By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

Ellis County students were among those who got to participate in one of Mark Parkinson's first duties as the new governor of Kansas earlier this month.

Just a few days after being sworn into office, Parkinson attended a ceremony in Topeka to honor the 2009 Governor's Scholars on May 2.

Parkinson took over for Kathleen Sebelius, who left Topeka after more than six years as Kansas governor for Washington and the position of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Every high school in the state submits the top 1 percent of that year's graduating class to the Kansas State High School Activities Association, which coordinates the ceremony for the Governor's Scholars program, now in its 26th year.

Seniors from Hays High, Thomas More Prep-Marian High, Ellis and Victoria were among those honored at the event, which is sponsored by the Confidence in Kansas Public Education Task Force.

This year's governor's scholars from Ellis County were Thayne Griffin and Alex Moran from Hays High, Dong Won (Edward) Kim from TMP-Marian, Chase King from Ellis and Brittany Goetz from Victoria.

Hays High tech students complete successful year

Hays High School's Industrial Technology Association completed a successful school year earlier this month, winning numerous awards at Fort Hays State University's 50th annual Western Kansas Technology Education Fair.

Hays High had several other top winners at the Western Kansas tech fair, including seniors who won two events each.

Seniors Levi Madden and Zach Patterson and junior Josh Roy combined to win the outstanding 12th-grade power and energy project category, and their project also won the fair's overall outstanding power and energy award.

Senior James Baldwin also was a double winner, claiming the award for his grade's outstanding drafting project, as well as the fair's overall drafting award.

Classmate Logan Downing won the outstanding 12th-grade open division project award, and junior Tyler Krizek won the 11th-grade drafting project award.

Baldwin led the way for Hays High at the Northwest Kansas Technical College Drafting Expo in Goodland in April, winning both the CAD pictorial division and CAD floor plans in the advanced architectural categories.

Senior Ayrton Pittman won the advanced mechanical CAD 3D division at Goodland, while freshman Luke Madden won the beginning mechanical hand drawing competition.

The Hays High electro rally racing program also had a successful season.

After recording two firsts, two seconds, a third and a fourth during the regular season, HHS finished in style with its cumulative statistics for the state competition.

Both Hays High's electric cars finished in the top three (second and third) overall, and HHS also won the 2009 "Best Written Report" and "Team Spirit" awards.

Drivers of the second-place car were Roy and fellow junior Corey Breit, while junior Copeland Wickham was the driver of the third-place car.

Joining Baldwin as gold medalists at the FHSU fair were senior classmates Downing, Patterson, Pittman and Levi Madden, juniors Krizek, Roy, Matt Dinkel, Brahayan Rivera, and Natalie Webb; sophomore Mitch Dickinson; and freshmen Luke Madden and Cameron Rohleder.