Two Teams Earn National Championship Titles

April 30, 2012 ~The last weekend of April was an award-winning weekend for students from Olathe Public Schools.

Culinary Arts Students Win National Culinary Competition

The Olathe School District's Culinary Arts program, housed at Olathe North High School, won the National ProStart Invitational culinary competition, held in Baltimore over the weekend.

Team members include Kylie Michaels from Olathe North, Brandon Ramirez from Olathe East High School, Erika Carsella from Olathe South High School, Lauryn Markle from Olathe Northwest High School, and Keagan Kingery from Olathe North. Mike Chrostowski is the lead chef and culinary arts instructor.

The students previously did extremely well at the state competition. At state, the students won first place and third place in Culinary; first and second place in Management; and first and second place in Edible Centerpiece.

Culinary Arts won the national competition in 2009-10 and placed second in 2010-11.

Olathe Northwest Team Wins National Battlebot Competition

The Olathe Northwest High School Battlebot team won the national championship presented by the United States Alliance for Technological Literacy (USATL). The STEM TECH Olympiad 2012 was held in Miami, Fla., April 25-29.

Olathe Northwest's bot Diesel defeated 169 other teams from across the country in the High School Large Class 120 lb. Bot division. The team, comprised of Olathe Northwest students and led by instructor Keith Manbeck, has been working on Diesel since early in the fall. Team members design, build, program and control the bot throughout the four-day competition.

National championship team members include: Blake Hampton, Nick Biasella, Tyler Day, Sterling Embers, Scott Fischer, Mitch Willis, Ryan Meier, Sean Pittman, Marco Psihountas, Matt Roby, Zach Willis, Tyler Beller, Jessica Krutty, Michaela Crall, Alejandra Ruiz and Brett Siegrist. The students are part of the district's 21st Century Aerospace and Engineering Program.