[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 7515]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO NORTHWEST COLLEGIATE ACADEMY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. PHIL ENGLISH

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 9, 2006

  Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to commend the 
Northwest Collegiate Academy's recent success at the 25th Annual United 
States Academic Decathlon, USAD, in San Antonio, TX.
  The USAD is a national competition in which teams of nine students, 
three from each recognized academic level, compete in 10 separate 
academic subjects, including mathematics, language and literature, 
social science, economics, art, music, and science. Each team member 
has to compete in each of the 10 subjects and their combined scores 
determine the overall team winner.
  Once again, the Northwest Collegiate Academy made Erie and all of 
western Pennsylvania proud by demonstrating the scholastic excellence 
of its students. The Academy's team cruised through this year's local 
and State competitions, winning all three of the local events and the 
final State wide competition. Along the way, individual team members 
won numerous awards for excellence in all of the academic subjects and 
the team as a whole often took all the awards for a given subject.
  However, the team's outstanding run did not end at the State level. 
The team scored 38,992.7 points out of a possible 60,000 during the 3-
day national competition in San Antonio. This showing earned the team a 
well deserved silver medal in competition. Furthermore, the team 
members continued to show their individual brilliance by winning awards 
for their proficiency in specific subject areas. Matthew Faytak earned 
six different awards at the competition, including a gold medal in art 
and a gold medal for being the highest overall scorer at the honors 
level. Joining him on the podium was Christina Radder who won the 
bronze medal in music and the bronze medal for being third highest 
overall scorer at the honors level. Both Matthew and Christina were 
also recognized for high scores in economics, mathematics or science, 
as were four other team members, Greg Nieder, Dan Juilfs, Shane Kelley, 
and Alexandra Talarico.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope my fellow members will rise with me at this time 
and commend the nine members of the Northwest Collegiate Academy team, 
Matthew Faytak, Christina Radder, Alexandra Talarico, Shane Kelley, 
Greg Nieder, Caitlyn Pierce, Dan Juilfs, William Steinbaugh, and David 
Zielewski. I congratulate each of these students for all of their 
academic achievements and wish them continued success in their future 
endeavors.

                          ____________________