3 Students in County Advance to Black History Makers Semifinals

Thirty Southern California students, including John Carlos Akira White of Brea-Olinda High School; Marla Marie Stripling of Marina High School in Huntington Beach, and Marqueda Young of Esperanza High School in Anaheim, have been named semifinalists in a “Black History Makers of Tomorrow” program sponsored by McDonald’s Operators’ Assn. of Southern California .

The students will be honored by McDonald’s franchises Feb. 27 at a Black History Month awards luncheon at the Hyatt Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles. It will be attended by black educational, civic and business leaders.

Tom Campbell and Chris Rink, both Buena Park High School students, will represent the Orange County chapter of Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge during a freedom and youth leadership conference from Feb. 22 to March 1 in Valley Forge, Pa.

Both students, who will also tour Washington, qualified for the trip by submitting an essay on the foundation. Hal Dixon, Buena Park High teacher, will attend the conference as a chaperon.

San Clemente High’s 1988-89 yearbook Thalassa was awarded first place in the overall excellence category in both the American Scholastic Press Assn. and Columbia Scholastic Press Assn. annual yearbook competition.

Editors of the yearbook were Sean Kunkle and Jinny Song. Shiela Kasprzyk is the yearbook adviser.

An estimated 2,000 schools competed in the nationwide contest. Winners were selected on the basis of an evaluation of writing, graphics and theme development.

Newport Beach resident Florence Roper, founder of five women’s clubs in Orange County, including the Monday Morning Club of Laguna Beach and the Thursday Morning Club of Newport Beach, will be honored on her 89th birthday by friends and associates for her service and accomplishments.

The party will be held Jan. 25 at the home of Mona Schwaer in Newport Beach. Florence Roper recently wrote an autobiography titled “Friendship Is My Business.”

Hinda Beral, for nine years the American Jewish Committee’s Orange County area director, will be honored with the group’s prestigious Micah Award for her dedication to interreligious affairs and community service.

Beral, who recently retired from her post, has been involved with the Catholic-Jewish Dialogue and was instrumental in organizing the Acculturation Conference for New Immigrants.

She also promoted “Hands Across the Campus,” a program to reduce bigotry. The program is being taught in several Orange County high schools.

The award will be presented Jan. 22 at a dinner in Le Meridien Hotel in Newport Beach.

Santa Ana attorney Glenn Mondo has been appointed to the Santa Ana City Council’s charter review committee, which is reviewing the effectiveness of the city’s constitution.

Roger McErlane, chief operating officer of POP/Sasaki, a Santa Ana land-planning and landscape-architecture firm, has been elected a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architecture.

Harold Willard, president of Willard Marking Devices Corp. in Santa Ana, has been elected a director of the Chicago-based Marking Devices Assn. International, a trade organization of manufacturers and distributors of marking machines such as rubber stamps and pre-inked hand stamps. The group has 500 members.

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