1st Prince George's Student on State Board

By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 5, 2007

Renford G. Freemantle, a junior at High Point High School in Beltsville, will take the place of Brian W. Frazee as the student member of the state board of education, the first time that a Prince George's County student has held the post.

A win for Prince George's was inevitable at this stage, because Freemantle's only remaining competitor for the job -- fellow finalist Haywood L. Perry III-- is a junior at Oxon Hill High School.

But the outcome of the race between Freemantle and Perry, announced by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) last week, was a tough call. Perry is polished, often making his public appearances in a suit and shined shoes, while Freemantle is more casual. Both juniors are earnest and have taken leadership roles inside and outside their schools.

Freemantle is a member of the High Point High School Student Government Association and recently testified before the General Assembly, supporting improvements for school library-media centers. Perry is the resident of the Oxon Hill chapter of the Future Business Leaders of America, and recently organized a meeting of the Region I Student Coalition that attracted the county's superintendent, John E. Deasy, and several local notables.

"Sometimes I would get too stressed," Freemantle said of his six-month campaign for the office, and he admitted to quarreling with his friends occasionally. "But they stood by me."

His agenda: "Making sure the students in the state of Maryland's voices are heard."

Perry, meanwhile, has sent a letter to his backers and members of the General Assembly saying that he was glad to have run.

"This amazing experience has reinforced my passion for student advocacy," he said. "My school guidance counselor instructed me to keep my chin held high and my chest puffed out, and that is exactly what I intend to do."

Science Bowl Upset

"An eye is to a hurricane what a blank is to an earthquake?" Dave Zahren, the host of the Prince George's County Science Bowl, asked the tense, three-student teams from University Park and James McHenry elementary schools.

It was the decisive question, and Robert Holloway, a startlingly precocious sixth-grader at James McHenry, hit the buzzer. He and his teammates, Michelle Nguyen and Angel Perez, already had been able to identify the most abundant gas in the atmosphere (nitrogen) and what a polydactylous cat has too many of. (Toes.)

"An epicenter?" he answered. And just like that, University Park's three-year winning streak in the Science Bowl came to an earth-shaking end in the semifinal round of the 21-year-old competition.

In the final round, James McHenry faced Glenarden Woods, a school on a tear since winning a national Blue Ribbon School award recognizing its academic achievement. Its team of Clay Thompson, Hilda Xhepa and Arin Squire-Wilson crushed Rockledge in their semifinal match.

In the final round, they answered questions about what stomata are (the pores on a plant) and what presbyosmia is (a loss of the sense of smell). At the end of the first round, James McHenry led, 85 to 80.

They took a break, where Clay explained his wish to go to Mars "to prove aliens are not out to kill us," and Arin chimed in, "On Clay's next trip to Mars, I call shotgun!"

In the second half, Glenarden Woods started to pull ahead as Hilda, an aspiring pediatric neurosurgeon, answered a question right about eupepsia, which is good digestion. (The students weren't all perfect: Charles Darwin's famous voyage was on the HMS Beagle, not the Yorkshire.) Glenarden Woods triumphed in the end, winning 225 to 160.

"I will never forget this moment," Arin said. Hilda, on the other hand, said that amid all the excitement she couldn't remember a single question she had answered.

"I don't even remember being there," she said.

Scholar of Week

Ashley Proctor, a senior at Potomac High School, is the Prince George's County Scholar of the Week.

Proctor has a 3.8 grade-point average and wants to pursue degrees in psychology and criminal justice when she goes to college. She's gotten her start by taking Advanced Placement classes in psychology, literature and physics.

Outside the classroom, she worked as a page for the Maryland General Assembly, tutored her peers and served as president of her school's branch of the National Honor Society.