Academic Achievements

Dictionaries for All!
Bloomsburg's local Rotary Club visited St. Columba School's 3rd grade. And with this visit they brought all the students a donation of dictionaries. These students now have their own personal dictionaries that they can use in school and out for the rest of the year.&...

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Fall Time is Apple Time
St. Columba School's Kindergarten class celebrates the fall with an apple tasting lesson. Mrs. Benscoter diced up the apples for her students. The students removed the seeds and counted how many each apple had. They then counted their slices of apples and matched them to the seeds. Finally,...

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Teaching Moment with the Monstrance
After our school mass, Father Mowery took the time to teach our elementary students about the Monstrance. He showed them how it is used. He asked students if they knew who belongs in the Monstrance. He also asked our students if they knew why the Monstrance was used. Some of our students were on the...

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3rd Grade Building Bridges
St. Columba School's 3rd grade investigated bridge construction. The students had to create their own bridge designs then build their bridges using toothpicks and marshmallows. These tasty bridges taught these students about the tensions bridges must endure in order to be saf...

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Preschool and Their Shape People
Our preschool students made their very own shape people. They chose the shape and color they wanted their person to be, and then they added a face using one of the emotions discussed with their teacher Mrs. John. They discussed what a happy face looks like, excited face, joyful face, angry...

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Mr. Zeares Takes Orders
On our first day and in our first Physical Education class, Mr. Zeares was literally being ordered around by the students. But this is how it was done. Mr. Zeares sat behind another student. On the table in front of Mr. Zeares were the makings for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (the peanut butte...

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Play Ball with Our SCS Students
St. Columba School students earned their way to the Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders student MVP game. These students were selceted by the faculty and staff at SCS to attend a special MVP game with the RailRiders. Students revceived two free tickets to the game, the opportunity to walk on the field,...

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Graduation Day for Saleah
Saleah Shannon has been a fixture here at St. Columba School. For ten years she has attended our school, and now, it is time to say goodbye. Saleah has graduated and will be attending Central Columbia High School next year. Thank you Saleah for some great times and greater memories and congratulatio...

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Coding an Elephant
Students in Mr. Drumm technology class have been constructing their own Robotis Elephant. Robotics is a creative robot kit for kids to learn various features, functions, and principles of building and coding robots. Pictured from left ot right are Benjamin Parker, and Jonathan Ervin ...

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There are More Bees but this One has Faith
St. Columba School held its annual Faith Bee. The winner will go on to compete against 28 other schools at the Diocese of Harrisburg Diocesean Center in Harrisburg. Sister Suzanne was the coordinator and moderator asking all the questions. The questions challenged student knowledge of their Catholic...

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Downhill Derby
In 5th grade, Mr. Zeares' Science class learned about forces, motion, friction, gravity, air resistance, and aerodynamics. The students were in charge of building a track with supports using Hot Wheel track and K’Nex pieces. Students also had a choice of cars and had to hypothesize which c...

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Top of the World!
The Diocese of Harrisburg held its Geography Bee with 21 students from various schools in the diocese competing. The Geography Bee is opened to students from grades 4 through 8. Our 4th grader Barrett Smolenak represented St. Columba School and was the only 4th grader in this competition. The m...

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Buzzing Around the World
Saint Columba School's Geography Bee tested students' knowledge of this country and the world. They were asked questions about the states, continents, mountain ranges, oceans, and seas. The competition was fierce with students from the 4th grade through 8th grade went back and...

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Spelling It All!
St. Columba School held our annual Spelling Bee. Students in 4th through 6th grades battled it out by spelling words that challenged their knowledge. After many rounds of competition Cael Williams came out on top for the third year in a row. He is a master speller. Cael will represent St. ...

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Pre-School Goes 100
St. Columba School's Preschool celebrated 100 days of school. Each student used 10 frame cards to find 10 ants scattered around the room.  Once they found 10 ants they placed them on a 100 chart while counting 1 to 10.  After all 100 ants were found together we counted t...

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Self-Controlling in 1st Grade
St. Columba School's technology class learned about Digital Citizenship & the 9 Elements. After reading But Mom it's Only a Game by Julisa Cook the students discussed good and bad choices the main character Jasper made in the book.  The class discussed rules they...

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SCS Math Wizard!
Mrs. John's preschool/pre3 class student Alexander Ervin is a Math Wizard on the IXL Math Program. He was able to earn 100% and three ribbons on the number recognition 1 - 2- 3 program. An outstanding feat for such a young student. 

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SCS Science
St. Columba School's 5th grade science class was learning about animal habitats. How these animals in the wild construct homes that prevent destruction from the elements and predators. Here Ella Stephens, left examines the interior of a hornets nest  held by Mr. Zeares, her science tea...

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Chris Getz Wins BIG!
Saint Columba's middle schooler Christopher Getz was awarded second place in the state of Pennsylvannia for his entry in the 2022 Elk's Essay Contest. The Elk's invited Chris to reread his speech to the crowd. The orginaztion then recognized Chris' acomplishment with a plaque co...

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Forensics Final
Our St. Columba Middle School Forensics team participated in the last competition of the year, and it was a big one. It took place at the Diocesean Center in Harrisburg. There were approximately 50 students who participated from all the diocesean schools. Our students competed in the Duos and O...

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Faith Meets the Bee
St. Columba School hosted the Faith Bee. This event included participants from St. Columba School and Parish. Students were challenged with questions about the Catholic Faith. After many rounds and loads of questions it came down to our last two competitors, Emily Marino and James Samayoa. Thes...

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PI = PIE
St. Columba's Middle School celebrated 3-14 with actual pie. After Mrs. Troiani's math class was finished working the ins and outs of the number PI they celebrated by having some pie. Here her 8th grade class shared pizza pie and some regular apple pie, blueberry pie, and chocolate mousse pi...

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Write Like an Egyptian
Saint Columba School's 5th-grade Social Studies class is learning about the culture of ancient Egypt. as part of their studies, they have created their own names using ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The students painted paper with diluted coffee to give the paper the "ancient look&quo...

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ST. COLUMBA HAS ESSAY WINNERS
Rep. David Millard (far right) and legislative liaison for the PA Game Commission Josh Zimmerman (far left) visited our parish school to recognize Emily Shapeero (First Place) and Emily Marino (Second Place) as winners of the “Most Enjoyable Outdoor Experienc...

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SCS Welcomes You
First, click Read More then {Click Here} the watch the Saint Columba School Welcomes You to our school video. 

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SCS Magazine is Back and Ready to Read
St. Columba School’s middle school is proud to share its fourth feature magazine and eleventh overall publication. First, click Read More then {CLICK HERE} to begin reading this issue. This year, we present our school’s homage to Brandon Stanton’s “Humans of New Yor...

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Last Year's Graduate Wins Big!
St. Columba School's graduate of last year's 8th-grade class Emily Shapeero entered the 2020-2021 Missionary Childhood Association (MCA) Christmas Artwork Contest. It was recently announced that Emily’s original artwork came in first place in this nationwide contest. She will have...

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Preschool Creates Their Own Magical Elves
Our preschool is getting ready for Christmas. Mrs. John has the students working on knowing sizes, shapes, and colors with a touch of Christmas fun. Once the preschoolers had their sizes, shapes, and colors picked, they created their very own and unique Magical Elf. The students were so proud&n...

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Veterans Day Remembered
St. Columba School has deep connections to our service men and women who have done so much for our country. The teachers throughout the school had many activities for the students to do this day designed to build our appreciation for these great people. Our kindergarten class created soldi...

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Student Council Election Day
Our St. Columba eighth graders presented their cases to the school as to why they should be elected as part of the 2021-2022 student council. Each candidate gave a speech outlining their platform and the value they would bring to the student body. The students voted later that day and soon we will i...

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Learning Those Letters
St. Columba School's Pre-k students created a fine motor skill journal. Their first activity was peeling and sticking letter stickers to their journals. The letter they started with had to be the first letter of their names.  When they finished, they were able to decorate the...

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Emily Marino on Philly Live
Last school year, Mr. Zeares, our middle school science teacher, introduced his classes to Generation Genius. This educational program was created by Dr. Jeff Vinokur. Generation Genius is used by millions of school children around the country. Emily Marino enjoyed Dr. Jeff's dancing lessons so ...

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Presenting Our Class of 2021
St. Columba School's Class of 2021 has officially graduated. Many of these students have been attending this school since their preschool days. They were nostalgic about leaving but excited to move onto the next step in their lives with some going onto Bloomsburg High School while others will be...

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SCS Grads Get Their Start Here
St. Columba School proves again that this is the place to get your start. Two grads of  St. Columba School are now 2020 graduates of Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University.  There were 11,536  applicants for this prestigious medical school with only room for 212 ...

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Violin Virtuoso in Preschool
Our Saint Columba School music teacher Mrs. Trapane introduced the violin to our preschool. The students were able to use the bow and pluck the strings. They really enjoyed this opportunity to try their hand at the violin. Here Quinn Brooks looks like he is ready for the concert hall.

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7th Grade Spruces Up for Spring
As part of St. Columba School's commitment to service, Mr. Bidleman's 7th grade religion class and 8th grade are landscaping the front of their school. This service project included donations from the community from businesses like Home Depot. The class ripped all the weeds and dead plants o...

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Geography Bee the Tops
St. Columba School has a winner. Louis Venturi 7th grade celebrates as he gets the final question correct during this hard fought Geography Bee competition that lasted an hour and 20 minutes. There will not be a diocesan Geo Bee this year so the students were going for school bragging rights. L...

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Religion Bee has a Winner
St. Columba School held their annual Religion Bee. Students in grades 7 and 8 answered challenging questions about their faith. After many rounds, we came down to our two finalists. Eigth graders Emily Shapeero and Calyssa Shannon, who attended the competition virtually. Question after que...

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Generation Genius & St. Columba School
A producer from NBC10’s Philly Live! contacted our ELA program, inviting one of our students to participate in a television news segment about the impact of Dr. Jeff Vinokur’s popular YouTube science program “Generation Genius” in the state. Dr. Jeff specifically requested St...

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Stop Motion Moves in Tech Class
Saint Columba School's 6th graders in Mr. Drumm's Technology class are creating their own stop-motion videos using different materials. Some are using claymation while others like Liam Berger (right) & Blaise Kissinger (left) are using paper cutouts and their own basketball court to...

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Green Eggs and Preschool
Mrs. John's celebration of Read Across America week included the classic Green Eggs and Ham book. And in preschool they just don't read books; they sometimes live them. Mrs. John made Green Eggs for her students using eggs, food coloring, and elbow grease. The students enjoyed the eggs even ...

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Our Principal Reads
As part of our Read Across America Celebration, our principal, Mr. Morisco, read the Dr. Seuss classic Green Eggs and Ham, but with a twist. The students are learning Spanish so he read the book to the 7th grade class in Spanish then they together translated the book. Also students were dressed...

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SCS Spells Excellence
Saint Columba School held its annual spelling bee. Even though there will be no diocesan spelling bee this year, the diocese asked the school to continue the tradition with an in-house version. Grades 4 through 6 competed with the last two contestants being Maya Reese in 5th grade and Cael Will...

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 Saint Columba School's Catholic Schools Week Events
Click on the photo then {CLICK HERE} and follow the link to Saint Columba School's Virtual Tour.  {CLICK HERE} to view our assembly from Folk's Butterfly Farm  {CLICK HERE} to view our Living Rosary - this is only aportion of this wonderful moment during our special...

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SCS Magazine is Here!
The 2021 edition of SCS, the magazine of St. Columba School is now available on Issuu at this address:  https://issuu.com/bidleman/docs/scs2021. Our magazine is the product of interviews and writing of our fifth, sixth, and seventh-grade students with eighth-graders serving as publication ed...

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6th Grade Science are Phasing with the Moon
Our 6th Grade Science class were examining the phases of the moon. Their science teacher Mr. Zeares, as part of this examination, had the students create their own phases of the moon using Oreo cookies. Here Rogan Smith shows off her work. Of course, they ate their work when the class was over. ...

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Preschool Celebrates Earth Day
Mrs. John holds a Zoom Class with her preschool class on Earth Day. They all made Earth Day headbands to wear during the meeting. The class even did a recycling game. Mrs. John showed the class items, and they used smiley/sad faces to say yes or no to the items recyclability. Her...

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6th Grade Gets Foreign Chocolate
Our 6th Grade Geography class visited the European country of Belgium. While the class was on its virtual tour, the class found a city named Bruges. This city is renowned for its chocolate, and one of the best loved chocolate stores there is B by B. The students investigated the B by B website and f...

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St. Columba School Gets Their Geo Bee Champion
St. Columba School hosted its annual Geo Bee. The competition included students from fourth grade all the way up to eighth grade. Round after round flew by and question after question. The competition narrowed to the two finalists, 6th grader Louis Venturi and 8th grader Rachel Marino...

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Elks asks the question "What does Freedom of Speech mean to me?" & SCS answers
The Elks asked our middle school writers to enter into their contest, "What does Freedom of Speech mean to me?" and SCS did not disappoint them. Our students did their research on this Constitutional amendment then got to work. There were quite a few entries but our school winners are in s...

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D.A.R. Announces SCS Winners
St. Columba's middle school has come up big again in the annual  Daughters of the American Revolution's essay contest. This year's essay topic was on the Pligrim's voyage to the "New World".  Students had to place themselves on the Mayflower, the ship th...

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First Trimester Honor Roll Recipients
Saint Columba recognizes the achievements of our middle school students who have worked hard and earned their way onto our Honor Roll. All from left to right - Front Row: Chase Williams and Rogan Smith, Middle Row: Caden Hopper, Emily LaRouche, Emily Marino, and Elise Ferdock, Back Row: Rachel Marin...

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SCS Preschool and Their Bears
St. Columba Pre-K students show off caves they made for their bears to hibernate in. Quinn Brooks, Charlotte Coombe and Jonathan Ervin have their hibernation books ready to read to their sleeping bears. 

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National Winner from SCS
St. Columba School's 8th grade student Mary Grace Duncan (right) won the Missionary Childhood Association Christmas Artwork Contest. Mary Grace's Christmas artwork was chosen out of thousands of contestants from around the country. She was invited to the Basilica National Shrine of the ...

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SCS Forensics Team Continues Its Winning Ways
SCS' Forensics Team won big recently at Our Lady of Lourdes Forensics Competition. Our winners are in Sixth grade 1st place Emily LaRouche, 2nd place Elise Ferdock; Seventh grade 1st place Emily Shapeero, 2nd place Erika Traupman, 3rd place Calyssa Shannon, 5th place Gracie Viars. Congratul...

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Following Directions the Mr. Zeares Way
Mr. Zeares's 2nd Grade learned a valuable lesson in following directions. Mr. Zeares set the gymnasium up with numerous obstacles. The 2nd graders then paired up with one student covering their eyes and the other guided their partner through the obstacles with directions like two steps...

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Making Pizza the Kindergarten Way
Our Kindergarten class had an exciting opportunity to get more out of a book than the story. The class read a book titled Pizza at Sally's. Here the class learned the origins of the ingredients to make pizza. Then the best part, the class took what they learned from the story and ...

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Our First Grade Sharpens Their Skills
Mrs. McCarthy's First Grade class uses their white boards to practice their spelling skills. If they make a mistake, no problem, wipe and it's gone. A great way to get those spelling words practiced and ready for the test.  

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Pre School Celebrates Sports Week
St Columba preschoolers, Alex Orzolek listens to Colton Augustine read his "Sports" book.  Each child in the class made their own "Sports" book to share during sports week. The class then played basketball as part of the week's acitivites in the gymnasium. 

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7th Grade Tech Conference
Our 7th Grade class created a WebQuest with Mr. Drumm and Mr. Webb. This project was based on thier favorite authors. The class had to research, and then build this interactive tech display for the Tech Conference in Harrisburg. While there, they met our representatives David Millard and John Gordne...

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2nd Trimester's Honor Roll
Our students again have acheived a high level of academic excellence. Here are the following stidents from 5th through 8th grades that have earned their way to the honor roll. From left to right - top row to bottom: Morgan Peirce, Damyan Petryshak, Reed Keck, Matt Getz, John Guerriero, Dominick Rosi...

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Spelling B-E-E Isn't as Easy as It Seems
The month of March is BEE time and the Spelling Bee is all part of the excitement. The words were challenging, our students were ready, but they weren't enough for our returning champion. James Samoya went head-to-head with Gavin, trading word after word, but for a third year in a row, Gavi...

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Geo Bee Rocks the World
Saint Columba took a trip around the world (well, sort of) with the Geo Bee. This competition went non-stop for almost an hour. The competition were fierce, and it finally came down to Katie Campbell and Leyna Bieshline. Round after round, the two girls answered question after question, then Katie c...

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DAR Essay Contest Winners
Saint Columba School has a strong showing again in the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. This year's essay topic was on Women's Suffage and its impact on the United States. Our winners are Mary Grace Duncan, Dominick Rosini, Rachel Marino, Charles Hopper, Morgan Pier...

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Elks Essay Winners
Lila Oast, Emily LaRouche, and Mary Grace Duncan are proud Americans, and their essay explains why. The local chapter of the Elks hosted an essay contest title"What makes you proud of America." These three Saint Columba School students hit it with their entries and they now represent our s...

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St. Columba Competes
St. Columba Middle School students are competing in The Cyber Robotics Coding Competition (CRCC).  This is the first time this competition has been offered in the state of Pennsylvania. The competition is an online virtual robotics and STEM competition.

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St. Columba's Student Editors
Mr. Webb's seventh grade ELA class holds the first edition of The Columba Review. This magazine is filled with reviews.

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SCS Middle School Students Earn Academic Honor Status For Second Trimester
Front row left to right: Rachel Marino, Emma Cavallini, Mary Grace Duncan, Avery Kissinger, Emily Traupman, Gavin Berger, Dominick Rosini, Charles Hopper and Grace Humphrey Second row left to right: Morgan Pierce, Damyan Petryshak, John Guerriero, Alina Shannon, Reed Keck, Matthew ...

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Forensics Team Finds Success At St. Joe's
The St. Columba Forensics team traveled to Danville on Friday, February 24 to participate in the St. Joseph's Forensics Tournament. SCS winners are: Grade 6 2nd place: Johnny Gueirro & Mason Mensch 4th place: Oliver Samayoa  & Johnny Gueirro 6th p...

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SCS Middle School Students Earn Academic Honor Status
Several St. Columba Middle School students earned Honors & Distinguished Honors for their academic achievements during trimester 1.  Front row left to right: Emma Cavallini, Mary Grace Duncan, Avery Kissinger, Rachel Marino, Dominic Rosini, Emily Shapeero, Michael McIlvried, Ch...

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Congratulations Elks Winners!
Our Middle School competed in the Bloomsburg Elks Americanism Essay Contest in Division II. 8th Grader Emerson Viars took First Place. In addition, 6th Grader Avery Kissinger and 8th Grader Faith Witman placed second in their division. 

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Sumdog Math Champs

Posted on May 27, 2018 in: Academic Achievements

Sumdog Math Champs
Congratulations to our 6th Grade class for placing second in Miss McKenna's annual Sumdog challenge. Jordan Montes, Charles Hopper, Jessie White (top row, from the left to right). Avery Kissinger, Emma Cavallini, Mary Grace Duncan, Mason Mensch, Rachel Marino, and Camila Amaya &nb...

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SCS Forensics Team Shines at Harrisburg
SCS's Forensics 7th and 8th grade teams represented our school well, again! Morgan Pierce and Alina Shannon earned first place. Ana Ferdock and Samantha Lauck won second place. Sayre Kurecian received Honorable Mention with Isabel Benfield and Lauren LaRouche representin...

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Basketball Champions
St. Columba girls CYO basket ball team recently won the 2018 Northumberland area CYO JV girls championship. Above, players and coaches are introduced after their victory.

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Saint Columba Comes Up Big for DAR
St. Columba students won big in the Daughters of the American Revolution American History Essay Contest. From left to right are Grade 7 Matthew Getz 1st place and  Morgan Pierce 2nd place. The 6th grade winners are Mary Grace Duncan 1st place and Mason Mensch taking 2nd place. Once again, St. C...

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Religious Bee Participants
The fifth annual seventh/eight grade Religion Bee was held at Saint Columba. The 1st place winner is Oliver Samayoa, a 7th grader (back row, second from right). He will be attending the finals of the Diocesean during April in Harrisburg. Thank you to Mr. Webb who coordinated this...

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St. Columba School goes Around the World
SCS held its Geo Bee recently. The winner presents the school at the Diocese of Harrisburg Geo Bee. The contestants are (front row) Emily Shapeero, Katie Campbell, Michael McIlvried, Emily Marino, Maryellen Faus. (middle row) Elise Ferdock, Damyon Petryshak, Mason Mensch. (back row) Camila Amay...

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Best Spellers

Posted on May 21, 2018 in: Academic Achievements

Best Spellers
Congratulations to 4th Graders Derek Brink, Emily Marino, and Caden Hopper. 5th graders Gavin Berger, Emily Shapeero, and Dominic Rosini. 6th Graders Charles Hopper, Camila Amaya, and Avery Kissinger.  Gavin will represent St. Columba in the Diocesan Bee for a second year in a ro...

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