Several parties were recognized for their hard work during the October meeting of the Prince Edward County School Board.

Among those recognized were German exchange stu- dents and the high school’s sports teams. Additionally, a middle-schooler was honored for her admission to the Virginia Science Technology Engineering and Applied Mathematics (STEAM) Academy last summer.

The German exchange program is in its 14th year of swapping students with St. Angela’s School, located in Königstein, Germany. Each year the German students visit Farmville for two weeks in September
or October. This year, the students arrived on Oct. 1. Megan Cunningham, a history teacher at Prince Edward County High School, has helped arrange the exchange program for the past six years. Cunning- ham’s role involves finding host families, overseeing the program in America, planning field trips, and organizing air travel to Germany.

Prince Edward students spend time with their Ger- man hosts in June.

Cunningham said this program is meant to give students the opportunity to experience a new culture.

The students go to classes, join in extracurric- ular activities, participate in homecoming traditions and go on educational field trips. This year, the German students will go
to Colonial Williamsburg, Monticello, Michie Tavern and the Moton Museum. Families from Prince Edward typically host the students, though in recent years, including this one, Fuqua School families have agreed to host as well. Three Fuqua families are hosting this year.

American students will have a similar experience when visiting Germany.

This year’s Prince Edward High School host students are Portia Trent, Natalie Cheyne, Kaitlynn Childers, Grayson Andrews, Onastasia Paul, Meghan Williams and Lacy Lopez. Carson Johnson, Lauren Stimpson and Brinley Thomas are Fuqua students who are hosting this year.

Cunningham thanked the school board for its support in allowing the program to continue.

The board also recog- nized Amy Flanagan, a seventh-grader from Prince Edward County Middle School who was selected from more than 600 state- wide applicants to repre- sent Prince Edward at the Virginia STEAM Academy.

The program is an “inten- sive, immersive, residen- tial academy intended to inspire and expose rising sixth-eighth-graders in Virginia to STEAM con-

tent, applied learning and leadership development,” according to Jane Lee, Superintendent Barbara Johnson’s administrative assistant.

While participating in the STEAM program, Amy studied rockets, ships and the material science behind them. She learned about water conservation, health careers and computer data- base analysis. There were additional classes about

data science, statistics, python programming and robotics.

The school board expressed its pride in having Amy represent the middle school as a Summer STEAM Ambassador.

Prince Edward County also received recognition for winning the “Stay in

the Game” award for the third time in the past four years. This award, created by the Virginia High School League (VHSL), recognizes schools that had no player or coach ejections for the entire school year. Only 62 of the 316 VHSL member schools were given this award for the 2015-16 school year.

“The successes, accomplishments, and awards for our students and teachers play an integral part in the successes of the Prince Edward School System, as our schools are the basis of their futures,” said School Board Chairman Sherry Honeycutt.