Teacher Makes a Big Difference

Carol Ulvilden, choral teacher at Rancho Alamitos High School in Garden Grove, received the “I Make a Difference” award from the Garden Grove Education Assn. for her community service and musical dedication.

Besides her work at the school, the Garden Grove resident has been choir director and organist at St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Garden Grove for 35 years and has been a violinist in concerts and musicals.

Ulvilden also leads Carol’s Bell Choir, composed of students, which performs at the Disneyland Candle Light Ceremony and at other community functions.

Fountain Valley resident Charlotte M. Clarke has received a Soroptimist International of Irvine Woman of Distinction award for “dedicated efforts to preserve the environment.”

Clarke, a biology instructor at Fullerton College since 1974, also teaches wilderness survival and leads hikes and nature walks.

As part of the honor a donation was made to the Soroptimist Foundation in her name to help women seeking to improve their quality of life through education.

Darrell Manrique an eighth-grader at Marco F. Forster Junior High in San Juan Capistrano, won first place in the Capistrano Unified School District annual Junior High School Spelling Contest. All entrants were given 20 words to spell.

For making impressive individual improvements in academic subjects, Huntington Beach High School awarded the following students with Most Improved Student Awards: Julie Nemeth, Tanira Castro, Shadd Holyfield, Martha Hurtado, Demetro Martinez, Anna Maria Vergara, Brian Zenns, Nola Sipan, Chaw Ngo, Alex Espinoza, Amy Wlodkowski, Mike Reighley, Mamo Garcia, Nia Djokovic, Shannon Chambers and Jennifer Allen.

Also included are Vanessa Duve, Deana Itow, Kathleen Sayle, Lauren Sweeny, Jeremy Wray, Bryan Williams, Lan Nguyen, Aaron La Bean, Mario Espinoza, Stacie Bowman, Musthapha Abdi, Chris Watts and Troy Wooton.

Jonathan Keen, 12, a home study program student with Maranatha Christian Academy in Costa Mesa, has won the Southwest Pacific Regional Juvenile Boys figure-skating contest held recently in Conejo Valley, in Ventura County. A member of the Orange County Figure Skating Club, he will travel to New York for the April 19-20 Juvenile and Intermediate National Championships sponsored by the U.S. Figure Skating Assn.

Orange Coast College’s two-time defending national champion speech and debate team captured the first-place sweepstakes trophy at the recent Fall Championship Tournament at Mt. San Antonio College. The debating field included teams from USC, UCLA and San Diego State.

Sophomore Kevin Dawes of Huntington Beach captured gold medals in extemporaneous speaking and the Lincoln-Douglas debate style. Kersena London of Tustin won a gold medal in oral interpretation.

Orange Coast College art director Donald Sible’s sculpture of a bronze alligator head emerging from water and titled “Methuselah” has been selected for inclusion in a national touring wildlife art exhibit that extends through October, 1991.

Sible, a member of the Society of Animal Artists, was also selected for the Elliott Liskin Memorial Award, the society’s highest honor, for representational sculpture for the second time.

Rock and Waterscape Systems Inc. of Irvine has been presented an award of honor for its entryway rock and water design at the Huntington Beach Waterfront Hilton from the Southern California Branch of the Landscape Architecture Foundation.