A student at West Side Catholic has been named as the winner of the Toyota Indiana poster contest as part of Earth Month.

Toyota sponsored a poster contest for fifth-grade students in Gibson, Vanderburgh, Posey and Warrick counties.  The winning design will be on the T-shirt given to all sixth-grade students who participate in the World Water Monitoring Challenge this fall.

The design theme was water quality.  Students had to design a poster that focused on why we need clean water and how to protect the earth’s water resources. 

The winning design was submitted by Adam Barnes of Evansville who attends West Side Catholic Consolidated School, the St. Boniface Campus.  The student’s teacher will receive a certificate for $200 for classroom supplies, and all classes that participated in the contest will have a pizza party.

The University of Southern Indiana’s spring Commencement will once again be held on campus this year – only the second time since 1991. Five ceremonies will be held over two days, May 3 and 4, in the Physical Activities Center (PAC), with a reception in University Center East following each ceremony.

More than 1,500 students are eligible to participate in Commencement, including 19 summa cum laude graduates, 120 magna cum laude graduates, 172 cum laude graduates, and 37 University Honors Scholars. More than 20 percent of the 2013 graduating class earned a grade point average of 3.6 or better, up about three percent from recent years.

On Saturday, April 13, more than 150 Indiana college students who are members of the Indiana Student Education Association are expected to join local and educator volunteers to remodel Tekoppel Elementary in Evansville.  

“Tekoppel Elementary is a kindergarten through fifth grade school in the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation located in the heart of Evansville’s west side and it holds quite a history,” says project coordinator and ISTA Vice President Teresa Meredith. “Tekoppel started in 1909 as a four-room brick building. Each room had its own heating stove. Indoor plumbing wasn’t installed until 1934. It was the first county school in the state of Indiana to have a public kindergarten. In 1940, Tekoppel students could enjoy a hot lunch for 15 cents.