Albright College

Seventh grade students from the Westtown School recently were honored at a talent and awards ceremony at Albright College in Reading. The students were recognized by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth for their verbal or mathematical scores on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), according to Patty Cunningham , spokeswoman for the school. Among the students receiving the award were Maura Dailey of Coatesville, Janet Danser of Glenmoore, Miriam Gates of Paoli, and David Deitch, Caroline Levy, Spencer McKinstry, David Robinson and Jeremy Saul, all of West Chester.

Upper Darby senior Chris Rickards, a member of The Inquirer's all-Main Line/Delaware County first team in both football and wrestling, has accepted a presidential scholarship to Albright College. Rickards chose Albright over Drexel and East Stroudsburg. He is a member of the National Honor Society, and plans to major in environmental science or biology and play two sports, football and baseball, at the Division III school. "The classroom sizes are small, so I'm sure that I'll receive a great education there," said Rickards, who added that presidential scholarships are awarded to students who show excellence in academics and athletics.

Spunk is an apt title for a production that stars Forrest Jones, considering that the word accurately describes the hard-driving energy of the Norristown-based actor. Written by Zora Neale Hurston and adapted for the stage by George C. Wolfe, Spunk is an exhilarating blues folk drama that is both gritty and tender. It is currently being staged by Mother Wit Theater Company at the Meridian Theater at Albright College in Reading. Spunk had a successful run on Broadway, and critics have lauded the work as extravagant in its earthiness and brilliant in its honest portrayals of the lives of its characters, who flourished in the rural South and in America's urban centers during the 1920s.

Friends' Central senior Justin Plummer has agreed to play basketball at Albright College in Reading, the Friends League school announced yesterday. Plummer, a 6-foot-4 small forward who helped lead Friends' Central to a 21-9 record this season, averaging 11 points and 12 rebounds a game. "We are excited," said Albright head coach Rick Ferry. "He has had the coaching and high-level experience to impact our program immediately. "

When fall arrives, these guys are eager to play football. In an exhibition game, the teams played four 10-minute quarters, and used a two-hand tag method. Their 40-yard "gridiron" was a portion of the parking lot at Shriners Hospital. In the annual Pre-Pretzel Exhibition Game, sponsored by the Shriners' Rajah Temple in Reading, the high-scoring squad from Temple University won, 64-28, against a determined team of players from Albright College and Widener University.

Quarterback Matt Campbell hit Jim Kilkenny for a 12-yard touchdown pass with 6 minutes, 3 seconds remaining as Widener defeated visiting Delaware Valley College last night, 13-10. The Pride (6-2 overall, 5-0 Middle Atlantic Conference), claimed the Keystone Cup for the first time since 2002 as the winner of the annual matchup between these teams. Widener also moved a half-game ahead of Albright College (6-1, 4-0), which plays Lebanon Valley today. The Aggies' winning streak was snapped at four game as they fell to 4-4, 4-1 MAC. Campbell was 16-for-25 for 141 yards and a touchdown.

Jordan Obrant, a 2009 graduate of Lower Merion who attended South Kent Prep (Conn.) as a postgraduate, has committed to the Syracuse men's soccer program after withdrawing a commitment to Hartford. Obrant was a second-team selection at forward on The Inquirer's 2008 All-Southeastern Pennsylvania boys' soccer team. He also was first-team all-Central League that season. Last fall, Obrant helped lead South Kent (20-2-1) to its second consecutive New England Preparatory School Soccer Association Class B championship.

When Joe Collopy was at Holy Ghost Prep, most people knew him for what he could do with his feet. That's because Collopy was primarily a soccer player two years ago under Firebirds coach Fran Nick. These days, Collopy, a 6-foot, 2-inch freshman, is making his mark at Albright College in a sport in which he can use his hands, arms and feet - swimming. And Collopy has wasted little time in putting his name into the school's record book. Every meet, he seems to eclipse his previous school standard.

An expert mountaineer, Erik Weihenmayer has climbed the world's Seven Summits. He recently led a group of soldiers who had been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan to a major Himalayan peak, and has completed some of the world's most challenging adventure races. Weihenmayer, 42, has also been blind since the age of 13. One of the many notable commencement speakers at the region's college graduations this spring, Weihenmayer will deliver Bucknell University's address on May 22. ( See list of commencement speakers here .)

A number of players from this area, long a hotbed of women's lacrosse talent, were chosen for the Brine/Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association All-American teams. Earning Division I first-team all-American honors were University of Maryland senior defender Kerstin Manning, a Haverford High grad; Penn State sophomore midfielder Jill Pearsall, of Penn Wood, and University of Virginia junior defender Cherie Greer, from Harriton. Penn State senior attacker Donna Bucci, a Strath Haven grad, and Maryland junior defender Patty Parichy, a former Radnor standout, made second-team all- American, and Maryland high-scoring sophomore Laura Harmon, also from Haverford High, made the third team.

Most families have a kid who loves to draw. In the Morris family in rural Pottstown, that was Pam. When she wasn't "playing in the dirt and streams," she was making little thank-you notes, hand-lettered place cards for holiday dinners, party invitations, and birthday greetings. At 36, she's Pam Olshefski now, Brian's wife, and the mother of three girls, 8, 6, and 4. You might argue that as part-time curatorial assistant at Morris Arboretum in Chestnut Hill (no relation to that Morris)

An expert mountaineer, Erik Weihenmayer has climbed the world's Seven Summits. He recently led a group of soldiers who had been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan to a major Himalayan peak, and has completed some of the world's most challenging adventure races. Weihenmayer, 42, has also been blind since the age of 13. One of the many notable commencement speakers at the region's college graduations this spring, Weihenmayer will deliver Bucknell University's address on May 22. ( See list of commencement speakers here .)

Jordan Obrant, a 2009 graduate of Lower Merion who attended South Kent Prep (Conn.) as a postgraduate, has committed to the Syracuse men's soccer program after withdrawing a commitment to Hartford. Obrant was a second-team selection at forward on The Inquirer's 2008 All-Southeastern Pennsylvania boys' soccer team. He also was first-team all-Central League that season. Last fall, Obrant helped lead South Kent (20-2-1) to its second consecutive New England Preparatory School Soccer Association Class B championship.

As talk of a sinking economy subsides, this year's soon-to-be college graduates are begging for instructions for success. Armed for the task, many commencement speakers are spreading the same secret: service work. "Success is making yourself into a valuable tool," said Benjamin S. Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and a philanthropist, who will be speaking at Bucknell University on May 23 and Jefferson Medical College on May 24. "It's not the income or material goods, it's using your skills to change the world.

As talk of a sinking economy subsides, this year's soon-to-be college graduates are begging for instructions for success. Armed for the task, many commencement speakers are spreading the same secret: service work. "Success is making yourself into a valuable tool," said Benjamin S. Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and a philanthropist, who will be speaking at Bucknell University on May 23 and Jefferson Medical College on May 24. "It's not the income or material goods, it's using your skills to change the world.

One week after setting the program record for points in a game, Delaware Valley College's offense never reached the end zone yesterday in the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs. The Aggies fell to Albright College, 27-3, on a windy day at James Work Memorial Stadium in Doylestown as the Lions (11-1) avenged a 45-16 loss to Delaware Valley on Nov. 7. That win three weeks ago gave the Aggies (10-2) the Middle Atlantic Conference championship and an automatic postseason berth.

This is a remarkably rich anniversary summer. Even now, from the distance of 40 years, 1969's seems a little unreal. There was simply too much jaw-dropping news to digest: Man on the moon, Woodstock, the Manson murders, Chappaquiddick, disclosure of the My Lai massacre, secret Vietnam peace talks, Hurricane Camille. Anyway, remembering all those monumental events got me thinking about sports. While our attention was fixed on outer space and spaced-out hippies, what was going on in life's toy department that summer of '69?

Janelle Grant has called the White House. She has written letters to Oprah Winfrey, Tyra Banks, and dozens of state legislators. She is 18 and college-bound - but determined, first, to save the school that she says saved her life. "If I didn't go to this school, I would have gotten into trouble," said Grant, a North Philadelphia native who is a senior at Scotland School for Veterans' Children in rural Franklin County. "Maybe I'd be on drugs or locked up. Being at Scotland, you can't get caught up in all that.

A wet snow dropped like tears on Albright College's campus yesterday afternoon in Reading as friends and fans of John Updike gathered to commemorate the author's connections, both real and fictional, to his native Berks County. Albright professors, elementary-school classmates and self-described "Updike stalkers" attended the hastily planned memorial service in tiny Kachel Chapel. The funeral for Updike, who died last week at 76, had been a day earlier, in his adopted Massachusetts.

In his Tuesday psychology class, students enthusiastically did sets of jumping jacks between short-term memory tests involving lists of random words. Scott Sax, a humanities teacher at Cherokee High School, has a way of keeping his students on their toes, connecting them to class material. According to his colleagues, his lessons are always this memorable. Because of his captivating teaching style and devotion to the many facets of the humanities, the Marlton teacher recently received the New Jersey Council for the Humanities Teacher of the Year award.