Student-made mural defaced with swastikas
A community mural created by Changemaker High School students was vandalized sometime between last Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning.
The mural — located on a wall across the street from Changemaker, 1300 S. Belvedere Ave., near South Swan Road and East 22nd — was defaced with swastikas, explicit images and anti-semitic and misogynistic phrases, according to school CEO Luis A. Perales. Tucson Police Department is investigating the vandalism because it involves hate speech, Perales said.
Community members interested in donating time or resources toward fixing the mural should call Changemaker at 615-2200.
Music store owners headed to Washington
Tucson’s Instrumental Music Center’s Leslie and Michael Faltin are traveling to Washington D.C. to advocate for the importance of music education in public schools on Capitol Hill.
At the annual National Association of Music Merchants’ Music Education Advocacy D.C. Fly-In, the Faltins will meet with members of Congress to talk about the benefits of music education and how better federal and state funding of education could allow more kids to reap the benefits.
They will also volunteer at a D.C. school and go through a full-day of advocacy training.
4-year scholarships go to 2 Marana students
Mountain View High’s Shania Eazer and Laura O’Donnell have scored four-year scholarships to their top-choice universities.
Eazer won the competitive Stamps Family Foundation Scholarship, which will fund her undergraduate studies at Louisiana State University. The scholarship will also fund study abroad, internship and independent research opportunities for Eazer, who plans on studying veterinary medicine at LSU.
O’Donnell earned an Army ROTC Scholarship, which will pay for her undergraduate studies at Arizona State University. Upon graduating, O’Donnell will serve in the Army on active duty or in a reserve component on commission.
SARSEF CEO retires for health reasons
Southern Arizona Research, Science and Engineering Foundation’s first CEO, Kathleen Bethel, announced her retirement, earlier this month.
SARSEF is a local nonprofit that offers various community programs meant to create “Arizona’s future critical thinkers” through science and engineering. It puts on summer camps and works with schools to involve students in science fairs and other STEM-related projects.
Bethel is retiring because of health reasons, according to a press release.
“Watching SARSEF grow, and leading the changes that made it even better, I performed my best experiment,” she wrote in the release.
SARSEF is accepting applications for the CEO position now online at SARSEF.org.
