SCHOOL NOTEBOOK: Meeting on teens and drugs SCHOOL NOTEBOOK: Meeting on teens and drugs (December 27, 2000)

What are the odds of teens going through high school without touching alcohol or trying marijuana?

Dr. Marsha Rosenbaum will deal with this and other questions in a talk, "Safety First: A Reality-based Approach to Teens and Drugs," she will give Tuesday, January 9, at Menlo-Atherton High School. Her talk begins at 7:30 p.m. in the school's J Building, following a brief Menlo-Atherton PTSA meeting at 7:15 p.m.

As a mother of a 16-year-old, Dr. Rosenbaum says she would like to advocate abstinence, but in a society permeated with prescription drugs and coffee shops on every corner, realistic decisions must be made. Her talk aims to give parents "talking points" to discuss with young adults in their family.

Her talk will be simultaneously translated into Spanish via headphones, provided by the Sequoia Union High School District. The program is part of Sequoia's ongoing Parent Education Institute. For more information, call the district office at 369-1411, ext. 2317.

Honors for Menlo seniors

Two seniors at Menlo School have been named "Outstanding Participants" in the 2001 National Achievement Program, conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. The privately financed academic competition honors African American high school students.

Seniors Jahi Caracter and Nicholas Casey scored in the top 5 percent of more than 110,000 African Americans who took the qualifying PSAT/NMSQT test last spring and requested entry into the program.

Their names will be included in a roster of participants sent to about 1,500 of the nation's four-year colleges and universities as a way of advancing their educational opportunities.

M-A junior participates in Washington, D.C., conference

Ryan Denny, a junior at Menlo-Atherton High School, recently joined about 350 high school juniors and seniors at a conference in Washington, D.C., for students interested in a law career.

Ryan, 16, was selected to participate in the National Youth Leadership Forum on Law that included sessions on legal issues, such as flag burning and a ban on school prayer, and visits to courts and law schools.

The conference "definitely piqued my interest in law," says Ryan, who thinking about going to law school after college.

Ryan says he enjoys history and debating, and is not afraid of public speaking. He attended Laurel, Encinal and Hillview Middle schools before coming to M-A. His parents are Scott and Deborah Denny of Menlo Park.

The youth leadership forum, a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization, sponsors career-oriented programs for high school students who demonstrate leadership potential.

Math contest draws 300 middle school students

More than 300 students from 17 schools throughout the Bay Area participated in Crystal Springs Uplands School's version of the "big game," an afternoon of solving challenging math problems individually, and as part of a team.

Among the individual winners in the school's 19th annual Middle School Math Contest was David Castor of Woodside, a sixth-grader at Menlo School. who placed third in the competition for sixth-graders.

The contest, divided by grade level, was coordinated by John Newburger of Crystal Springs Uplands School. In addition to medals and plaques given to the top finishers, the winning teams received large bags of candy.

Menlo student speaks at World AIDS Day

Ansley Shrigley, an Atherton resident and a senior at Menlo School in Atherton, was among speakers at the World AIDS Day ceremony December 1 at San Francisco's National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park.

Ansley spoke about her experience visiting HIV-positive orphans in Romania last summer.

Fourteen other Menlo students served as Youth Ambassadors at the event. They are: sophomores Liz Balassone, Jessica Berry, Mike Blanchette, Griffin Camper, Robbie Curry, Bayley Dixon, Julie Edwards, Priya Nayak and Josh Steinhart; and juniors Ari Dubin, Krista Knight, Erin Kravitz, Leah Segall and Jenny Werba.