After 22 rounds of spelling, it all came down to oregano. The word before that, beleaguer, was difficult, Shorewood Intermediate School seventh-grader Zoe Bockhorst said, but she put the letters in their proper order, and followed it up, spelling oregano with ease to win the regional spelling bee competition. "This year's word was actually quite easy for me to spell," she said, noting last year she got the word thesaurus, and misspelled it thesaurous during regionals.  Correctly spelling 20 words in the regional spelldown like “aristocracy” and “subterfuge," Zoe is now headed to the Badger …

This weekend, Shorewood’s Rachel Munson will hit the pool with the likes of Olympic gold medalists Michael Phelps, Dara Torres and Ryan Lochte. The 14-year-old Shorewood High School sophomore is among 1,500 to 1,800 swimmers who will compete for a chance to represent the USA at the 2012 London Olympics. Munson will be one of the youngest competing in Olympic trials in Omaha, NE June 25 through July 2. Just 52 — 26 males and 26 females —will be selected to the team. “This will be one of her first experiences seeing that level of competition,” said Munson's coach at Shorewood Swim Club, David …

Shorewood High School senior Katherine Kuchin was among 12 students in the state to achieve a perfect 36 score on the ACT college admission and placement exam this testing year, according to data released by ACT late last week. Nationally, roughly one-tenth of one percent receives a perfect score. Among test takers in the high school graduating class of 2011, only 704 of more than 1.6 million students earned a composite score of 36. In Wisconsin, roughly 70 percent of high school students took the ACT test, according to ACT. The ACT consists of tests in English, mathematics, reading and …

Sonja Juffer and Jeff Zimpel are especially proud art teachers this week at Shorewood High School, as their students' artwork is recognized for its professional quality by the Scholastic Art Awards, and Stone Creek Coffee, which will use student designs on its packaging for the new Shorewood Blend. Students' work on display at the Milwaukee Art Museum Six Shorewood students earned Gold Key Awards, one earned a Silver Key, and three earned honorable mentions in the national Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, from the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. Their work, selected regionally out of …

Countless hundreds of Shorewood High School alumni have raced on their school track as Greyhounds, and some may have pondered their namesake as they rounded the corners, but few have actually taken an interest in the living, breathing incarnations of their mascot. But this year the animal will be in the spotlight of student council's fundraising efforts, with the charity of the year selected as the Wisconsin chapter of Greyhound Pets of America, which helps ex-racing greyhounds find adoptive homes. "We knew we wanted to do something with animals, and we figured, why not do something to help …

Shorewood High School freshman Alexis Beverly watched her vision come to life before her eyes Jan. 14 as she watched 13 girls tear up pieces of paper that bore the worst insults they'd ever been dealt, aimed at their weight. "I'm not this," they recited, as they tossed the words into a garbage can. "I'm beautiful." It was the second workshop in a string of seven Alexis has planned for her Beauty Within Project, with the support of a $1,000 grant she secured in December from Lead2Change, a local non-profit that funds youth-led community service projects. "I've never been the thin girl in the …

After dedicating entire afternoons, after school, to rowing independently for more than a month, Shorewood High School senior Sofia Jonas tested her skills on an indoor rowing erg machine in June and found that she could row two kilometers in 7 minutes and 27 seconds. That's when Harvard University moved into focus from a glimmer in her eye to a real possibility. Coaches of Harvard's Radcliffe heavyweight crew recommended a maximum time of 7:30 for admission, Jonas said, and the three seconds she shaved off that is significant.  "Once you get in that faster range, a lot of people tend to …

On the second floor of their Shorewood Boulevard home Sunday, the Tuttons fell into their practiced duties, moving a toy racetrack to one side of the room, sliding a couch out of the way, turning on two flood lights and attaching a video camera to a tripod. It was here against the dark blue wall that Ryan Tutton, a junior at Shorewood High School, delivered lines for an audition sent over the web to Los Angeles. Between online auditions, late nights running lines, drives to Chicago and flights to California, the four Tutton kids maintain their social lives and education in Shorewood while …

Looking to share their holiday spirit with the community, a girl scout troop of Lake Bluff second-graders canvassed their neighbors Friday with jubilant carols.

When the results for the Special Olympics state bowling competition came out at Bowlero Lanes in Wauwatosa Dec. 10, Shorewood eighth grader Sarah Turner started jumping up and down. She had placed first and won a gold medal after five years of practice, overcoming physical challenges like Scoleosis and back surgery along the way. "What's really been excellent is that Sarah had so many physical challenges and Special Olympics allows each person to excel in their abilities," said mother Angela Turner. "It gives you an opportunity to be number one if you work hard." Special Olympics, an …

In a talent show Director Maripat Wilkinson said teaches students about confidence, teamwork and discipline, 23 seventh and eighth graders showcased their talents at Show Circle this weekend. Students performed a wide range of acts at the talent show from playing the ukulele to break dancing on the Shorewood High School auditorium stage, in the first year the show moved out of the Shorewood Intermediate School commons and cafeteria to accommodate a growing audience. About 250 people attended the show Friday, and Wilkinson estimated about 200 attended Saturday — more than any other year. …

Molly Hayes almost didn't go on the Spanish department's trip to an orphanage in Antigua, Guatemala her freshman year at Shorewood High School, but she decided to try it. Then she went back three times, one for each year of high school, and this year took a gap year before college to return again. "The first night I was there, I was just in shock," Hayes said of her first trip. "I knew, this place is going to be really good for me, for everyone. The whole week I was just like, I hope this place will be in my life for a long time. When I left I knew I wasn’t just going to not go back. The kids…

Even as Wisconsin weather forces their sailboats off Lake Michigan, Shorewood High School students Kate and Elizabeth Hayes hang onto their sailing lifestyle in any way possible. It involves adorning calculators and folders with sailing stickers, finding projects for their boats, analyzing YouTube sailing videos, talking strategy and reminiscing. "Sailing for me is not so much a sport; it’s like a lifestyle," Kate said. The sisters have recently become known by sailors around the country for their unusual talent and passion for sailing, and they take seriously their role in keeping sailing …

At a time in life when one's future seems the least certain but the most important, with school and friends pulling every which way, Shorewood High School senior Jenny Tasse has found something constant she loves in the middle of it all — volunteering. While Tasse waits anxiously to hear whether she is accepted to the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and juggles Advanced Placement classes, a competitive mock trial team and other student organizations, she always finds time to give to her community. Two years ago, Tasse said an admistrator asked her to be a student liaison for an …

A log for a desk, leaf for paper and twig for a pencil. For a semester, Montana Morris will make the great outdoors her classroom. Morris, a Shorewood High School senior, will attend Conserve School in Land-O-Lakes, a boarding school that seeks to inspire young people to environmental stewardship through academics and engagement with the forests, lakes and wildlife.  Conserve School gives students an "historical perspective of the environmental movement as well as hands-on experiences as stewards of the natural resources found on the land," Assistant Principal Mary Anna Thornton said. The …

"We can no longer continue to sit around and wait for things to become better," Ari Romero-Flagg said. So, he went and did something about it. Romero-Flagg, a senior at Shorewood’s New Horizon Charter School for Learning, and his peers recently spent one semester at Sweet Water Organics. During his tenure at the urban fish and vegetable farm in Milwaukee, Romero-Flagg heard about a grant through the Lead2Change project. He wrote the grant, and won. His was one of three winning grants, and he garnered $2,000 for Sweet Water to implement an aquaponic system at the Texas Bufkin Academy in …

Deme Hellwig has spent her last four summers at music camp on the University of Wisconsin campus, honing and fine-tuning her voice. Next summer, she'll reap the benefit of summers past, when she attends Madison under a four-year scholarship. Hellwig, along with 10 other musicians and singers from Wisconsin, was awarded the full-ride scholarship to Madison after topping a competition at the UW summer camp, in which musicians and singers from all over Wisconsin are matched against each other. “The camp is what really turned her on to UW as a college choice,” said her mother, Lesa Hellwig. After…

A group of 11-year-olds will share a jewel-encrusted microphone after winning a talent show at Shorewood High School Friday. The Shorewood Recreation Department held its first high school Kids Club Talent Show, which showcased three groups and small collections of students in a winner-takes-all showdown on the steps of the high school's drama building. The oldest of the three groups, MaKayla Campbell, Jessica Duncan, Jazmyn Johnson, Elena Cain, and Ashley Glosse, all age 11, garnered the prize by singing and dancing along with Jessie J’s  “Price Tag.” Kristin Serpe and Nick Phalin of the …

Pierson Froehlich has been playing piano since he has been old enough to sit on a bench and reach the piano keys. As a piano teacher, Pierson's grandmother Barbara Froehlich, took him under her wing at age 2. Now 10, Pierson can not only play the piano, but he is an entertainer. In fact, he recently played at the Shorewood Senior Center, and impressed his audience with his ability to play swing music and entertain as well as accurately complete pieces from memory. Since first grade, Pierson has been local popular piano teacher Adam Baus' pupil, and the relationship has yielded an avid student…

With a name like "Cookie" it's only natural to be, well, a natural in the kitchen. That certainly is true for 15-year-old Rebecca Treisman whose talents have taken off in the kitchen as well as in driver's education. Rebecca has been cooking since she was 4, when she could manipulate her EZ Bake Oven, creating her first off-the-recipe creations. “She first really started baking with her grandmother in Michigan, who was always trying to perfect the no-fat chocolate chip cookie for grandpa’s health regimen,” mother Ruth Treisman, who also serves as the Shorewood School Board vice president, …