Ethan Couture of Dixfield, a senior at Dirigo High School, received the 2019 Principal’s Award on April 6. The award, sponsored by the Maine Principals’ Association, is given in recognition of academic achievement and citizenship. Couture is an outstanding student who is hard-working and exemplifies leadership. He plans to study biology at the University of Maine at Orono and to enter the field of paleontology.

Adrianna Belskis has achieved status as an “Academic All-American” by the National Speech and Debate Association, putting her in that league’s top 1% nationally. Belskis also qualified as a Lincoln-Douglas Debate alternate to the National Tournament for the National Catholic Forensic League. She has been called up to fill a vacancy and will compete in Milwaukee over Memorial Weekend in May.

Travis Ryerson, a freshman at Dirigo High School, has been selected in a competitive application process to go to the 2019 Maine Delegation as part of the United States Seeds of Peace Leadership Program this summer. Seeds of Peace is a leadership development organization, founded in 1993, that brings youth and educators from areas of conflict to its camp in Maine to engage in civil discourse and to learn the skills of effective dialogue. Ryerson will return to DHS in the fall equipped to teach the school community about the skills he develops over the summer, and be prepared to lead the Civil Rights Team in the school’s movement to becoming more student-centered and student-led.