School Notebook School Notebook (April 21, 2004)

Menlo School finishes fourth in Quiz Kids

Menlo School team finished fourth among 42 Bay Area high schools in the Bay Area Quiz Kids competition, losing its final match Saturday to Half Moon Bay High School.

Half Moon Bay went on to win the championship -- and an all-expenses-paid trip to Europe -- by defeating Harker High School by just one question: What's the name of Oliver Cromwell's followers? Answer: the Round Heads.

"To tell you the truth, I think the other teams prepared a lot more than we did," said Stephen Chait, captain of the Menlo School team.

A real trouper

Emily Rago, an eighth-grader at Portola Valley¼s Corte Madera School, is a real trouper. She auditioned and played the role of "Master Bombar" in the California Theater Center's production of the "Hobbit" that ran for a total of 46 performances.

This production is the first time the theater group, based at the Sunnyvale Community Theater, has toured with children to places such as Ohlone College in Fremont, Pleasanton, Canada College, and Watsonville. There were 11 children from around the South Bay and six professional actors in the cast.

Emily, 13, the daughter of Karen and Carl Rago of Portola Valley, has taken part in the theater center's summer workshops.

During the summer, the California Theater Center is scheduled to offer in Portola Valley a junior conservatory for ages 6 to 8, from July 20 to 30; and a full-day theater conservatory for ages 8 to 18, July 19 to August 7 at Corte Madera School.

For information about the programs, check www.ctcinc.org.

Menlo youth serves in AmeriCorps

David Lewin-Rowen, son of Gordon Lewin and Hillary Rowen of Menlo Park, recently began work with the National Civilian Community Corps, a program of AmeriCorps, a national service program that works on environmental, educational and public-safety projects.

Mr. Lewin-Rowen is joining 252 other members who work on service projects from the central region campus in Denver. AmeriCorps members, ages 18-24, receive $4,725 to help pay for college in exchange for 1,700 hours of community service. For more information, go to www.americorps.org.

Jennifer Patell studies in New Zealand

Jennifer Patell, a graduate of Menlo School and a junior theater major, will join 98 other Whitman College students in a foreign-study program this spring. She will study at the University of Dunedin in New Zealand. Whitman College is in Walla Walla, Washington.

Menlo Park resident studies abroad

Menlo-Atherton High School graduate Kathryn Hargis, now a junior at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut, studied abroad in Italy for the 2003 fall semester.

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