St. George Blog | Youth

St. George Betas Attend National Convention

On June 14-18, 38 of our Beta Club members attended the Junior Beta Club National Convention in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The following students represented St. George:

Rising 9th Graders Emma Cantwell, Jessie Cromer, Delaney Dwyer, Macie Lin, Sofy Partida, Sofia Perez-Gomez, and George Welch

Rising 8th Graders Briggs Blume, Berkleigh Bowling, Kalina Calvillo, Ramiro Cavazos, Patrick Clausewitz, Rudy Davila, Eric Draeger, Nicholas Fritz, Grace Garrett, Sofia Garza-Serreli, Xander King, Lilly Kate Lannom, Megan Liu, Benicio Martinez, Sofia Pina-Cervantes, Krish Puri, Sofia Scheuerman, Kate Taylor, and Hallie Verstuyft-Trautwein

Rising 7th Graders Brooklyn Bowling, Kiara Dwivedi, Bennett Kiehne, Lauren Lacroix, Emersyn Landrum, Emily McLaughlin, Chase Miller, James Miller Nelson, Viviane Notzon, Sadie Salter, Maria Santandreu, and Rachele Zarattini

The national convention was in Oklahoma, so this year’s convention theme was “Beta Fueling the Future.” Because our students placed in the following competitions at our state convention in February, we were eligible to compete in these national contests:

Painting and Photography

Jessie Cromer, after capturing 1st Place in Painting and “Best in Show” at the state convention, entered her amazing “Oliver Tufts” which is a close-up of a lynx. Jessie’s painting unfortunately did not place, but we all agree that it truly is a masterpiece.

In the photography category, Sofia Perez-Gomez entered her close-up color photo of her horse Leroy “smiling” as water was splashed in his face. Sofia’s outstanding photo won 1st Place at state but unfortunately did not receive a ribbon at the national level.

Written Academic Tests

Emersyn Landrum participated in the written 6th Grade Language Arts test (having won 1st Place at state). Emersyn exited the testing room saying how difficult she thought the exam was. We think she was simply setting us up so that we would not expect much, and it worked because we were thrilled when Emersyn won 3rd place in this contest!

Our Book Battle team of Megan Liu, Benicio Martinez, and Sofia Pina-Cervantes captured 1st Place at the state competition. They read a list of 12 required books and worked together for months discussing the assigned pieces of literature. After collectively answering written objective and essay questions on the national test, this devoted team of readers captured 5th Place!

This year’s contest theme was “The Future Starts with Beta.” Our dynamic team used technology to create an impressive video which captured 2nd at our state convention and then allowed us to also compete in this contest at the National Convention.  The Technology Team consisted of: Lindsay Blanton, Elise Bostain, Ramiro Cavazos, Rudy Davila, Eric Draeger,
Nicholas Fritz, Carolyn King, Xander King, Bradley Landrum, AJ Liang, Gaige Lipscomb, Jackson Pipes,
Krish Puri, and George Welch. We are thrilled to inform you that our video that used a Back to the Future theme, captured 8th Place at National! Team members present at National were Ramiro Cavazos, Rudy Davila, Eric Draeger, Nicholas Fritz, Xander King, Krish Puri, and George Welch.

Group Talent

After winning 1st Place in Group Talent at the National Convention for the past two years, the St. George Betas knew we had “big shoes to fill.” Each of our attending Betas (other than Ramiro, who could not participate in any other contests other than running for office) sang and danced as we told a condensed 6-minute story of Mary Poppins on

stage. After our students gave it their all during the preliminary and final performances, St. George was awarded 1st Place in the nation in the Group Talent category!

We are extremely proud to share that this is our third consecutive year to capture 1st Place in Group Talent at the Junior Beta National Convention! AMAZING!!!!!!!! Click here to watch the award winning performance. 

Premier Performers

Macie Lin, Viviane Notzon, and Rachele Zarattini “captured the eyes” of judges at our state convention in February and were selected to perform as Premier Performers at the national convention. After putting in several hours of dance and vocal practices at the convention center in Oklahoma City, these 3 girls were outstanding entertainers in ensemble groups on stage at the convention’s opening convocation. We are proud of you, ladies!

Because we earned the right to compete in two on-site contests at a Beta Club Leadership Summit in October 2018, the following teams participated:

Lauren Lacroix, Sadie Salter, Maria Santandreu, and Sofia Pina-Cervantes competed in a challenge called “Lead Outside the Box.” These four Betas were given a problem that involved students’ over-usage of technology and social media. The team had to devise, propose, and explain a solution for this problematic situation. After a brainstorming session, our team’s proposal was to completely limit student internet usage during the school day, while providing many more student opportunities for healthy face-to-face interactions. This group’s quick thinking skills and teamwork made us proud!

In the expo titled “Rapid Response” our team of Kalina Calvillo, Jessie Cromer, Eric Draeger, Sofia Garza-Serreli, Meg Liu, Sofia Perez-Gomez, Krish Puri, and George Welch had to quickly “apply collaborative leadership skills and effective communication to produce a result or response in an allotted time.” Our team employed their abstract reasoning, problem-solving, and memory skills to complete two different on-site tasks within a very short amount of time. They definitely exhibited great teamwork!

“We will never forget you, Mary Poppins!”

Jumping into nationals like…

Paying our respects at the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. 

The Man, The Myth, The holder of all the things! Thank you, Mr. Davila!

No matter what, there is always Starbucks!

Betas in Training!

“It’s not ok…”-Ms. Leibowitz