Spotlight

MECHANICVILLE — Mechanicville High School senior Julia Amodeo has a new feather to add to her cap just a few months before graduation: first place in the statewide Annual Free Enterprise Marathon for Entrepreneurial High School and College Students. Amodeo, 17, is a senior at Mechanicville High School and a resident of Halfmoon. She got involved with the Clean Technologies Early College High School program during her junior year. Clean Tech ECHS is a program —led by Ballston Spa Central School District and involves many more area school districts — that prepares high school students for college courses and careers relating to energy efficiency. Clean Tech competed in the enterprise marathon this year on March 9 at SUNY Plattsburgh and Amodeo placed first for her speech, “Free Enterprise...

Chris Bell, an 18-year-old senior, created the website — http://cliftonparkopenspaces.org/ — as part of his Eagle Scout project. “When it came to my Eagle Scout project I wanted to do something for my community and I wanted to do something that involved nature and technology,” said Bell. His project, which took about a year to complete, was focused on the Dwaas Kill Nature Preserve. Bell raised $1,300 for materials and enlisted the help of 20 volunteers to mark the walking trails, create and install railroad safety signs, refurbish an old kiosk and build a new informational kiosk at the Preserve’s Pierce Road entrance. The final part of Bell’s project involved working with town staff and the Open Space, Trails and Riverfront Advisory Committee to build a public website to promote the to...

Mechanicville student delivers winning speech

Student Spotlight: Chris Bell designs Open Space website