MMI finishes third overall at Luzerne County Envirothon
(Freeland, PA – May 1, 2015) – MMI Preparatory School finished third overall at the 2015 Luzerne County Envirothon.
The Envirothon is an annual environmental competition for high school students. The Luzerne Conservation District coordinates and sponsors the Luzerne County Envirothon each spring. The event is for Luzerne County high school students in grades 9-12. It tests their knowledge of the environment with five 100-point tests: Aquatics, Forestry, Soils, Wildlife, and a Current Issue, which changes each year. This year’s current issue was Urban Forestry.
A cumulative score is tabulated based on the performance in those five tests. MMI scored 341 points and was tied for first place with Nanticoke Area High School and Wyoming Area High School. The tiebreaker was based on the schools’ results on the Forestry test, which dropped MMI to third.
MMI’s team of Jay Solgama, Josh Kalada-Kania, William Bower, Sam Sessock and Sarah Moyer were third overall out of 34 teams and first in Aquatics. The team of Kelsey Donaldson, Ibby Bains, Chiara DeMelfi, Haylee Kirschner and Andrew Haber came in fourth overall and first in Urban Forestry.
Madison Luchi, Ani Chowdhury, Garrett Kost, Alyssa Famalette and Joey Delese combined to finish ninth overall; Lois Polashenski, Kayla Leonard, Gabby DeMelfi, George Palermo and Jakob Schwabe were 20th; and Samanta Cottone, Andrew Alday, Joey Synoski, Soprina Guarneri and Nicholas Vilov finished 30th.
The students competed under the direction of MMI Biological Sciences instructor Michael Mele. In 2012, MMI placed first overall in the state and regional event and 15th overall in the nation.