Stock research earns 2nd place

GROVE CITY — Bryan Thomas of Mars and Christian Lamarco of Victor, N.Y., both Grove City College finance majors, placed second at the Seeking Alpha Stock Pitch competition at Carnegie Mellon University. The 15 competing schools were among the nation’s top business schools.

The competition required an investment thesis for any U.S. company with a market capitalization greater than $500 million. Thomas and Lamarco’s thesis was “Nexstar Broadcasting: Misconceptions Surrounding Advertisers And Retransmissions Provide Tremendous Upside.”

Their research was published by Seeking Alpha, a website that offers news and insight to professional and independent investors.

Lamarco, Thomas and other students recently secured approval for the Grove City College Investment Society, which is intended to give students real-world investment management experience.

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Butler native earns Leadership Medal

Cincinnati, Ohio — Cory Murphy of Butler received the University of Cincinnati’s most prestigious honor for undergraduates, the Presidential Leadership Medal of Excellence.

The medal is awarded to exceptional graduating students who best exemplify scholarship, leadership, character, service and the ideals of the university.

Murphy studied in Turkey on a U.S. State Department scholarship. While president of the university’s International Business Club, he piloted the Early Exposure Program to introduce high school students to the university’s study abroad opportunities. Other universities are now creating similar programs.

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FINDLAY, Ohio — Sarah Cashdollar of Mars was recognized as a graduating senior with a 3.6 or above GPA at the University of Findlay’s 2015 Symposium for Scholarship and Creativity.

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MARIETTA, Ohio — Ryley Cowan of Sarver received the Living the Ritual Award at the annual Campus Involvement Awards ceremony of Marietta College.

The award recognizes members of sororities and fraternities who exemplify their chapter’s values and principles and challenge chapter and community members to do the same.

Cowan is a graduate of Freeport High School and is studying petroleum engineering.

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BATON ROUGE, La. — The following students were initiated into the honor society Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines:

Michael Prijatelj of Butler was initiated at Carnegie Mellon University.

Emily Barnett of Saxonburg, Katherine Kosiorek of Slippery Rock and Janelle Stafford of Cranberry Township were initiated at Clarion University.

Jacqueline Orr of Mars was initiated at Elon University.

Jamie Gloeckner of Evans City was initiated at the Pennsylvania State University.

Adam Davila of Cranberry Township was initiated at University of Maryland University College.

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INDIANA, Pa. — Students were selected for membership in Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society at Indiana (Pa.) University. Membership recognizes a GPA of 3.5 or higher at the end of their freshman year. The new members include:

Chris Barto of Mars is the son of Steve and Diane Barto and a graduate of North Allegheny High School. He is studying finance.

Madison Brickler of Cabot is the daughter of Brent and Kelly Brickler and a graduate of Knoch High School. She received the Sutton Scholarship and is studying nursing.

Hannah Elliott of Prospect is the daughter of Jamie Burke and Keith Gallagher, and Ilan Elliott of Slippery Rock. He is a graduate of Slippery Rock High School. She received the Sutton Scholarship and is studying nursing.

Madison Emanuele of Butler is the daughter of David and Marla Emanuele and a graduate of Butler High School. She is studying early childhood and special education.

Katherine Gutmann of Cranberry Township is the daughter of Gregory Gutmann and Kathleen Gutmann and a graduate of Seneca Valley High School. She received the Sutton Scholarship and is studying dance arts.

L. Ethan Lewis of Mars is the son of Anne Lewis and Larry Lewis and a graduate of Mars High School. He is studying business management.

Megan McCormick of Butler is the daughter of Dan and Pam McCormick and a graduate of Knoch High School. She is studying nursing.

Evan Salak of Zelienople is the son of Michael and Lisa Salak and a graduate of Seneca Valley High School. He is studying finance.

Carly Shearer of Slippery Rock is the daughter of Dan and Debby Shearer and a graduate of Slippery Rock High School. She is studying speech and language pathology and audiology.

Katelyn Williams of Grove City is the daughter of Sam and Tammy Williams and a graduate of Grove City High School. She received the Sutton Scholars award and is studying nursing.

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INDIANA, Pa. — The Sutton Scholars academic achievement scholarship program at Indiana (Pa.) University announced recipients for the 2015-16 academic year, including the following students:

Rhiannon Kosar is the daughter of Robert and Jennifer Kosar of Renfrew and a senior at Butler High School. She plans to study music education.

Abigail Kugel is the daughter of Curt and Catherine Kugel of Renfrew and a senior at Seneca Valley High School. She plans to study business.

William Scott is the son of Jeff and Allison Scott of Ellwood City and a senior at Lincoln High School. He plans to study finance.

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JACKSON TWP — The Seneca Valley Biology Club won first and third place in the Butler County Envirothon Competition.

The winning team will attend the state competition at the University of Pittsburgh Johnstown campus.

First place team members included Morgan Blanyer, Nicole Gloeckner, Hannah Hale, Katy Kolor and Jonnie Poepoe.

The third place team included Maya Albanowski, Hannah McCann, Nora Gavaghan and Connor Warren.

Five teams from the intermediate high school and the senior high school attended the competition.

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JACKSON TWP — Seven teams from the Seneca Valley School District participated in a Sea, Air and Land (SEAL) engineering/robotics challenge sponsored by Penn State Electro-Optics Center at Northpointe Business Park in Armstrong County.

The combined Land/Air team earned second place in the air challenge, and Land Team 1 finished in second place in the land portion of the challenge.

The combined Land/Air team included Jacob Staub, Brendan Rae, Drew Dengler, Mike Moon, Devin Kane, Tyler Herrman, Josh Harmke, Lauren Sauer, Cassidy Friedrich, Isaac Mroch, Zack Dancisin, Connor Williams, Kobie Rankin and Dillion Duvall.

Land Team 1 included Will Vickerman, Ryan Maurer, Jake Gebrosky, Adam Newpol, Larry Schultheis and Jessica Tan.

The teams competed against each other and other school districts.

For each challenge students had to build a robotic device to be teleoperated in a specific environment and perform a variety of tasks within time limitations.

Seneca Valley students enrolled in Honors Engineering and Experimentation participated in the SEAL Challenge as a course project.

Notices of student awards, scholarships and other honors are printed each Sunday in the Butler Eagle. Notices should be sent to: Focus, Butler Eagle, P.O. Box 271, Butler, PA 16003, or focus@butlereagle.com.

Student announcements should include the name and phone number of the person providing the information.