Olivia Hall shows her winning entry for web page design.

Posted June 10, 2014

Students of St. Francis de Sales School in Aston garnered two third-place awards at the Pennsylvania Middle School Computer Fair state finals held May 21 at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa.

The winners included seventh grader Olivia Hall for web page design and the team of seventh graders Ryan Yeager, Vincent DeAngelo and Robert Salvadore, who won in the category of designing the logo for the fair.

“We are so proud of all of our participants and projects,” Arlene Petragnani, technology teacher at St. Francis de Sales School. “Having the opportunity to compete in a competition like this one is an outstanding accomplishment. Actually placing in the top three is over the top!”

Three first-place projects of St. Francis de Sales students competed against more than 20 other first-place projects from across Pennsylvania in their individual categories. Representing Delaware County Intermediate Unit 25, St. Francis de Sales was the only school from Delaware County to place in the state finals, in addition to being one of only two schools from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to place.

The creators of the entry for the computer fair’s logo design are, from left, Robert Salvadore, Ryan Yeager and Vincent DeAngelo.

Originally the school entered 10 projects at the fair’s regional competition held April 28 at Delaware County Intermediate Unit in Morton.

Twenty-one sixth through eighth grade students from St. Francis de Sales competed against seven other schools at the regional level, and St. Francis placed in three categories (read category details here) as follows:

Computer Fair Logo Design:
1st Place: Ryan Yeager, Vincent DeAngelo, Robert Salvadore
2nd Place: Annie Kolicius

Digital Movie:
1st Place: Olivia Hall and Hanna Buerklin

Web Page Design:
1st Place: Olivia Hall

Graphic Design:
2nd Place: Katherine Bowers, Katelyn Judge, Katelyn Lee
3rd Place: Travis Gaskill, Amber Shifflett, Tyler Marvil

Also participating in the regional competition this year were the following students:
Logo Design: Kevin Bonsall and Jordyn Walker
Digital Movie: Brett Craskey
Digital Movie: Maryellen Martin, Abby Seasock, and Sara Smith
Graphic Design: Tabitha Ciocco and Lauren Garvey

“Our students make us proud,” said Maryrose Hall, principal of St. Francis de Sales School. “We are blessed to have teachers like Mrs. Petragnani and Mrs. DiNicola to support and guide our students!”

Petragnani has been teaching technology to kindergarten through eighth grade students at St. Francis de Sales School for 15 years. Patricia DiNicola, a retired SFDS teacher, volunteers her time to the school and has been helping Petragnani with the computer fair for the last four years. Together, they assisted the students with their entries before and after school as well as during their lunch recess.