent news, we have partnered with Scholar Career Coaching after school mentoring program. It is a perfect fit for our student needs, as it will provide invaluable support in making our student’s dreams come true. Our current students have seen the success of their predecessors and are so excited to begin working with ScholarCC mentors. 

We are always seeking guest speakers to inform us about career options, the journey through college and overall motivation. We are also accepting donations to purchase supplies and go on field trips to colleges. Our first trip is set for November 2, when we will be attending the AVID Career Symposium and Dolphins game with AVID students from all over Florida and Georgia.

Atlantic senior Grace Cenat won a $300 third place award in the American Association of Caregiving Youth's second annual essay contest. Last year’s winner, Atlantic graduate Kelsy Timot, shared her story at he Sept. 18 award reception at the Boca Raton Resort & Club.

The American Association of Caregiving Youth® (AACY) is a Florida-based non-profit corporation that began serving the greater Boca Raton community in 1998. Today AACY is the only organization of its kind in the US that addresses the issues of children who provide care for ill, injured, elderly or disabled family members. Its Caregiving Youth Project works in partnership with the Palm Beach County School District.

Congratulations to Atlantic's National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists and commended scholars!

Six seniors are semi-finalists, ranking among the highest scorers on the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test:

• Jonathan Li
  
• David McClintock
  
• Meera Radhakrishnan
  
• Marc Rodriguez
  
• Andrew Sack
  
• Adrianna Turner
  

Eleven seniors are National Merit Commended Scholars:

• Michael Barnard
  
• Rohan Challa
  
• Vivian Cheslack
  
• Surya Duggirala
  
• Shaaz Feldman
  
• Rachel Frazin
  
• Alec Li
  
• Dylan McClellan
  
• Nusrat Noor
  
• Sneh Parekh
  
• Eric Silva

Four students from Atlantic Community High School are among the group of local high school students selected for the prestigious Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience summer research internship. The internship provides highly-motivated juniors and seniors an opportunity to work alongside world-class scientists for six weeks.

The nine students selected for the 2014 program are: Ibrahim Ali, Brittany Fischer, Samantha Grubner and Revathi Ravella of Suncoast High School; Rohan Challa, Jonathan Li, David McClintockand Anton Relin of Atlantic Community High School; and Taisuke Yasuda of the Dreyfoos School of the Arts. The students were selected based on their exceptional academic records and keen interest in pursuing a career in science.

The 2014 summer research internship will run from June 16 to July 25.

Congratulations to the world champion Eagles Robotics Xperience team!  They competed April 24 in the robotics world competition in St. Louis.

Click here to see the team and their robot in action on WPTV news.

Congratulations to Atlantic construction academy director Tim Sachse who was presented with the Dwyer Award for Excellence in Career Education last week. It's been a busy couple of weeks for Mr. Sachse. He presided over the ribbon-cutting at the Construction Academy's Eagle's Nest 2 project on April 10. If you missed that event, click here to see video highlights on the School District television network website.

The Literary Club's final open-mic event of the school year will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 22, in the teacher dining room in the back of the cafeteria. The money raised at these coffee-house-style poetry slams is used to fund the school's literary magazine.

Junior Marc Rodriguez competed with the Palm Beach County All-Star Academic Challenge Team in Orlando April 10-12. The Palm Beach County team finished in first place in the first round, and ended the tournament in fourth place after the semi-finals. Click here for more information and a team picture.

Congratulations to senior Avencia Pierre, the Sun-Sentinel's Character Counts student of the week. Click here to read the Sun-Sentinel story.