Bethany Ober and Adam Pennarola, both Newtown High School graduates (Class of 2004), received Honors Medals from the University of Connecticut during a ceremony on May 3. In addition to graduating from the Honors Program at UConn, Bethany and Adam were also recognized as University Scholars, which is the highest academic honor the university bestows upon undergraduate students. Among its requirements is the completion of a thesis or research project.

Bethany is an English major and her thesis was on “Learning, Love and Sustainable Happiness in Jane Austen Novels.” Adam is a psychology major and his thesis was on “Adenosine A2A Antagonism: A Study of Animal Models of Parkinson Disease.”

Brittany Boyle, daughter of Lee and Paul Boyle of Sandy Hook, was named a Junior Inductee in to Bouvé Honor Society during the 2008 Honors and Awards Assembly at Bouvé College of Health Sciences on April 11. The college is part of Northeastern University in Boston. Brittany is studying for her bachelor’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology.

Of the 34 Westover School students who entered the 15th Annual GE Connecticut High School Computer Science Contest held April 24 at Fairfield University, seven were Westover students who participate in the school’s Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) program. Among those seven were Ashley Soucar of Sandy Hook, who tied with fellow Westover student Ivy Castro for third place on the school’s team and finished 41st overall out of 110 participants. The competition consisted of a 90-minute written exam focusing on Java programming, which serves as preparation for the Computer Science Advanced Placement test in May.

The following local students were named to the Winter Term 2008 Deans’ List at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford: Timothy Kutt, son of Mr and Mrs Gerhard Kutt of Sandy Hook, and Joshua Muniz, son of Peter J. Muniz and Ivette Feliciano-Muniz of Newtown.