Sertoma Club of Venice Honors
Student and Educator
of the Month, November 2011
From left, Sertoma Club President Patrick Jaehne presents Educator of the Month Shannon Rowland with a plaque, while Student of the Month Hannah Revels receives hers from Greg Miller, organizer of the recognition program.
Sertoma Club of Venice honored Hannah Revels as Student of the Month and Shannon Rowland as Educator of the Month at its Nov. 17 meeting.
Revels, a Venice High School senior who holds a 3.8 grade-point-average, played on the varsity volleyball team for four years. The past three years she severed as the team captain. This year, the team won the district championship. She was named all-area honorable mention team member for volleyball and basketball by the Herald-Tribune.
Revels participates in the Wolf Pack peer-mentoring program, student government, Fellowship of Christina Athletes and was this year’s homecoming queen. She was last season’s sports reporter for the Education Channel.
Revels plans to attend Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., to earn a master’s degree in school counseling.
She is the daughter of Greg and Debbie Revels of Nokomis.
Shannon Rowland teaches a self-contained varying exceptionalities class at Venice High School. The class focuses on preparing special needs students for life beyond high school. Her class has been exploring the world of work through a partnership with Walmart that allows students a hands-on learning experience. The class will soon open a school-based enterprise in the near future. Rowland says she is dedicated to seeing her students succeed.
This is Rowland’s tenth year of teaching, the past four of which have been at VHS.
She is certified in exceptional student education, social sciences and pre-kindergarten through third grades. Rowland earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a master’s degree in education.
Sertoma Club honors exceptional students and educators at Venice High School each month throughout the school year. Greg Miller organizes the program.
Sertoma Club of Venice Honors Students and Educator of the Month, November & December, 2011
From left, Sertoma Club President Patrick Jaehne congratulates the club’s November Student of the Month Richard Ashcroft, December Student of the Month Heather Parrish, Educator of the Month Danielle Tanaka and Student of the Month Larsen Ullrich. Greg Miller organizes the recognition program for the club.
Sertoma Club of Venice honored three Venice High School seniors and an educator at its Dec. 15 meeting.
Selected as Student of the Month of November was Richard Ashcroft, who was not available to receive his award in November. He holds a 3.78 grade-point average.
Ashcroft has not missed a day of school in the past seven years. He is the commanding officer of the school’s Marine Corp Junior ROTC program. He also participates in National Honor Society, track, cross country track and weight lifting. Ashcroft has 325 hours of community volunteer time.
Ashcroft plans to attend the United States Coast Guard Academy where he will major civil engineering and prepare for a military career.
He is the son of Gary and Bonnie Ashcroft.
Students of the Month of December are Larsen Ullrich and Heather Parrish.
Ullrich holds a 4.2 grade-point average. He is a member of National Honor Society and a four-year member of the varsity wrestling team. Ullrich hopes to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville to study industrial systems and civil engineering. He says his goal is to gain the skills that will allow him to help eradicate malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and solve the world’s water crisis.
He is the son of Duane and Carole Ullrich.
Parrish holds a 4.6 grade-point average. She serves as recording secretary for National Honor Society, and is a member of Spanish Honor Society, Republican Club and Link Crew. Parrish is a recipient of the Furman Scholars Award and the International World Language Award. She is an intern at Venice MainStreet, a model with Wilhelmina Miami Modeling Agency and recently signed with Wilhelmina West Modeling Agency in Los Angeles.
Parrish plans to attend Florida Atlantic University or the University of Miami to study public relations and marketing.
She is the daughter of William and Heidi Parrish.
Educator of the Month Danielle Tanaka teaches advanced placement psychology, sociology and American government. Earlier in the day it was announced that she is the Sarasota County Teacher of the Year. Recently, Tanaka was also named Venice High School Teacher of the Year.
Tanaka graduated from Venice High School, attended the University of Connecticut on a swimming scholarship, and Auburn University where she earned master’s degrees in education and public administration. In 2002, she returned to Venice to be the founding director of the Rotary Futures program.
Tanaka imparts her passion for community service to her students. Currently, she is leading a book drive that has collected more than 1,000 gently read books to give to students who do not have the resources to buy them.
