3 Top Chess Players Named in San Juan

After a competition that spanned six weeks, Niguel Hills Junior High School eighth-grader Steven Yang was declared winner of the San Juan Capistrano school’s annual chess tournament.

This marks the second consecutive year that Yang has won both first place in his grade level and the school championship.

Sixth-grader Ryan Olson won his grade level and Ali Kazerouni won the seventh-grade competition. The tournament drew 63 student players who battled it out during lunch periods.

Garden Grove attorney Stan Smolin was named Citizen of the Year by Garden Grove Elks Lodge 1952 “in recognition of his dedication to his community and its citizens.”

Cami Vaught, 13, of Irvine has been named a regional semifinalist in ‘TEEN Magazine’s annual Great Model Search that has drawn 24,000 entries.

Vaught’s picture is appearing in the April edition of the magazine as one of 480 regional candidates, who will be reduced to 12 for the final regional competition.

The nationwide winner will appear on the October cover of the magazine and receive an assortment of prizes.

The California Career Education Assn. selected Tustin’s Foothill High School to receive its Excellence in Education for Outstanding Career Center Award.

Foothill was the only school in Southern California to receive the annual award.

Barbara Schultz, Foothill’s career guidance technician, accepted the award for the school at the association’s conference in Concord.

Corona del Mar resident Fern Pirkle, founder and president of the Friends of the Irvine Coast, was honored at a recognition banquet by the Orange Coast League of Women Voters.

A series of speakers recognized her work as head of a grass-roots citizens’ group that helped preserve more than 7,000 acres of open space along a stretch of undeveloped coastline.

Keynote speaker Judy Rosener, a league member, emphasized the important effect that citizens’ groups, such as the Friends, have on public policy and planning.

After planting shade trees and installing a watering system as his community project, Gregory V. Bishop, 18, of Huntington Beach was recognized at a court of honor for his Eagle Scout award. He is an Orange Coast College student.

Jeff Modica, 11, of Fullerton, who was on a YMCA outing and swam out on his boogie board to rescue a struggling boy being carried out to the ocean, was honored with the Westec Award for Youth Heroism. Westec is a home-security provider.

Ronald Barr, professor of dermatology and pathology at UC Irvine and president of the American Society of Dermopathology, has been appointed to the American Board of Dermatology. The board oversees the training activities of all U.S. dermatology residents. Barr is a San Clemente resident.